Starforce Enforces Copy Protection by Instant Reboot [Archive]

KarmaGhost

03-20-2006, 07:08 PM

Futuremark has reportedly discovered a new anti-piracy system that is being used by Starforce.

This copy protection system installs a driver that runs at the highest level of access on the system, which gives it low level access to the PCs hardware and any drivers and processes. This driver runs regardless of whether the game runs; keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity such as attempting to copy a protected disc. If something suspicious is detected, it forces the PC to make an immediate reboot, regardless of any other applications running and whether or not the user has any unsaved work.
Is this even legal? Also, when a developer/company uses Starforce to protect their products, do they know these are the things that happen to their customers?

Thanks to Gadget Life (http://live.gadgetlife.org/news/2006/3/21/starforce-drm-exposed-and-its-not-pretty) for the heads up.

fitbabits

03-20-2006, 07:37 PM

Holy... I smell huge legal problems in the shite pipe for Starforce.

GrinR

03-20-2006, 07:43 PM

L O L

Sorry, this is another case where more refined words are unnecessary.

Well... maybe a few: I bet pirates are screwed now!

UnderHero5

03-20-2006, 07:49 PM

All I can say is "wow".

camberiu

03-20-2006, 07:56 PM

Bye-bye Ubisoft. As long as you use Starfoce, I will NOT buy anything from you.

Ronberk

03-20-2006, 07:58 PM

Fight the future! Do not purchase any games with Starforce on it. Hell, don't even pirate any games that do ship with Starforce. The only way to hurt these bastards is to completely edit out their existence from our realities. Those games aren't even fun, they don't exist.

Kefkataran

03-20-2006, 08:00 PM

Sorry, this is another case where more refined words are unnecessary.

Well... maybe a few: I bet pirates are screwed now!

Are you kidding? Real hardcore game piraters are people who know how to get rid of this and not worry. The only people this screws are the unwitting consumers who don't know it and end up doing something the program defines as "suspicious" without realizing. This is silly and terrible.

bean19

03-20-2006, 08:03 PM

I was playing Space Rangers 2 and a friend came over and wanted me to listend to a CD. I minimized Space Rangers 2 into a window and swapped out the CDs. StarForce kicked in and my computer raped me.

<----points to the places his computer touched him.

Deathbane27

03-20-2006, 08:03 PM

Getting Fucked - Now on DVD!

Averic

03-20-2006, 08:04 PM

I've seen it done...Starforce is easy to work around. When Pirates hate something with a passion they WILL and DO find a way around things.

The only people this hurts are consumers.

AversionFX

03-20-2006, 08:04 PM

I bet pirates are screwed now!

lol. not even close.

Kelegacy

03-20-2006, 08:07 PM

I was playing Star Rangers 2 and a friend came over and wanted me to listend to a CD. I minimized Space Rangers 2 into a window and swapped out the CDs. StarForce kicked in and my computer raped me.

<----points to the places his computer touched him.
I want to play Space Rangers 2, and I might still, but SF is a bitch.

Boycott the games that use invasive copy protections and you've solved the problem. Let UbiSoft suffer for taking these Assmonkeys to bed with them.

GrinR

03-20-2006, 08:15 PM

I'm astonished anyone thought my post was anything but the purest of refined saracasmite

Suicidal ShiZuru

03-20-2006, 08:15 PM

Pirates are never screwed. Look at Bill Gates. Anyways, any program that auto restarts my machine severely pisses me off. I could be working on an important document or transferring midget pr0n, then bam...

No matter what, just do not buy games using this bullshit, auto restart or not.

aversion2k

03-20-2006, 08:18 PM

What the hell. What if someone was doing work and hadnt saved, then starforce thought something strange was happening and restarted. What if it screws something windows by restarting like that, What the hell are they thinking. I wasnt particularly anti starforce before, but I am now.

Zeal

03-20-2006, 08:19 PM

I've seen it done...Starforce is easy to work around. When Pirates hate something with a passion they WILL and DO find a way around things.

The only people this hurts are consumers.

Well said.

Deathbane27

03-20-2006, 08:19 PM

Pirates are never screwed. Look at Bill Gates.

What? He's married and has a kid, what are you...

Oh. The other kind of screwed. Right.

Heretic Machine

03-20-2006, 08:22 PM

Starforce prevents piracy by making me ignore every game that has it.

GrinR

03-20-2006, 08:27 PM

Starforce is the most legal form of pro-piracy software I've ever heard of.

rein

03-20-2006, 08:34 PM

bone_matrix

03-20-2006, 08:48 PM

Whats next? ANY attempt at burning anykind of disc while you have Starforce will cause your motherboard to melt? I'd believe it.

Evil Avatar

03-20-2006, 08:57 PM

Starforce is the most legal form of pro-piracy software I've ever heard of.

I have to agree. Hearing about Starforce almost makes me WANT to go out and pirate any game that uses this crap just to screw over any publisher stupid enough to slap that crap on top of their game.

NoName

03-20-2006, 09:16 PM

How is this legal? I wonder what the EULA for the Starforce software looks like...

"By clicking agree, you wave all rights of controlling your computer to us."

Thenetcase

03-20-2006, 09:21 PM

I knew these guys were <censored word of extreme vulgarity> along time ago. I hope they <censored word of more extreme vulgarity> die. What pieces of <something that comes out of a horses [bleep!]>!

** THIS MESSAGE EDITED BY STARFORCE **

Grimmjow

03-20-2006, 09:22 PM

NEW enhance root kit :)

Demo_Boy

03-20-2006, 09:27 PM

STARFORCE PROTECTED!!!
# Universal Combat: A World Apart
# Universal Combat Gold

Someone tell Deret Smart that his DRM is screwing with people's machines. Either he'll remove it or he's a big dummy!

Kagger

03-20-2006, 09:41 PM

"I've got it. I've found the cure. Humans can now live hundreds of years. I can't believe I finally figured out that formula..."

"Hey bob, did you ever back up that game for me?"

"Oh one second...let me pop in that disc real quick..."

Heretic Machine

03-20-2006, 09:52 PM

omeone tell Deret Smart that his DRM is screwing with people's machines. Either he'll remove it or he's a big dummy!

Derek Smart, phd? :p

thatlukeguy

03-20-2006, 09:54 PM

The next version of Starforce will have to make your PC spontaneously combust to top this. Right? I mean, were does it stop?

AntB

03-20-2006, 10:05 PM

What you don't realize is whether you buy the game or pirate it, it ultimately makes no difference. The publisher didn't get your money.

hund_

03-20-2006, 10:05 PM

i hate starforce too but lets face up to the fact that each new generation of sf takes about 6 months to crack.thats the current life of games that use it.

SMES

03-20-2006, 10:17 PM

Is there a full list of all the games that use Starforce and/or Starforce-like copy protection?

I would like something handy to print out and carry in my wallet so I know what not to buy at the store.

Deathbane27

03-20-2006, 10:19 PM

hotdrop

03-20-2006, 10:44 PM

Derek Smart, phd? :p

lol phd in anger, that guy is probably the angriest developer ever, he used to be a regular on the avualt forums till avault got bought off and fired all its staff and that guy would flame like no other. He couldent take criticism from anyone it always resulted in childesh behaviour.

Heres my story with starforce, in order to play X3 reunion i had to physicly unplug my DVD drive since it didnt like the fact that it was a dvd burner as well. After that it worked perfectly except the game was crap. Hence I learned my lesson never buy a Starforce protected game. Its probably starforce protected for a reason: if people were actually able to play it then eveyone would know how bad it sucks

Luagsch

03-20-2006, 10:56 PM

Since I have my DVD-Burner attached to an add-in controller card I don't care about StarForce (no need to unplug the drive now). But the new one could be a real bitch... I'm wondering how the "highest level of access"-stuff is supposed to work on Vista (if what they say about it is true).

good that the most StarForce Games are shitty anyway though...

gabrielwalker

03-20-2006, 11:03 PM

My suggestion is, any game that uses Starforce -- get the console version. That way the publishers see that people *want the games*, but don't want DRMed copies of the games.

Maybe?

AversionFX

03-20-2006, 11:08 PM

The thing that sucks, is that there's always this race to make a better and safer copy protection. But there's always a group that breaks them (Deviance comes to mind, I don't know if anyone else has "broken" starforce). So, why not save money on all fronts? If people are going to pirate stuff, they're going to pirate it. If a person can get something they want for free, that's what they'll do.

Spending all sorts of money to protect something only to have some guy break that protection and give it away, well. That's just not smart. Basic copy protection so Joe Nobody can't pop the CD in and then run Nero/Alcohol and do a simple disc copy. But creating copy protection that installs itself and gives itself the highest level of access to your computer? That's just ridiculous.

mightbe

03-20-2006, 11:10 PM

I want to play Space Rangers 2, and I might still, but SF is a bitch.

My copy is sitting on top of my computer. I can't bring myself to hurt it in such a way.

The wife's computer, maybe...

mightbe

03-20-2006, 11:15 PM

Basic copy protection so Joe Nobody can't pop the CD in and then run Nero/Alcohol and do a simple disc copy. But creating copy protection that installs itself and gives itself the highest level of access to your computer? That's just ridiculous.

Very true. And if that copy protection becomes main stream and we learn to "just put up with it" we're setting ourselves up for even bigger problems.

Since workarounds and manipulations of the Starforce driver are fairly well documented, it wouldn't be too terribly hard for a malicious piece of code (aka virus, worm, rootkit) to use that driver as an inroad to maliciously controlling the system.

This just seems like another bad practice the software (not just games) industry has fallen into.

Kefkataran

03-20-2006, 11:39 PM

Apologies for not sensing the sarcasm, GrinR. Obviously having an off-night. I blame all this goddamn Shakespeare memorization for my class. GOING CRAZY ARRRGH

Lekon

03-20-2006, 11:40 PM

Sheesh. This is just a great idea to help kill off any enjoyment of pcgamers by consumers. I see posts by Tycho from over at Penny Arcade about having to pirate the game they just bought to get around copy protection.

I fear this will become much more common, we have to pirate our own games just to actually play them without crashing and destroying our own computers.

I do just hate the argument "Oh, this stops piracy!" Take one look at any of the .nfo sites out there that show the recently pirated games, heck, check the torrent sites, and see how long it takes for the starforce'd games to show up all cracked and free. The same site starforce was so happy to link to had a ton of Starforce cracked games. Ugh.

net7runner

03-20-2006, 11:41 PM

Edit: Just saw the previous poster said about the same thing...

Things have gotten to the point where I don't even bother trying to install the games I buy off the CDs the come on anymore. Instead, I go out and buy the game, take it home, and subsequently shove it under my bed while I install a pirated version that's had all that Starforce shit ripped out of it.

There is a problem when the pirated stuff is safer than the legit software.

Zombosis

03-20-2006, 11:47 PM

lol phd in anger, that guy is probably the angriest developer ever, he used to be a regular on the avualt forums till avault got bought off and fired all its staff and that guy would flame like no other.

As a totally unrelated side note, Adrenaline Vault never got bought out, and the staff weren't fired. I was a writer for that site when it all fell apart. All the staff that left were trying to get the site purchased by Stardock, but the owner wouldn't allow it, so we all quit. This is why the old publisher for Adrenaline Vault is now a producer for GalCiv 2. I honestly wouldn't be surprised in the least if Angel was running around spewing that kind of revisionist history crap, but trust me... Not a single one of us were fired, we all quit in disgust over the unprofessional behavior and temper tantrums of Angel Munoz.

DCJoeDog

03-21-2006, 12:37 AM

seems I moved to Ubuntu just in time LOLz

ProfPuppet

03-21-2006, 12:53 AM

The next update to Starforce will cause computers caught using their DVD/CD drives and/or an online connection to rend the fabric of reality. This reality shift, affecting both time and space, will cause the user's computer to grow a swarm of flying barbed coc-*edited by Starforce* to rap-*edited by Starforce* the user, not only at the time of the incident, but every time in the past the user has opened the DVD/CD drive. We feel this helps protect honest consumers and the game industry at large.

Further updates to Starforce will create clones of the user that will then 'come out of the closet' to parents/friends while wearing hardcore BDSM gear.

Cyotik

03-21-2006, 01:02 AM

Hmm, I hated Starforce already for causing me difficulty playing precious X3 but this is too far. I am officially joining the Starforce boycott. Unless Oblivion has Starforce, in which case, fuck all of you.

Kefkataran

03-21-2006, 01:27 AM

Unless Oblivion has Starforce, in which case, fuck all of you.

It doesn't. Happy?

laggerific

03-21-2006, 01:49 AM

L O L

Sorry, this is another case where more refined words are unnecessary.

Well... maybe a few: I bet pirates are screwed now!

I hope this is sarcastics, as this seems to screw more people than just pirates.

Starforce...not just an idea, but a bad idea.

edit: I thought I detected sarcasm, but I'm on a night schedule for two weeks starting tonight...so I am really friggin tired.

Oblivion

03-21-2006, 02:00 AM

starforce never stopped me pirating and playing its games. just a minor headache to get a workaround, nothing more.

BadIronTree

03-21-2006, 02:41 AM

I JUST GOT MY OBLIVION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
POSTMAN THINK I AM CRAZY!!!!
bye bye world

CU

Sl1pstream

03-21-2006, 02:44 AM

I JUST GOT MY OBLIVION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
POSTMAN THINK I AM CRAZY!!!!

O RLY?

I wonder why.

doyama

03-21-2006, 04:46 AM

KarmaGhost

03-21-2006, 05:04 AM

Has anyone actually confirmed this with Futuremark? The original article is from cdfreaks.com which isn't exactly the most unbiased website in the world when it comes to copy protection. I'd be more inclined to say they just made it up unless there is actually some confirmation that Futuremark found such behavior and could attribute it directly to StarForceGood question, doyama.

Gadget Life links you to cdfreaks, which, if you look very carefully below their subject line, has a link to Geek.com, which itself has a link farther down the page to glob.org and also to the Futuremark forums.

SlamDunk

03-21-2006, 05:39 AM

It was not Futuremark who discovered this:

http://discuss.futuremark.com/forum/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=gaminggeneral&Number=6011174&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=0&vc=1#Post6011174

Futuremark as a company (or anyone working for Futuremark for that matter) has not done any investigations, research or uncovered anything in regards to Starforce. Anything posted on our discussion boards related to the news about Starforce, is by our users and not by Futuremark employees.

I just wanted to clear this up since it seems that many websites claim that we (Futuremark) have uncovered or investigated Starforce. That is simply not the case.

Cheers,

Nick

SynapseLapse

03-21-2006, 06:38 AM

F***ing Starforce. I didn't really think they were that bad until I noticed I could only burn DVDs at 4x (instead of 8x) and cds at 10x (instead of 32x, hehe, no not the failed sega add on). I didn't think it was star force related since I had never played/installed any of the games that used the protection. But on a whim I ran their uninstaller.

Lo and behold, I can burn at 8x dvd again! It turns out the DEMO for Ubisoft's King Kong that I installed 3 months ago came with a copy of Star Force. Even though I had fully uninstalled the demo, the damn thing left star force on my machine. POS.

Karmakin

03-21-2006, 06:42 AM

Starforce is not designed to stop Warez. It's just not. It's designed to stop the average joe from making a copy for his friend.

It stems from the mistaken belief that the average joe doesn't know how to download something he wants, and that's why he buys it. So if his friend can't make a copy for him, he won't buy it. I don't download games myself...my PC game of choice is Guild Wars, but I'm probably a "back-door" pirate. Meaning that I rarely buy a game new. I rent practically everything that comes out however. (My local Movie Gallery offers 7 one-week game rentals for 26 bucks.)

Nim

03-21-2006, 06:44 AM

Hrm...I've finally been in the process of converting all my paid-for-with-actual-money music CDs into one giant mp3 library for my own personal-not-to-be-torrented use, and had my machine spontaneously reboot a few times, when popping in newer discs, and starting to rip them.

Wonder if it's related to StarForce. That was -extremely- annoying.

fitbabits

03-21-2006, 06:53 AM

koorb

03-21-2006, 07:02 AM

Does anybody know of a list of games the use this?

Nim

03-21-2006, 07:06 AM

Were these CDs by either Sony or BMG? If so, you can safely assume that it's the infamous rootkit that's to blame.

The ones I remember checking were RCA. Is RCA part of Sony or BMG? I can't keep track of these things anymore....

Nim

03-21-2006, 07:07 AM

Does anybody know of a list of games the use this?

You can find just such a list here (http://www.glop.org/starforce/list.php)

Magnanimous Gnome

03-21-2006, 09:24 AM

What really sucks about this is it turns people away from pc games. I like Syberia II but I bought the Xbox version. I prefer to play point-and-click adventure games on the pc. However, I bought it for the Xbox because of starforce. I sure the hell do not want to buy a pc game with starforce on it. I don't even pirate games or movies. However, I do back up movies from dvd or tivo. I do not want software screwing with my pc period.

I specifically skipped buying Syberia 2 because it contained Starforce. I enjoyed the first game and was somewhat disappointed that I couldn't find out what happens. Oh well, shit like this has me thinking that a complete abandonment of PC gaming may actually be a good idea now.

Magnanimous Gnome

03-21-2006, 09:28 AM

http://www.glop.org/starforce/list.php

There are eight games on that list that I didn't buy because of Starforce. Copy protection FTW! :rolleyes:

Magnanimous Gnome

03-21-2006, 09:37 AM

One more comment...(well two really)...

My suggestion is, any game that uses Starforce -- get the console version. That way the publishers see that people *want the games*, but don't want DRMed copies of the games.

Maybe?

All that will tell publishers is that PC games don't sell and consoles games do. This will lead to even less support of the PC (if that's even possible.)

As a totally unrelated side note, Adrenaline Vault never got bought out, and the staff weren't fired. I was a writer for that site when it all fell apart. All the staff that left were trying to get the site purchased by Stardock, but the owner wouldn't allow it, so we all quit. This is why the old publisher for Adrenaline Vault is now a producer for GalCiv 2. I honestly wouldn't be surprised in the least if Angel was running around spewing that kind of revisionist history crap, but trust me... Not a single one of us were fired, we all quit in disgust over the unprofessional behavior and temper tantrums of Angel Munoz.

I've never come into contact with any of the writers for the AVault before. I just wanted to thank you for helping to create such a wonderful site. I always checked AVault for game reviews - most of them were so well written and just enjoyable to read. I was sad to see the site collapse. Hopefully all the great AVault writers quickly found good employment.

kurr

03-21-2006, 10:08 AM

I will say this. Thanks to starforce, I checked out GalCiv 2. And I'm fucking glad I did. Initially, I just felt like supporting a developer that had such a righteous attitude. You know? The player is who we care about. We're not going to get in the player's way of enjoying our game. If they like it, they'll pay for it. And you know what? I did. I'm totally addicted to the buid-your-own-ships mode. It's like legos, but like.. COOLER. So, yeah. GG starforce. I'll never buy anything that uses Starforce. Ever. Period.

drakkarim

03-21-2006, 11:02 AM

i wonder if vista will allow this to happen, with all its new protections. should be interesting.

Steve_Erhardt

03-21-2006, 12:31 PM

Half the reason I want to get Gal Civ 2 is to throw a big "fuck you in your ass" to Star Force. I hope those fucking shits choke on a big sloppy cock.

I wish there was a way we could make it clear to publishers how badly they need to tell Star Force to fuck off. Grr.

Speed_D

03-21-2006, 12:34 PM

Google for "detours". Fix your own Starforce protected game in about 20 minutes.

01010

03-21-2006, 01:27 PM

STARFORCE PROTECTED!!!
# Universal Combat: A World Apart
# Universal Combat Gold

Someone tell Deret Smart that his DRM is screwing with people's machines. Either he'll remove it or he's a big dummy!

If anyone is dumb enough to buy any of those games they deserve starforce.

Sl1pstream

03-21-2006, 02:06 PM

Does this mean I can't get Trackmania Nations? It's free and I'd try it.....fucking starforce.

mightbe

03-21-2006, 02:12 PM

You can find just such a list here (http://www.glop.org/starforce/list.php)

I love people who don't comment much but when they do it's fucking useful.

Kudos, Nim.

dr_wily

03-21-2006, 02:15 PM

Half the reason I want to get Gal Civ 2 is to throw a big "<party>" to Star Force. I hope those <awesome> <blokes> <high-five> on a big <yacht>.

I wish there was a way we could make it clear to publishers how badly they need to tell Star Force to <be used in all PC games>. <YAY!>.

Had to do it.. :P

Gambit

03-21-2006, 02:24 PM

Hackfest

03-21-2006, 04:21 PM

I am going to uninstall SCCT and do what Optic said, but do I need a program to clean my registry or is there some way to do it through XP?

Hemalin

03-21-2006, 10:29 PM

As a heads up. There is a way to get rid of starforce.

1.) Get to your device manager. Go to view and select show hidden devices. Go to non-plug and play. There should be a few Star Force entries. Remove and Reboot

2.) Go to C:\Windows\system32\drivers. look for a trio of files called sfdrv01.sys sfhlp02.sys and sfsync02.sys - numbers on the end of the files may be diff - anyway delete with vengence

and...
3.) Clean your registry. search for the following files and delete with a hatred. sfdrv sfhlp and sfsync. Reboot upon completion

That will get rid of Starforce, but unfortunatly you need Starforce on your system to be able to play your game. Also in regards to Vista, any drivers that will be installed need to be certified by Microsoft. It seems doubtful that they will certify Starforce drivers after all its done.

fitbabits

03-22-2006, 05:56 AM

I am going to uninstall SCCT and do what Optic said, but do I need a program to clean my registry or is there some way to do it through XP?
To remove the entries Optic mentioned, go to:

Start>Run>type 'regedit'>Edit>Find>type name of entry>delete entry if found.

Caution - Always back up your registry before tinkering with it.

Hackfest

03-22-2006, 07:30 PM

2 quick questions. One, I did everything listed. When I got to the last step, removing files from registry I got errors on all three of those files. It said " Cannot delete Error while pressing delete key" or something similar. WTF?! Also, the name varied ever so slightly. I had an 01 and 02 on the ends of the names mentioned for deletion. Question 2. How do I back up my registry? Thanks so much again. Goddamn starforce!

*Edit Got it. Had to right click and grant full permission to delete it. Gone now and some sucker gets my Splinter Cell on eBay.