f13.net

I'm truly upset. The StarForce protection on GTASA corrupted the firmware on my pioneer DVR-108 to the point where it's not even flashable. I'm going to have to replace my DVD RW now thanks to Cockstar and their fucking 'copy protection'. I can forgive them making children kill people with shotguns, but this shit is unforgiveable. I guess I'll just go back to pirating everything again. Honest to fucking god, I wish I was a lawyer just so I could sue Rockstar and whoever the fuck makes StarForce for the replacement cost.

Remember my pain whenever you're thinking of installing a game with StarForce. It could be your drive next.

Yeah, Starforce is the suck. (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=2711.0)

I really you or someone in the similar position gets angry enough to sue fuckers for big lump sum and wins to discourage future copyright-protection fucktardy. There is no sane justification to subject paying customers to anal-raping copyright-protection; it doesn’t work that well against determined pirates and it at best incontinence at worse screws your paying customers.

Also anyone can explain to me how Straforce works? I was under impression that you need OS-level permission to even access firmware, less re-write it.

GTA has Starforce?  BUH?  It mentions that nowhere on the box.  Aren't they legally obligated to warn you that their game will potentially turn your drive into an expensive paperweight?

Would hijacking your computer be considered grand theft auto? What if the computer has rims and a sticker that says "Honda, Bitches" on the side?

You might want to test your DVD drive in another machine before tossing it out. It might be the StarForce drivers that are causing the problem, not the drive firmware itself.

Supposedly if you go to www.star-force.com, they have a utility to remove their drivers.

I don't think its starforce. I have GTA:SA and I looked for the usual starforce suspects... they hide in the device manager..make sure you are showing hidden devices and then go to the non plug and play drivers. It would show as "starforce protection driver"

Or it hides as sfdrv01, sfhlp02 and sfsync02. The descriptions are "Starforce protection helper driver", etc. Look in "system drivers" in your system information program under accessories in start/programs/accesories/system tools/system information.

I think GTA has securom7. There's a process running on my machine in windows/system32/ called uaservice7.exe which is securom7. I disabled it in the system information program and havent had any problems with it.

DOH! it is Securom7...

Regardless, I hate them both. Just to make sure it wasn't software related, I swapped out my current c drive and replaced it with my "control" drive. (I keep at least one drive in the closet with nothing but w2k pro and bare utilities, all verified to be working correctly when it goes in storage). I also replaced the cable on the off chance there was a problem there. Still no dice. So I tried flashing the firmware and that failed repeatedly at the 20% installed point. It might have just been a coincidence in timing, but it seems odd that it burnt a DL DVD perfectly fine right before installing GTASA, but then had problems immediately after I was done playing it that first time. Regardless, I got sick of dicking with it and got a Toshiba DLDVD burner. Sadly, they haven't gotten any faster in the last year, but at least they aren't almost 300 bucks anymore.

I'm tempted to reinstall GTASA to try out the infinately sad sex patch, but I feel like the game has fucked me enough already. hohaho, enjoy the comedy of my suffering.

Don't worry.  Soon as that new anti-intrusion law gets passed (focused on spyware) you can fire off letters of cease and desist with 10 year federal prison terms as a real threat.

EULA's do not mean you get to destroy private property.

I'm sure there'll be an exemption for copy protection measures to protect the travesty that is the DMCA.

Just use NoCD cracks and Starforce isn't a problem. Granted the only Starforce game I have installed to my knowlage is X2: The Threat, but with the NoCD it has given me no trouble whatsoever. Hell, the NoCD is even supplied by Egosoft themselves.

I would just like to take this space to say fuck all computers. Especially fuck printer+fax+computers.