Atari sneak-patches DRM root kit for NWN2

[sinij]

In a feat of extreme stupidity Atari patches Securom DRM rootkit with the latest (1.02) patch. It causes game instability, drops FPS and will prevent game from working if you have any virtual drives on your computer. Its also not removed when you uninstall the game.

I'm very unimpressed, considering that original box had no warning with regards to Securom on it and considering that it negatively affects my PC outside of playing NvN2 it is on par with Starforce and Sony rootkits. Somebody start lawsuit.

[edit: NwN2]

[HaemishM]

I assume you mean Neverwinter Nights 2, which is shortened as NWN 2.

[sinij]

Yes, Neverwinter Nights 2 1.02 patch contains SecuRom DRM rootkit. Nowhere on retail box was it mentioned, at no time during patching was I warned/given opt-out.

[Stormwaltz]

Is there a way to uninstall it?

[Yegolev]

Atari has been sliding toward "shitfucker" status for quite a while.

[Nija]

I've been playing a ton with 1.02 installed and I have 3 daemon-tools virtual drives running currently.

Works fine.

[Yoru]

Yes, Neverwinter Nights 2 1.02 patch contains SecuRom DRM rootkit. Nowhere on retail box was it mentioned, at no time during patching was I warned/given opt-out.

I'm just gonna nitpick you here and mention that, from what I've read, SecuROM 4.7 and 7 don't really qualify as actual rootkits. The closest behavior they have to a real rootkit is installing a malicious shell extension. While it does install drivers (probably a filesystem minifilter), it doesn't attempt to hide its presence or the presence of the stuff it's "protecting", which is the general litmus test for being called a rootkit.

Instructions for removing SecuROM after you uninstall are on wikipedia.

[Ironwood]

Some were suggesting that the SecureRom was the cause of some CRC errors on certain DVD devices.

I have no opinion on that myself.

[schild]

Hoho. This is pretty rich.

[geldonyetich]

Doesn't seem to affect the 1.02 patch for the Direct2Drive version.  Which, of course, makes sense because SecureRom is a CD-check copy protection and the Direct2Drive version has no Cd-Check.

FYI, the Direct2Drive version requires you enter a direct2drive Cd-key key after the installation process (after the initial Cd-Key entry and the installation process is completed) so your run of the mill CD-Key won't let you use the Direct2Drive installation.  I know cuz' my brother wanted to use my Direct2Drive installation and his retail copy Cd-key wouldn't cut it at the post-installation stage.

[Lt.Dan]

Atari's copy protection in the first NWN caused all kinds of problems for my CD-Rom.  In the end the work around was to email Atari an error file and they'd email you a fixed .exe.  Even then I had to attempt multiple installation variations to get one that actually worked.  The CD-Rom would spin up but nothing else would happen, the installation would be corrupt, the expansion pack install would hang. 

Sounds like the same old shit to me.

[Trippy]

The first release of the 1.02 patch caused all sorts of problems with virtual drive software, Game Jackal, and older CD-ROM drives causing an "Emulator Detector" message to popup or to simply crash and Atari pulled it:

http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=514773&forum=109&sp=45

[Ironwood]

I only just managed to get NWN2 installed, using a DVD drive I stole from work.  It would seem that the game just dislikes Pioneer devices with a passion.

Now, of course, it won't patch.  The patcher is a wondrous bit of work that will download 85mb, fail, and then delete it.  When you try again, back to download.  You can't do it standalone either.

Sigh.

[sinij]

I wrote to SecuROM and got following email:

Thank you for your email. Please be informed that the files in your
UserData folder are used to store license information for SecuROM protected
applications. They were created at the first execution of the protected
program. Any manipulation in this folder may cause the SecuROM application
to work different than expected. These files are not executables themselves
and therefore can't affect your system in any way. Nevertheless if you want
to delete the folder please follow the instructions below:

1) Open the command line by pressing "Start" and selecting the "Run..."
option.

2) Type "cmd" (without "s) and push the [Enter] button on the keyboard.

3) Please type in the following command: rd /s "%APPDATA%\SecuROM" and
press [Enter] on the keyboard.

4) Answer Y to the Y/N question and press [Enter] to complete the process.

The folder should now be deleted. Please understand that any SecuROM
application that uses UserData will rebuild these files and folder with
future launches.

The registry entry is needed to save the digital rights information. If a
demo software is protected by SecuROM then it should only work for, as an
example, 30 days. The necessary license is stored in the registry.
Therefore, please understand that it is not possible to delete such a
entry.

Please be informed that the User Access Service is used to launch a SecuROM
protected application in a non-administrator mode, and has nothing to do
with spyware or any kind of software like that. If you want to uninstall it
please follow the instructions below. Please understand that any
application you launch that uses User Access Service will restart it.

1. Open a command line window (Start > Run, type "cmd", click OK).

2. Go to the System32 folder in your main Windows folder (e.g. type "cd
C:\winnt\system32", then press enter).

3. Remove User Access Service (Type "UAService7.exe - remove", then press
enter).

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

The folder should now be deleted. Please understand that any SecuROM
application that uses UserData will rebuild these files and folders with
future launches.

Best regards,

SecuROM Support Team

[Tebonas]

The funny thing about that? It only punishes us for being stupid enough to pay for games. Yeah, now I have to pay for the privilege to clean up my registry by hand...

[Kail]

Well, I'm still interested in this game, provided they ditch this.  If someone would bump this thread if/when they get rid of it, I'd be grateful.

[bhodi]

Huh. That's some shit right there. Looks like I'll stay at 1.0 final for a while.

[geldonyetich]

Well, I'm still interested in this game, provided they ditch this.  If someone would bump this thread if/when they get rid of it, I'd be grateful.

You can always get the Direct2Drive version.  It either doesn't have the Securerom crap or installs components it doesn't need.

Malware CD copy protection is just one more way the PC software industry is making progress towards its goal where all software is distributed through online channels.

[Morfiend]

Steam is looking better and better every day.

[Trippy]

Steam is looking better and better every day.

Not happening until other DRM/copy protection schemes require you to be online to play single-player games.

[geldonyetich]

The way things are going, the only totally offline games we're going to have in the future are indy games.  Even Sam & Max Culture Shock have an online unlocking system.

[sinij]

I fail to understand where money trail of this idiocy leads to. Somebody must be making money on this, how and who?

[geldonyetich]

I just assumed it was a scenario of Atari technologically ignorant pointy haired bosses yelling, "OMG! We lose a lot of money to piracy!  Put Securom on there NOW!"  While, meanwhile, the techies who actually program the thing are being ignored when they attempt to feebly protest to their higher ups that the pirates simply hack the EXE and render Securom useless.  If anyone's deliberately making money from this, it's a smooth Securom operator tricking said pointed haired bosses into thinking their software really does anything other than annoy the paying consumers.

It's a wonder Scott Adams hasn't done a Dilbert on it yet.

[HaemishM]

I fail to understand where money trail of this idiocy leads to. Somebody must be making money on this, how and who?

SecureROM? They get paid just for Atari using the system, whether 99% of all the users remove from their system or none do. The fool in this scenario is of course, Atari.

[Kail]

I just assumed it was a scenario of Atari technologically ignorant pointy haired bosses yelling, "OMG! We lose a lot of money to piracy!  Put Securom on there NOW!"  While, meanwhile, the techies who actually program the thing are being ignored when they attempt to feebly protest to their higher ups that the pirates simply hack the EXE and render Securom useless.

Can't you just play the unprotected game off the CD without patching?  That doesn't exactly require t3h m4d h4><0r1ng skizzles to pull off.  I mean, as far as preventing piracy goes, this is beyond useless.  I can't imagine that even the most clueless suit would think it was a good idea to include optional anti-piracy measures, much less to stealth patch them in.

[Trippy]

I just assumed it was a scenario of Atari technologically ignorant pointy haired bosses yelling, "OMG! We lose a lot of money to piracy!  Put Securom on there NOW!"  While, meanwhile, the techies who actually program the thing are being ignored when they attempt to feebly protest to their higher ups that the pirates simply hack the EXE and render Securom useless.

Can't you just play the unprotected game off the CD without patching?  That doesn't exactly require t3h m4d h4><0r1ng skizzles to pull off.  I mean, as far as preventing piracy goes, this is beyond useless.  I can't imagine that even the most clueless suit would think it was a good idea to include optional anti-piracy measures, much less to stealth patch them in.

The game comes with SecuROM copy protection (at least the CD and DVD versions, I don't know about the Direct2Drive version). For some reason they fiddled with the copy protection in the initial release of the 1.02 patch breaking all sorts of things.

[bhodi]

And it doesn't matter because it took me about 10 seconds to find a 1.0 no-cd cracked exe. I would LOVE to be in the board room when they are making their sales pitch. Let them talk, and talk, and talk. Then nod, and flip on the projector. Attach an internet computer with recent securrom game. Try and run recent game, get disk not inserted message. Go to www.youknowwhereworld.com. Clicky-ckick on game. Download hacked exe. Replace exe. Run game.

Time elapsed, under 2 minutes. Point out the date of the cracked exe, normally within days or at very most a week of launch. Point out the hits per month of said site. Smile and watch them sweat and stammer. Counter their retort of no online play with the fact you can't play without a valid cd-key anyway.

[Ironwood]

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What He Said.

[HaemishM]

That would take knowing more than fuckall about games. The execs know fuckall about games, but they know everything about balance sheets.

[geldonyetich]

I hear Windows Vista is going to have copy protection built right in, this Digital Rights Management feature likely can extend not only to music but to software as well.  End of the PC Piracy world or another hopeless game of single software publisher versus the entire Internet world?

[Fabricated]

I hear Windows Vista is going to have copy protection built right in, this Digital Rights Management feature likely can extend not only to music but to software as well.  End of the PC Piracy world or another hopeless game of single software publisher versus the entire Internet world?

It'd be cracked in a week tops.

[yd]

1.02 upgraded securom versions from 7.27 to 7.29 (and introduced a bunch of bugs largely due to this, as well as not really fixing anything else of worth in the process), which would supposedly stop people who patch from continuing to play the game without a valid securom check. 

However you don't even need to crack securom protected games anymore -- there are securom utilities you can run that bypass it completely and let you run the game in its unaltered state.

It's a little hard to fathom why they bother. I can maybe understand the need to add some sort of copy protection at launch, even if just to be on the record as attempting to protect their work against piracy. But I doubt a patch like this scores them any points along those lines.

[Threash]

And it doesn't matter because it took me about 10 seconds to find a 1.0 no-cd cracked exe. I would LOVE to be in the board room when they are making their sales pitch. Let them talk, and talk, and talk. Then nod, and flip on the projector. Attach an internet computer with recent securrom game. Try and run recent game, get disk not inserted message. Go to www.youknowwhereworld.com. Clicky-ckick on game. Download hacked exe. Replace exe. Run game.

Time elapsed, under 2 minutes. Point out the date of the cracked exe, normally within days or at very most a week of launch. Point out the hits per month of said site. Smile and watch them sweat and stammer. Counter their retort of no online play with the fact you can't play without a valid cd-key anyway.

Its even worse than that, you can simply unplug your real drives and the virtual drives will run a cracked version flawlessly, patched or not.  The only problem is when you try to log in to an online server and someone else is already using your cd key.

[bhodi]

Er, maybe in this particular game. I don't consider doing actual unplugging of hardware 'easier', myself, and I was trying to be general -- that procedure applies to any game out there. In fact, I tend to just do that and get the latest patch while the game installs -- it saves time. Not to get off on a tangent, but what the fuck happened to people hosting their own patches? It seems like they provide a link to 3dgamers and fileshack and consider it a done deal. I don't want to have to pay or wait in line for half an hour to download your 40 meg patch because you rushed the game out the door. Host the god damn thing yourself, that's the least you could do.

Many games do a CRC check for online play but, sometimes if both sides are using a cracked version (homeworld, for example) it works fine. Other games like Warcraft 3 TFT won't run with a no-cd exe since b.net does a CRC wen you connect, so I just use a cracked .mds file that simulates the disc in the drive. Fuck you publishers, I own the game, I play online, I have a valid CD key, and I'm not digging out a CD every time I want to load up the game. It gets installed once and then put away in a CD spindle with my other games. The CD key goes into an encrypted text file with all my others that is replicated in a few places, and the manual and box goes into the garbage. I've actually started to go a step further and actually make an iso of the disc before I put it away -- I have the space on my server, so why not use it for convenience?

A double fuck-you goes out to Atari and some others for assuming that because I have virtual drives I must be doing something terribly illegal. I just love games that refuse to start simply because you have emulation software installed.

[Trippy]

A double fuck-you goes out to Atari and some others for assuming that because I have virtual drives I must be doing something terribly illegal. I just love games that refuse to start simply because you have emulation software installed.

Yup, especially since it was hashed out ages out that making backups of software you own is perfectly legal but software publishers don't care and have been trying to prevent people from doing that since the dawn of the PC era.