StarForce DRM to threaten e-book aficionados?

Alexander Turcic · 06-30-2006, 11:34 AM

There must be something slightly out of whack about a company who promotes digital right management as being a convenience to the consumer. StarForce Technologies, the company who achieved dubious fame, by selling intrusive Rootkit software to protect electronic PC games and by threatening popular blogs, broadens their product line with the "latest content protection technology" for e-books. From the press release:

Quote:

Integrating StarForce system code and libraries allowed selling PDF documents in a special PPDF (protected PDF format). Now publishers that use PDF format for e-publishing have an easy and effective way to sell files in protected format. The system is very convenient for the customer as well. The client transfers the payment via WebMoney and instantly receives a serial number and files for downloading. The new technology significantly simplifies the publication process for the sellers. The whole procedure of publication is designed in the form of an automatic upload master - you specify the theme, the price, the synopsis and the file path. The file then is automatically transferred into protected format and placed at www.publicant.ru. The integrated technology allows to sell books, articles or magazines and newspapers issues. Especially for this project StarForce developers created a file viewer and a content protection system that functions in a most usual way.

Oh yes baby, considering that we never get enough of new proprietary e-books, it comes just natural that we'll embrace StarForce's technology with a happy smile, though perhaps some of us may remain slightly puzzled about the fact that e-books still haven't managed to catch up.

CCDMan · 06-30-2006, 08:27 PM

Yeah, I had a game with their copy protection and it took me several emails just to get the damn thing to run. They were good about it and very fast in responding but, really, do we trust ANYTHING out of Russia?

If that is the only choice - I will buy that title on paper!

CommanderROR · 07-01-2006, 02:54 AM

Starforce has a very good reputation...for providing copy protection that drives the users mad.
And it can be cracked like everything else. It tool a while longer, but the pirate-community did it in the end.
There were a few games that suffered so much due to StarForce protection, that the companies had to remove the protection with a software update because too many players complained. Gamers Forums are full of people complaining that their legally purchased games won't run because the Starforce driver can't install and stuff like that...some even decided never to buy a game with Starforce again and wanted a general rule that torces companies to print the name of the copy protection onto the game boxes...

Now imagine this in books...oh dear...

Sischa · 07-01-2006, 07:24 PM

After i had to re install my whole windows OS after some StarForce desaster with a game bought by myself just several hours before and finding out in the interent that this is a problem which could occur if you have no luck i was finished with starforce.

Today i check the internet if a game i want to buy has a Starforce protection and then i don't buy it.

And though i think "normal paper" is soooo 2001 i would buy a piece of paper before i will ever again waste my time with Starforce crap *sigh* *remembers all the time it took to setup the whole PC*

06-30-2006, 08:27 PM	#2
CCDMan Skeptic Posts: 289 Karma: 541 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: USA Device: Kindle 1, iPod Touch, Kindle 2	Yeah, I had a game with their copy protection and it took me several emails just to get the damn thing to run. They were good about it and very fast in responding but, really, do we trust ANYTHING out of Russia? If that is the only choice - I will buy that title on paper! __________________ For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. - H. L. Mencken

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07-01-2006, 02:54 AM	#3
CommanderROR eink fanatic Posts: 2,005 Karma: 4900 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Germany Device: STAReBOOK, iRex Iliad, Sony 505, Kindle 2	Starforce has a very good reputation...for providing copy protection that drives the users mad. And it can be cracked like everything else. It tool a while longer, but the pirate-community did it in the end. There were a few games that suffered so much due to StarForce protection, that the companies had to remove the protection with a software update because too many players complained. Gamers Forums are full of people complaining that their legally purchased games won't run because the Starforce driver can't install and stuff like that...some even decided never to buy a game with Starforce again and wanted a general rule that torces companies to print the name of the copy protection onto the game boxes... Now imagine this in books...oh dear...

07-01-2006, 07:24 PM	#4
Sischa Zealot Posts: 105 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Germany Device: Nokia 770, Ilead, Cybook, Kindle DX	After i had to re install my whole windows OS after some StarForce desaster with a game bought by myself just several hours before and finding out in the interent that this is a problem which could occur if you have no luck i was finished with starforce. Today i check the internet if a game i want to buy has a Starforce protection and then i don't buy it. And though i think "normal paper" is soooo 2001 i would buy a piece of paper before i will ever again waste my time with Starforce crap sigh remembers all the time it took to setup the whole PC