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Boing Boing Threatened By Software Creator

Posted by Zonk on Tue Jan 31, 2006 12:47 PM
from the wah-wah-wah-all-the-way-home dept.
Security Entertainment Games
mfh writes "StarForce has issued threats to Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow in retaliation to Cory's post about the anti-copy malware that installs itself along with many popular (and unpopular) video games." From the BoingBoing post: "Yesterday, I posted about StarForce, a harmful technology used by game companies to restrict their customers' freedom. StarForce attempts to stop game customers from copying their property, but it has the side-effects of destabilizing and crashing the computers on which it is installed. Someone identifying himself as 'Dennis Zhidkov, PR-manager, StarForce Inc.' contacted me this morning and threatened to sue me, and told me that he had contacted the FBI to complain about my 'harassment.'"
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[+] Games: Lawsuit Against Ubisoft for Starforce 106 comments
Cyber Akuma writes "Due to Ubisoft's intentional use of the highly controversial copy protection scheme Starforce, despite user protests and purposeful deletion of any forum discussions about the protection, Christopher Spence has filed a 5 Million Dollar lawsuit against the company for use of the crippling DRM in their games. Starforce has been reported to cause system instability, slowdowns, and possible damage to optical drives. As well as questionable business practices when dealing with customers and other companies, which has been reported on Slashdot before."
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  • The FBI? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 31 2006, @12:50PM (#14608380)
    He contacted the FBI?

    Well, there's only one response to this nut. Laugh at him because he obviously doens't have a clue as to how to bring legal action against you.

    • Re:The FBI? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Otter (3800) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @12:58PM (#14608490) Journal
      The company is based in Russia and the guy is obviously not a native English speaker. I assume he doesn't have the slightest idea how US law works or how it's enforced.

      An odd choice as a PR figure, though...

      • Re:The FBI? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Bogtha (906264) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:14PM (#14608678)

        I assume he doesn't have the slightest idea how US law works or how it's enforced.

        Well I assume he doesn't have the slightest idea how US law works, or how it's enforced, or that Cory Doctorow [wikipedia.org] is Canadian, or that he lives in London.

      • Re:The FBI? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by jandrese (485) * <kensama@vt.edu> on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:00PM (#14608508) Homepage Journal
        I think he should send a letter back to the company asking for verification that the email isn't just the ramblings of some unaffilated nut. If they own up to it, then craft your own legalish looking letter with threatining wording telling them how you're collecting the names of everybody they've done this to so you can form your own harassment lawsuit. I wonder how long it would take them to panic and try to shut you up with hush money? These guys only exist because they call up game companies, give a slick speech with terms like "50% sales loss due to piracy" and the like, and convince them to use the software. If the companies start hearing bad things about them destabalizing users machines and boycotts of their software, they'd probably think twice about buying it from them. They can't afford to have their actual practices brought out into the sunlight.

        • The thing is, right now it's not a big enough issue outside the techie/geek community for that to work. Just ask First4Internet, and "whichever of those big companies it was whose DVDs couldn't play in car CD players or something". The two minutes of bad press they got was pretty damning, but how many people really remember it, or care enough to act on it?

          • Re:The FBI? (Score:5, Funny)

            by ePhil_One (634771) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:57PM (#14609153) Journal
            So First4Internet was the reason why I can't play DVD's in my CD player? I'll get them! I had fallen for the urban myth that it was lack of codec's, no video screen, and laser wavelength differences.

        • Re:The FBI? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Bogtha (906264) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:10PM (#14608631)

          I think he should send a letter back to the company asking for verification that the email isn't just the ramblings of some unaffilated nut.

          More importantly, make sure it's addressed to the directors of the company. I'm sure they won't appreciate their PR manager making a PR disaster even worse.

        • Maybe he thought he would apply the new "intent to annoy" statute [slashdot.org], but for that one the blogger has to be anonymous.

          I hope the FBI was able to sort things out for him.

  • Yay, more useless litigation... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by PFI_Optix (936301) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @12:51PM (#14608393) Journal
    That's right, folks. Criticism is harassment. It's no longer voicing an opinion. The press' right to inform the consumer and raise awareness about problems no longer exists. At least, that's how these guys would like it to be. What we need is a way for judges to penalize plaintiffs if they are clearly attempting to infringe on the rights of others for their own gain, as the case would appear here.

    • Re:Yay, more useless litigation... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dptalia (804960) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @12:54PM (#14608429) Homepage Journal
      Well, it's not the press - it's the internet, so OF COURSE it's harassment! That's why some companies/politicians are so interested in the FCC rulings on bloggers. If the FCC declares them journalists then we're talking free press, but it they call it political speech that needs to be regulated then the door is open for such lawsuits.
      • anybody who can reproducibly demonstrate their software harming a system

        You understand that one of the 'rules' of this competition was that it had to do permanent damage. Someone (multiple people, actually) showed them that when they installed a game with StarForce, their DVD(cd?) drive began to malfunction. However, they would not let this individual claim the prize because after completely wiping the HDD and reinstalling windows it began to work properly. They claimed this did not harm the system because it did not do permanent damage.

        (I don't have a source to back this up right now, I'll find the article later.)

        If I install a game on my system I don't want to have to reinstall my OS everytime I want to burn a DVD.

        • I realized I had the bookmark right here. Straight from the terms of the contest [star-force.com]:

          Using your PC (the subject PCs hardware must be under warranty terms) or any StarForce office PC you demonstrate that:
          - All the drives in the system are properly functioning prior to the installation of a StarForce protected product of your choice. A legal version of operational system must be installed and there must be no other third company products installed. StarForce experts have full access to the subject PC for verification of installed software.
          - After the installation and start-up of StarForce protected product (the product itself must not be hazardous for optical drives) the CD or DVD drive in the subject PC is not reading CD/DVD discs or the drive is not writing CD/DVD discs.
          - After this demonstration the subject Drive must be removed from the subject PC and installed into any other computer that has no StarForce protected products or drivers installed, that has a legal version of operational system and has no third company products installed. StarForce experts have full access to the subject PC for verification of installed software.

          Should the subject Drive fail to read or write CD/DVD discs in the second PC, you will be acknowledged the Winner.

          That last sentence means that you must make the software actually physically fubar you drive to the point it will not work in ANY SYSTEM without starforce protection. Everyone knows starforce isn't physically smashing drives with hammers; they are breaking drivers to the point one needs to reinstall Windows.

          This contest will never be won.

          As a side note, if you decide you want to try to win this contest anyway, you must foot the bill to fly to Moscow (the one on the other side of the planet) and show the folks in the office.

  • Simple Fix - Don't Buy (Score:5, Insightful)

    by binaryspiral (784263) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @12:51PM (#14608397)
    When companies realise they are copy protecting themselves out of business, maybe others will learn from their mistakes and not treat every paying customer like a thief.

    Bravo for posting information on this - the public needs more information to make educated choices.

    • the problem with "don't buy" (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Opportunist (166417) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @12:56PM (#14608452)
      People will buy until they know. Look around amongst your peers, mention "Sony rootkit" or "DRM" and check how many blank stares you receive.

      Yes, WE know it. Now. Thanks for posting. But we already knew. We already take care of our computers. We already check on CDs if they are REALLY CDs. We already make sure that our Games don't hassle us with "I don't wanna run as long as you have that CD Emu soft running".

      But we don't count, folks. We are a minority. We think before we act. And most of all, we think before we buy.

      We're a small minority. We don't count.

      • Re:the problem with "don't buy" (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Blue Stone (582566) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @02:37PM (#14609610) Homepage Journal
        So you tell those people, who stare at you blankly, when you tell them of the Sony Rootkit et al. in a simple and easy to understand manner what it is, and ... get this ... you educate them!

        And they tell their friends, and slowly the pool of available knowledge of these matters, and people's awareness of them, is increased.

        And the snowflake becomes a snowball, and the snowball becomes an avalanche.

        Saying "we don't count" is apathy bordering on self-pity.

        Stop it! And instead do what little you're able! It all adds up. :-)

      • Re:the problem with "don't buy" (Score:5, Interesting)

        by technos (73414) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @03:23PM (#14610160) Homepage Journal
        Look around amongst your peers, mention "Sony rootkit" or "DRM" and check how many blank stares you receive.

        I work about the last place you'd expect to be tech savvy: A railroad, surrounded by union truck drivers, most of which are pushing retirement age.

        I'd say most of them own a home computer. Of the ones that own a PC, most could reinstall the OS without trouble. They all know about spyware, and I've heard at least one "AdAware vs. Spybot" zealotry argument. At least one of them reads /., and I've traded mp3s with a few of em.

        I could walk into the break room and say "Sony rootkit" and probably three quarters of them would know exactly what I was talking about.

        The reach is getting bigger, boys and girls. The second their digital TVs break, or their mp3s no longer work, the blue collar slice of America will know and complain, rest assured.

    • Re:Simple Fix - Don't Buy (Score:4, Interesting)

      by w1ll0w (658777) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @03:52PM (#14610428)
      It's weird, they have icewind dale heart of winter on the list of released games. I used to work at interplay and was a programmer on that title. I don't ever remember use using this stuff. I guess it could have been for a european release, they wouldn't even take a game unless it used macrovision. I wonder how many other games on their list are false. Anyone else work on any of these games and not use starforce?

  • My bad... my bad... (Score:5, Funny)

    by eno2001 (527078) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @12:54PM (#14608431) Homepage Journal
    Sorry. That was me. My Troll Tuesday antics got a little out of hand and I started calling everyone in my address book (Lycos People Search) and threatening to sue for unspecified amounts under the DMCA just to make a point. You can disregard the call. Sometimes a joke CAN go too far, can't it? ;P

  • Classic SLAPP Technique (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nf1nk (443791) <nf1nk@ya h o o .com> on Tuesday January 31 2006, @12:55PM (#14608441) Homepage
    This is a classic SLAPP technique http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SLAPP [wikipedia.org]
    One nice thing is that states like California have fairly strong anti Slapp laws and lawyers that specialize in this sort of case

  • Here is a picture of Dennis Zhidkov (Score:5, Informative)

    by Sundroid (777083) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @12:55PM (#14608448) Homepage
    Smile, you're on Slashdot: http://icoc.freehomepage.com/contact.html [freehomepage.com]

  • How is this harrasment? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by deathcloset (626704) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @12:56PM (#14608459) Journal
    Honestly, it sounds and reads like boing boing is just reporting the facts. Nothing more.

    Software is written that destabilizes a system, causes a crash and could potentially damage hardware.

    What am I missing?

        • Re:How is this harrasment? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by raju1kabir (251972) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @03:51PM (#14610417) Homepage
          If Cory had actually found the problems he's claiming are in this software, he could have won $10,000 and a free trip to Moscow to demonstrate them.

          Uh, no. Cory said that the Starforce driver caused performance degradation over time, eventually making it impossible to burn discs. He did not say that the drive was physically damaged.

          Starforce is only paying out if you can show them a physically damaged drive. It's a classic straw man. They know that drives are not physically being damaged, but by focusing attention on that idea, they are misdirecting people away from the fact that their software leaves Windows unable to burn discs.

  • Don't you love how every time these people... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Avillia (871800) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @12:56PM (#14608461)
    Threaten to involve or claim to involve the FBI (Cybercrime)? Really, I swore they had better things to do than investigate petty sites using legally protected free speech to label corporate interests as having malicious intent with their product. Like, I dunno. Child Porn? I hope so.

    And then, of course, comes the OMG LAWSUIT brigade, claiming libel and slander when, again, opinions of a entities buisness practices are protected free speech...Hoping to tie up critics in a huge and costly (in the short term) legal battle to silence them. (PriceRitePhoto scandal, anyone?)

    It just goes to show the sort of people behind this company that, instead of making logical arguments against their critics, they choose to take the 'dirty route' with the aforementioned threats...360, Claira, Jack Thompson, PriceRitePhoto..

    I really, really, really hope someone gets up the gonads to take one of these foolish corporations, PARTICULARY so a adware/spyware corporation or someone with similar malicious intent to court when they issue a groundless Cease and Desist in a attempt to hold face and further their own intent.

    Fin.

    • Re:Don't you love how every time these people... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dwandy (907337) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:37PM (#14608934) Homepage Journal
      claiming libel and slander when, again, opinions of a entities buisness practices are protected free speech...
      While opinions are protected, false 'facts' are not. The following (from the original) are not opinions, but were persented as statements of fact, not opinion:
      • The software causes system instability and crashes.
      • Starforce, on a regular basis, triggers this silent step down.
      • ...the Starforce drivers, installed on your system, grant ring 0 (system level) privileges to any code under the ring 3 (user level) privileges.

      An opinion might read like "It seems to me that my system became unstable after I installed some software. or I don't like the food at McDonald's.
      A statement of fact should be presented with backing documentation, something like After installing on a clean machine, using SomeMonitoringSoftware and SomeSoftwareToBeTested, it was noted that there were packets lost and the silent step-down was initiated by WinXP.
      ...so if Mr BoingBoing can't prove his statements he might be in for a rough ride...

      • Re:Don't you love how every time these people... (Score:5, Informative)

        by WilliamX (22300) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @02:40PM (#14609655)

        Perhaps your view is because you are not aware of the very extensive evidence that has previously been posted in highly respective technical forums in the past about this subject.

        Read this from Tom's Hardware's Aaron McKenna:
        http://www.tgdaily.com/2005/10/01/the_war_on_game_ pirates/index.html [tgdaily.com]

        Read the follow up letter by Starforce:
        http://www.star-force.com/protection/protection.ph tml?c=256&id=658 [star-force.com]

        Read Aaron's response letter to Dennis Zhidkov at:
        http://www.glop.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=93 [glop.org]

        Ubi has received numerous emails from registered users of their games who have experienced this problem and are investigating them. Check their forums for more details on that.

        Starforce regularly LOCKS and even deletes threads on their own forums whenever someone posts requesting for help with problems related to those discussed here, so they can keep up the pretense of not having any legitimate reports of problems.

        I completely agree with Aaron's letter. When copy protection seeks to do modification to a person's system, regardless of what kind of "permission" they confuse the end user into giving them, then copy protection is going too far.

        And making non-specific overstated threats to silence public critics is one of the must surefire signs that a company is trying to hide something.

          • Re:Don't you love how every time these people... (Score:5, Insightful)

            by WilliamX (22300) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @03:34PM (#14610266)
            They don't have to post facts. The law doesn't require them to. It only requires them to be RIGHT. There is sufficient evidence in the public purview of the issues he raised that he is not required to cite them. There is a vast amount of information out there that there are in fact problems, and even the game publishers are starting to recognize it.

  • Cory is lucky (Score:3, Funny)

    by geneing (756949) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @12:57PM (#14608471)
    that Boris Zhidkov didn't contact the russian mob... :)

  • What has been broken (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:00PM (#14608509)
    List of games they fucked up:
    http://fileforums.com/showpost.php?p=299834&postco unt=205 [fileforums.com]

    courtesy of http://www.fileforums.com/showthread.php?t=70333 [fileforums.com]

  • This is going to backfire, like Sony (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Animats (122034) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:01PM (#14608517) Homepage
    Making that threat was a big mistake. Now more security people will take a look at this "protection software", probably confirm the holes, and get it marked as hostile code. That will hit the mainstream press, and some major game vendors will be in the position Sony is now in. Expect some product recalls.

    This controversy is good. Games must be stopped from installing code which runs with kernel or administrator privileges. That's introducing too many security holes now, by preventing users from running as a nonprivileged user. Users can't lock down their machines and still run games. That's no longer acceptable.

  • Geeks embrace copy protection and DRM (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Paladin144 (676391) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:03PM (#14608554) Homepage
    At slashdot, we like to pretend that we're the Geek Mecca, and that we speak for all geeks. This is, of course, bullshit. Geeks are a huge demographic and they cannot be so easily summarized.

    That may explain why some people here might be puzzled to notice that geeks are among the most fervent supporters of DRM, copy-protection, spyware and other restrictive technologies. Witness the many gamers who have StarForce installed on their systems. Witness the many iTunes lovers (myself included) who've bought into the DRMed songs Apple offers.

    It's sad to realize that we are heading straight into a DRM/copy-protection nightmare, and the worst part is that we're fully aware where we're going. Gamers are leading the way. They seem to be fully content to have anti-copying and anti-cheating software running in the background while they play World of Warcraft or Half-Life. It seems that these companies are using our geek tendencies (must...play...new...game!) against us. Is this the beginning of the end of our freedom on the net?

  • Boing Boing might in fact have a strong case vs Starforce here. Precedent was set by Kyle Bennett of HardOCP when he successfully defended [slashdot.org] vs Infinium Labs last year. I think what won him the case was his freedom of press rights. I wonder if Boing Boing could countersue for slander as Starforce contests his journalistic integrity.

  • Interesting side note (Score:3, Informative)

    by szembek (948327) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:07PM (#14608611) Homepage
    Check out http://www.star-force.com/protection.phtml?c=261&i d=707 [star-force.com] for a claim that star force makes. They say if you can prove that their software causes the noted problems with dvd drives they will give you $10,000. Not that I believe they would actually pay you, or would expect anybody to travel to Moscow to do it, but it's pretty funny.
    • It's a shame that the terms of their 'contest' explicitly exclude the problems that have been noted, isn't it? They say that there should be permanent HARDWARE damange to the drive, not damage to the OS that renders the drive unusable.

      Their 'contest' is crap. Has nothing to do with the problems. It's a whitewash.

  • Too bad. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by LWATCDR (28044) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:11PM (#14608649) Homepage Journal
    There are some games on that list I might have wanted to buy... Not now. This copy protection scheme is an anti feature to me. AKA it makes the game not worth buying.
    You want to stop it? Flood the publisher of these games with email telling them that you will not buy games with this use this DRM.
    They have the right to put it on and we have the right not to buy.

    • Re:Too bad. (Score:4, Informative)

      by TubeSteak (669689) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:50PM (#14609094) Journal
      Since we want to keep everything legal...

      Buy the game, then go download an ISO & use a NoCD patched/cracked exe

      gamecopyworld.com is one of the many places you can find such things. GCW has been around for a long time and you don't have to worry about trojans/virii/etc.

      On the other hand, if you want to make a statement, write those companies a letter telling them exactly why you're not going to buy their games.

      Just laying out your options for ya.

  • Making a list and checking it twice (Score:5, Informative)

    by thaerin (937575) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:18PM (#14608718)
    Ever since I heard about some of the random issues caused by Starforce a few years back, I've always avoided any game title under it's protection. You can find a pretty good up-to-date list of known Starforce protected titles over here - http://www.glop.org/starforce/ [glop.org]

  • Boycott Starforce (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Pyrosz (469177) <amurray@staDALIge11.ca minus painter> on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:23PM (#14608776) Homepage
    http://www.glop.org/starforce/ [glop.org] I just picked up X3: Reunion without knowing that it included this Starforce software. I would not have purchased it had I known this. I will be writing both Egosoft and the publisher about this. Here is a reply by Egosoft on their own forums to concerns about Starforce:
    Starforce is picked by the publisher, not Egosoft. You should be writing this to either Deepsilver or Enlight, depending where you are. So no, you've not proved that Egosoft used Starforce. The publisher did. Likening Starforce to the whole Sony/root-kit thing is a little silly, as Starforce is clearly named as the CP in the game's manual. You're told it's gonna install. Almost all discussions on CP turn into discussions of piracy, and as a result this thread is being pre-emptively locked. If you have a problem with the CP, feel free to register your game and post the issue in the sticky in the Tech Support forum.

  • Perfect. Just Perfect. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Maxwell'sSilverLART (596756) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:24PM (#14608783) Homepage

    This is absolutely perfect. StarForce is accusing Doctorow of slander and/or libel (probably libel, as his remarks were published). Now, if he wants to press that case, Doctorow will have the opportunity to validate his claims in court. If he fails, he'll be found liable (of libel), and punished accordingly--as it should be. If he succeeds, plaintiff (StarForce) will lose, and will get the additional bonus of having their software be demonstrated in court as malware.

    As an additional bonus, if StarForce loses, Doctorow can countersue, also for slander and/or libel--if you accuse me of lying, and I'm not, it damages my reputation.

    As long as Doctorow is confident in his claims, his only thought should be "bring it on."

  • Interview with Starforce (Score:4, Interesting)

    by thePowerOfGrayskull (905905) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:36PM (#14608918) Homepage Journal
    Below: Their side of the story
    So what if it reads more like a press release... but of particular interest is this: There is no legal concern because before a user loads a game, he or she has agreed to accept the conditions of the end-user licensing agreement, typically known as a EULA. These are also known as click and go, or click and accept agreements. When you accept, you are saying I will load this game or application at my own risk, and have read and understood the terms. Or there will be a disclaimer that protects the publisher from damages of any kind due to their products' use. Our product is licensed to our customers, and becomes part of their product, so the user by accepting the terms, is giving approval.
    It seems to me that one could read that to say that they are knowingly installing software that can damage a computer, and that the manufacturer is not liable. But anyway, I'm curious about the wording on that license -- since this is third party software, I wonder if it's still covered.

    • Re:Two sides to every story (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Mathonwy (160184) on Tuesday January 31 2006, @01:09PM (#14608625)
      Wow, can you say "astroturf comment"? Either that or troll, not sure which. Anyway, I'll bite:

      If there have been documented cases of it causing problems, then it doesn't really matter if there have been other cases where it was fine. Even if only 10% of end users see problems, don't you think everyone still would like to know about it, so they can make informed decisions?

      Or, to put in another, more emotionally charged frame: If there was a baby-food that worked fine most of the time, but in 10% of cases caused the baby to explode violently, don't you think people (particularly potential customers) should be told that there were risks? Just because someone could say "well, MY baby didn't explode" would not somehow absolve the company of responsability of the 10% that did.
      • Wow, can you say "astroturf comment"? Either that or troll, not sure which.

        Er, why? Because he said he hadn't experienced those problems, and pointed out that there are two sides to every story?

        OK, so I have some karma to burn. Here is the other side from somebody you may trust more [ubi.com], an UbiSoft developer posting in the forums in response to people who claimed StarForce was riddled with problems and would cause huge issues when they started using it.

        Some relevant quotes may help:

        So the subject of

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