Boing Boing Threatened By Software Creator

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.'"

Here is a picture of Dennis Zhidkov

[Sundroid]

Smile, you're on Slashdot: http://icoc.freehomepage.com/contact.html [freehomepage.com]

What has been broken

[Anonymous Coward]

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]

http://www.star-force.com/

[gentimjs]

NT

Interesting side note

[szembek]

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.

Making a list and checking it twice

[thaerin]

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]

Re:Classic SLAPP Technique

[dgatwood]

No, it becomes a SLAPP when they file a lawsuit. As long as they are just threatening a lawsuit, it's just bullying.

Re:No point in getting us riled up without a targe

[web_boyo_in_sac]

Dennis Zhidkov
PR Manager
StarForce Technologies
Altufevskoe shosse, 5/2
127106 Moscow, Russia
Tel [phone]
Fax [phone]
ICQ: 75-371-896
E-mail: [e-mail]
Http: http://www.star-force.com/ [star-force.com]

Re:Too bad.

[TubeSteak]

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.

Re:The FBI?

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm First4Internet has nothing to do with dvd and car cd players it was use by sony for copy protection on windows machines. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First4Internet [wikipedia.org]

Re:Yay, more useless litigation...

[amazon10x]

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.

Re:Two sides to every story

[IamTheRealMike]

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 this post is to detail the problems encountered with the Starforce system. My study is based on four games published earlier this year by Ubisoft, totalling more than half a million copies over a few months, protected by Starforce. I believe this is a large enough population to derive statistics from. The number of reported problems totals 0,3% of sold copies. Splinter Cell 3, being a very popular title, generated more reports than usual (see below), and without this title, the level of problems drops to 0,1%. That's one user out of a thousand, and less than 500 reports all in all, worldwide.

.. and ..

Most problems (more than 60%) have to do with the activation key or the disc check ... The reported problems are either that the key was mistyped, or not valid anymore, or that the disc check failed, or not found. When the disc check is failed, it is easy to solve, so the legal user will have opportunity to play anyway ... A large number of problems (20%) are specific to SC3, and linked with users trying to start an ISO image of the game with an emulator. In such a case, the protection prevents the game to be launched, as it is supposed to do ... What can be considered real troubles are system crashes, or driver problems, or hardware problems. This is around 10% of reports. So that's about one player in ten thousands. I think this is a level consistent with ANY windows application.

Re:Interesting side note

[Darwin_Frog]

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.

Re:Don't you love how every time these people...

[WilliamX]

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:Yay, more useless litigation...

[amazon10x]

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.

Re:The FBI?

[afidel]

Actually I don't believe that Starforce makes peoples PC's unstable. Starforce has for the last couple years had a large bounty out for anyone that can show a reproducible system error caused by their software, sofar there have been no takers. I dislike Starforce as much as anyone as I am notorious for losing physical cd's, but let's bash them for what they actually do, not for what someone whispered about them in the dark.

Re:The FBI?

[arivanov]

Considering his name extremely odd.

Any Russian speaker will start laughing hysterically the moment he sees the name...

Frankly, this sounds like a far fetched antisemitic joke someone tried to pull out. Making a silly complain to someone who is likely to make this widely known and signing it the word antisemites in Russia use as a derogatory name for jews.

The person who did it is most likely laughing hysterically know seeing that it has made Slashdot.

Re:Yay, more useless litigation...

[damian cosmas]

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.

In jurisdictions where barratry [wikipedia.org] is an criminal offense, there is just that.

Re:The FBI?

[HardCase]

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.

Umm First4Internet has nothing to do with dvd and car cd players it was use by sony for copy protection on windows machines.

On behalf of the parent post, let me point out that it sucks having to deal with stupid people.

First4Internet == rootkit
"whichever of those big companies it was whose DVDs couldn't play in car CD players or something" == dualdisc.

Re:Classic SLAPP Technique

[afidel]

Actually legal bullying without cause is called Barretry. Now Starforce probably has a case because his statements about system instability are libelous so it probably is NOT Barretry, but that is the term =)

Re:The FBI?

[Egatlov]

First, the contest was, until very recently only $1000, not really a large bounty.
if you read their rules [star-force.com] you have to travel at YOUR expense to moscow to demonstrate the problem. You then have to demonstrate in ONE DAY a problem with the DVD/CD drive which "Until it reaches the latter stages most people do not even realise it is happening. [boingboing.net]"
The contest is a PR move with rules constructed to make winning impossible. The bashing has been on target and valid.

Re:The FBI?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, they had this "competition" of theirs going on for a few months. First, the "bounty" was 1000 USD (maybe 2000). After a while the increased it to 3000 USD. It seems that it is now at 10k USD.

To actually get this money, you have to fly to Moscow on your own expenses, found this in their terms:

At your own expense you arrive to StarForce headquarter which is placed in Russia, Moscow, Altufievskoe shosse, 5/2. Please arrange your visit with us beforehand and during working hours 10 AM to 6PM Monday through Friday Mo
http://www.star-force.com/gloss.phtml?c=272scowtim e. [star-force.com]

They certanly seem very sure about their work.

Re:the problem with "don't buy"

[McCaliber]

I disagree. My grandmother was telling my mom she heard about Sony's DRM rootkit on the news. Then next time I visited, my mom asked if she had to worry about any CDs ruining her computer. I told her that she should watch for any label that says 'copy protected disc', or whatever they put on them these days, but that in general.

They problems are starting to travel through non-geek circles. Maybe you'll get a blank stare if you say Sony DRM or rootkit, but if you say 'audio CD that jacks up your computer', there might be a glimmer or recognition.

Mod Parent Down

[LandruBek]

...as not informative. As the above AC noted, his name is a none-too-bizarre Russian last name.