Encryption chip to stop pc piracy.

JBod said:
Actually it is possible to have unhackable but that level on encryption is actually illegal, especially outside the united states where their government cannot crack it.
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One time pad is not illegal, can be generated by hand and has been around for decades. As far as I'm aware the uk has no laws regarding the level of encryption that can be used.

The cipher is never the weakness though, the US government can't decrypt current aes encryption even with quantum supercomputers, it's the implementation that always fails with these anti-piracy systems.

Luckily for us consumers, the hardware market is not a monopoly like windows is, so while microsoft implement unwanted drm in their os because people will still buy it, putting a chip on motherboards would be suicide.
 
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Energize said:
One time pad is not illegal, can be generated by hand and has been around for decades. As far as I'm aware the uk has no laws regarding the level of encryption that can be used.

The cipher is never the weakness though, the US government can't decrypt current aes encryption even with quantum supercomputers, it's the implementation.
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Bit of a blanket statement really, the cipher can be the weakness if you your using simple transposition/substitution ciphers etc... All depends what your using and what resources you got available.

Since public/private key encryption was invented at GCHQ before Diffe-Hellman came up with the idea one wonders how far ahead they are these days....
 
Energize said:
Luckily for us consumers, the hardware market is not a monopoly like windows is, so while microsoft implement unwanted drm in their os because people will still buy it, putting a chip on motherboards would be suicide.
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Not really th pirate releases of vista where so much easier to install than the normal ones, no faffing around with a key.
 
Tefal said:
Not really th pirate releases of vista where so much easier to install than the normal ones, no faffing around with a key.
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I was referring to the hdcp and wm-drm. Microsoft claim that companies wouldn't release content if they didn't have it, yet because microsoft are a monopoly companies have no choice but to release content for windows regardless of drm. Of course we all know the real reason for it is the licence money ms get from it. :rolleyes:
 
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If this works then I am all for it as I buy all my games so have nothing to fear.

TBH they should just make a USB dongle and include it with the game and make it work in a way which is not attractive to the crackers. Starforce have a max level of protection which no-one has ever cracked as it encrypts 100's of files and self modifies them as well.

Not much difference between this proposed PC chip and the chips in console which check for legal discs is there?
 
AWPC said:
If this works then I am all for it as I buy all my games so have nothing to fear.

TBH they should just make a USB dongle and include it with the game and make it work in a way which is not attractive to the crackers. Starforce have a max level of protection which no-one has ever cracked as it encrypts 100's of files and self modifies them as well.

Not much difference between this proposed PC chip and the chips in console which check for legal discs is there?
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starforce games havent been cracked ?
im sure i used a nocd on my toca2
 
TBH they should just make a USB dongle and include it with the game and make it work in a way which is not attractive to the crackers. Starforce have a max level of protection which no-one has ever cracked as it encrypts 100's of files and self modifies them as well.
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Lol! They emulate dvd's and cd's now and you recon they can't emulate a usb stick ''removable drive''.
Starforce has been cracked afaik, it just takes longer but eventually all versions get cracked. I'm sure I used a crack on Cossacks 2...


AWPC said:
Not much difference between this proposed PC chip and the chips in console which check for legal discs is there?
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Erm, is there such a chip? I'm sure a 360's dvd player only needs a firmware update to read copies.
 
What is the point? They would have to give you the encryption key, and even if that was encrypted or hidden away somewhere, it would still have to be in changed to plaintext eventually, and once you have the key, decrypting it would be trivial.
 
Interestingly, the Devs use the excuse of "No money in PC gaming due to piracy".

SO, on this basis, assuming this chip was installed in every computer, would we see less cack handed ports and more original games? I DOUBT IT. The devs would give us the same lazy ported cack.

What would their argument be then?

Anyway, they will all come running back to PC's eventually when they realise consoles are being cracked by more and more people.

I know several with cracked 360's. You dont even need to buy the game to play online.

How long before console games haver serial numbers?

Edit:

Just posted that same question in the Console forum - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17879366

Wonder how long before I get flamed?
 
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It makes sense to me that it is a road the devs/publishers may go down however I can imagine a LOT of console users being offended by such an idea.

The piracy related threads in the PC section mostly descend into Chaos so I find it unlikely that one will be any different.

EDIT:

Just read your post which was an intelligent reply. I just dont imagine the rest of the thread being as constructive but you never know.
 
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Complete and utter nonsense this. Blizzard have already shown the way forward - how many pirated copies of World of Warcraft are there? None - because you are paying a monthly subscription for an account on the servers.
 
jamiemoles said:
Complete and utter nonsense this. Blizzard have already shown the way forward - how many pirated copies of World of Warcraft are there? None - because you are paying a monthly subscription for an account on the servers.
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Not a chance would I be buying any games that charged me a monthly fee just so they can avoid the pirates, also there are plenty they just play on private servers
 
jamiemoles said:
Complete and utter nonsense this. Blizzard have already shown the way forward - how many pirated copies of World of Warcraft are there? None - because you are paying a monthly subscription for an account on the servers.
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Actually, people have created their own servers on which pirated and legitimate copies can connect and play for free. Which I think is fair enough really, if blizzard really are only charging the monthly fee for upkeep of the servers like they say, then they won't be affected by legitimate copies being played on unauthorised servers.

Monthly subscription can't be used for single player games anyway. No one would keep paying over and over and over again for the same game with nothing new.
 
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Subscription model works fine for RPG type games where you have continuous developement, or indeed any non-linear game where every day is different (say, multiplayer FPS). But I can't see it being viable for many standard singleplayer games which many people will only play for a month anyway.

Piracy mainly afflicts SP games in any case; the standard cd key authentication model brought in by the likes of HL/Q3 has proved reasonably effective in the multiplayer arena.
 
mattyfez said:
This is true, however, the OEM market is so cut-throat that every penny counts, 10p per unit saved on a bulk purchase of motherboards could translate in to thousands of pounds extra profit if they are shifting a lot of units....what is the incentive for OEM's to use this chip?
why would they knowingly give themselves bad press by using the chip?
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"Incentive payments" by the likes of the RIAA, MPAA and BPI, or the music and movie labels themselves. If they're getting paid to do it then the bad publicity may be worth it. In addition it becomes less important when you're not the only manufacturer doing it. For the user, it becomes a choice between the lesser of evils.

Personally, I don't have a problem with the technology if it's as seamless as they make it sound. My problem is with the fact that if I did want to run a pirated game, I couldn't. Why can I not do what I want with my property? My morals should dictate what I do, not the companies and labels. I'm not willing to relinquish that choice.
 
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