Why do we have copy protection ?

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

FatRakoon

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Ok, I dont want the obvious questions answered here, but I feel that it is in fact a perfectly valid question.

I mean...

Lets be completely honest here, but can anyone name a single piece of software, that has not been cracked hacked and ripped to shreds, and even more funny, but the cracked version has almost always been available before the actual proper version has been released.

Now, it strikes me as a bit funny that the software companies try their damnedest to protect their code, and they have a perfect failure rate, because I cannot think of a single game or O/S or any other kind of software that I cannot get hold of in cracked form.

So, why do the software companies bother?

The only people that its hassling is those of us who buy the legal stuff.

If people out there want the hookie stuff, they will get it one way or another, so why bother with tryign and failing to protect it anyway?

Can anyone see where I am coming from here?

Another one that really makes me laugh, is that I have a fairly large game collection... I dont think I have any hookie games, but I have had plenty in my time... I get hold of a hookie game, if I like it, I will buy it, if I dont like it, I dont play it, simple as that, but even with my legal games, I still download the NOCD Crack for it... Why the hell should I be forced to have the disk in the drive just to play a game, when I dont actually need it? - NOCD Crack does it for me.

So, even though I have bought and paid for the original game, Im still using code written by hackers to play the game... Id rather not, but then I like to have my game collection in 100% mint condition.

Again, surely you can see where I am coming from on that too?
 
Ascendancy said:
Doesn't make it any more difficult though. Unless the person pirating it cannot follow simple instructions.
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A lot of pirated games need you to mess around with emulators and things, that would not be difficult for most people on here, but for a lot of people it will put them off and make them buy it.
 
It prevents casual piracy, Joe Average can't lend his DVD to Fred Bloggs to run it. You need cracks etc.

Proper piracy isn't the target.
 
If they didn't have copy protection, then everyone with a computer could copy and ditribute software easily, even me.

Even if it's not completely effective, it's still putting an extra barrier up which only the super geek hackers can break, and average PC users cannot.

So having some kind of protection is still better than absolutely none at all, it still limits piracy, slightly.
 
It prevents casual piracy, Joe Average can't lend his DVD to Fred Bloggs to run it. You need cracks
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Anyway for most people in general its easier to buy the product than it is to mess around and crack it... doesn’t really stop the people who would rather download a copy than actual pay for it though!

Sometimes copy protection really does over step the mark, remember those Sony audio cds?
 
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asim18 said:
If they didn't have copy protection, then everyone with a computer could copy and ditribute software easily, even me.

Even if it's not completely effective, it's still putting an extra barrier up which only the super geek hackers can break, and average PC users cannot.

So having some kind of protection is still better than absolutely none at all, it still limits piracy, slightly.
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Exactly.

The most common form of windows piracy, prior to XP, was the simple "Borrow my disk and install it" pirate...

It's that kind of pirate that copy protection stops, that and those who think that if they don't have to do anything to do it, it's not illegal...
 
Of course before MS introduced the anti-piracy methods in XP, they were struggling financially so they had to do something... ( TUT )

I wonder if we had a real figure in % of the users who had legal and illegal copies of Windows and for each version too!

I think that it will show that the percentage of users who had hookie copies were not that much different at all

Seriously though... The Windows stuff I can live with. You get it once during an install and it should never happen again... It does for many I know, but once its in, its in, and its job done.

That, I am happy with.

Its mainly games that I am sick to death of. They go over the top with it all.
 
Its primarily for two reasons.

One to discourage "casual" piracy as already mentioned and second because a company has to be able to show it makes efforts to defend it's IP to prevent any kind of "they don't mind, or intended for it to be shared" type ruling.
 
I think they have to be seen to be doing something to shareholders as well as obviously trying to protect their software as best as they can. However, I think it should be left at a CD Key to deter casual piracy and nothing more. Anything more than that just frustrates and annoys legitimate customers and in some cases turns them to the cracked versions as they aren't infested with root kits and multiple activation nonsense.

I recently had problems with Far Cry 2 and it peeved me off so much that I'm selling the game and being very wary about buying another UBISOFT title.
 
Well, thats just it...

As I said earlier on, I have the legit copies of some games, and I have them cracked.

My 2 points on this are

1 - I dont have to use the Disk to play the game
2 - My originals get puit away and kept in mint condition

And yes, Im getting so annoyed at having to do a marathon of things just to install my own leglly bought game, that I am no longer wanting to play it. Its getting to the point where Im no longer buying as much games as I used to unless they really have something special to offer.
 
Dolph said:
Exactly.

The most common form of windows piracy, prior to XP, was the simple "Borrow my disk and install it" pirate...

It's that kind of pirate that copy protection stops, that and those who think that if they don't have to do anything to do it, it's not illegal...
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This is why we have CD-keys surely?

Gotta agree with the OP though. For example, games like Unreal Tournament are always easy to get cracked, but i've bought them for the quality of the game, updates, and the fact that you don't need the CD in to run them! I was delighted when Crysis Warhead didn't need this either. Shame the original Crysis still does. I keep my GRID disc permanently in one of my drives as it's too much of a pain to keep changing. Sort it out!
 
FatRakoon said:
Why do we have copy protection ?
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To give the copy protection companys a reason for existing & charging said companys for there services, All part of the Fear factory BS way of Yanky business if you ask me. It serves no other purpose except annoying Legit buyers. Those that copy will do it no matter what & those that buy will buy.

The real kick in the sacks is that Legit buyers have to use cracks to use there Legit games how they want, Kin joke like the rest of the BS we have to put up with.

For the Record I buy legit games as I am in to that feel like I am supporting developers BS :p
All in all it just depends what BS has been stuck in your head by past experiences, The World is ****** :D
 
alexhull24 said:
This is why we have CD-keys surely?

Gotta agree with the OP though. For example, games like Unreal Tournament are always easy to get cracked, but i've bought them for the quality of the game, updates, and the fact that you don't need the CD in to run them! I was delighted when Crysis Warhead didn't need this either. Shame the original Crysis still does. I keep my GRID disc permanently in one of my drives as it's too much of a pain to keep changing. Sort it out!
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Unless the CD key is verified online (and limited, aka mass effect, spore etc. Very unpopular despite being what gamers originally said they wanted), or requires the disk in the drive to run (and the disk has copy protection meaning a simple duplicate won't suffice, again unpopular), it's meaningless and provides no protection against disk borrowing.
 
The same reason we put locks on doors - of course almost every single lock can be broken and all houses have other ways you can break in, but it's better than nothing.

Look at Cubase - every version has been cracked, except the latest and each new version took longer and longer to crack.
 
philjohn said:
The same reason we put locks on doors - of course almost every single lock can be broken and all houses have other ways you can break in, but it's better than nothing.

Look at Cubase - every version has been cracked, except the latest and each new version took longer and longer to crack.
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I dont feel that the locks on doors is a good comparison...

Locks on doors is perhaps good comparison with say a Serial number perhaps, but the software outthere has locks on door,s steel deadbolts, the doors are solid oak and ****** Ed-209 is stood right behind the doors!!! - Thats a closer comparison, but not just locks.
 
I agree wholeheartedly with the OP. Whilst seeing the rationale of making it difficult to copy software it really grinds my gears that in order to play games that I have legitimately paid for I have to either:

a. Take it like a bitch and swap CD/DVDs around. This is a major hassle as I tend to have these on a shelf in another room.

b. Clone the entire game disc onto my hard drive and mount it using something like Daemon Tools. This doesn't always work with all titles, particularly newer ones

c. Install a No-CD patch/ crack from, what is usually a pretty untrustworthy source. This of course leaves you vulnerable to malware as you have no idea what is actually hiding in that patch. To a much lesser extent this argument could extend to all closed-source software ;)

One of the reasons I got into UT back in the day was you didn't have to faff around with swapping out discs and the like. You just double-clicked the icon and started playing. FWIW though games with a major multiplayer element should be less subsceptible to piracy as even with a cracked copy you often wont be able to play online. This method is more tolerable to me as it means you can have a more open game but to utilise it fully you need to buy it.
 
Whiskas said:
I agree wholeheartedly with the OP. Whilst seeing the rationale of making it difficult to copy software it really grinds my gears that in order to play games that I have legitimately paid for I have to either:

a. Take it like a bitch and swap CD/DVDs around. This is a major hassle as I tend to have these on a shelf in another room.

b. Clone the entire game disc onto my hard drive and mount it using something like Daemon Tools. This doesn't always work with all titles, particularly newer ones

c. Install a No-CD patch/ crack from, what is usually a pretty untrustworthy source. This of course leaves you vulnerable to malware as you have no idea what is actually hiding in that patch. To a much lesser extent this argument could extend to all closed-source software ;)

One of the reasons I got into UT back in the day was you didn't have to faff around with swapping out discs and the like. You just double-clicked the icon and started playing. FWIW though games with a major multiplayer element should be less subsceptible to piracy as even with a cracked copy you often wont be able to play online. This method is more tolerable to me as it means you can have a more open game but to utilise it fully you need to buy it.
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This is what they tried to do with games like Mass effect and spore, and it caused uproar again...
 
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