StarForce 3.xx

This is a software protection program developed by some wily Russians. I was wondering if anyone knows something exclusive about this ridiculously invasive protection system.

 

I know that it messes up your CD/DVD drive. For some people, it permanently destroyed their drive, while for others like me, it disabled DMA Transfer mode making the drive slow as hell.
What's even worse is that the repairable issues cannot be fixed unless you uninstall StarForce altogether, as it is a driver which loads up with your Windows and therefore re-messes up your drive every time you restart.
That has even more complications, as removing the driver would mean that the game which requires StarForce won't run anymore (good job Ubisoft).
If you get a new game and it has StarForce, just return it before installing. If they ask you for a reason, just say it screwed up your CD drive, which it probably would do if you chose to install it.

 

Then there's no way I can bypass this stupid thing?

 

There's no way the bypass it, join everyone else and boycott products that use Starforce.

 

StarForce is BS. I hate it, and will never buy any game that has it.

Ivan

 

There's no legal way to bypass it, other than boycotting the games, and that's about as much as I can say.

 

... how about illegal; would you feel any remorse?

 

Hmmmn, I wrote up a long reply and either it got deleted or I forgot to hit submit

Anyway, the gist of it was:

Legally, whether Starforce is able to have their software install a driver that disables your CD burner when you install their games does not allow you to use a pirated copy of said game. They can prosecute you for copyright violation and (if you have deep pockets) you could sue them for misrepresentation and damages from troubleshooting and loss of use of the CD burner.

Morally, I think you can make the argument that they did not act in good faith in disabling the CD burner b/c you might use it to copy their software, so morally, you may be justified in using a pirated copy to play software that you paid near full retail money for and that you cannot use as intended otherwise. (Note that I am only saying it is justified if you in fact have purchased the software.)

It's basically the "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns argument." (I.e. by making it difficult to do the correct thing, it makes people more likely to violate the technical law.)