It took them long enough. For those that don't know, StarForce is a copy proteciton scheme which installs drivers which intercept and alter the functioning of the base I/O system in Windows. This is supposedly so that it is impossible to play a burnt or backed up game on the system, and impossible to copy the game. The drivers though have been connected to people's RAID arrays failing, failure to write on certain DVD/CD Burners, and security concerns. Games that use the copy protection note that it may interfere with the operation of certain CD burning software (Nero, Alcohol 120% to begin with) and certain DVD/CD drives.
There has been a very strong popular grassroots effort to get companies to stop using StarForce and to shut down the russian company. Recently there was a lawsuit in the US against UBISOFT for their use of the StarForce malware, and apparently UBISOFT must have realised that the proponents of the suit have a strong case. They have confirmed they will drop the copy protection scheme from future titles. Score one for the consumer? Ignoring of course that UBISOFT only took notice when suit was filed ;-). ["'To return from there good on an important subject, that of Starforce, here information which should interest you: it was decided that protection anti-copy used on the very new Ubisoft plays would not be the Starforce software...Yes, that relates to Heroes as well!' The translation may not be pretty, but the news is. Starforce should be considered malware if you ask me, and treated accordingly. If this really does mean Ubisoft is going to stop using it on their new releases we can all do a little dance of joy." Less that 24 hours later, and Gamespot confirms StarForce is on its way out at Ubi.] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:204266 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
