One step too far?

[WPKenny]

GAH! They DID re-insall themselves on a second reboot. :/

FFS is there something that can immunise your pc against these fuckers?

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Don't buy rubbish games !

 

[sibanac]

Right from now on i am checking every game before i buy it, no more impulse buys.
If i want a game and it got this crap on it, I'll mail the dev en publisher to tell em why i am not buying the game.
(then i'll porb wiat for a 'free version")

 

[sibanac]

from http://www.makeabackup.com/database-all.html :


AceSaga
American Conquest (region : russia)
Anito: Defend A Land Enraged (region :Asia)
Anstoss 4 (Germany)
Army Men (russia)
Breed (US & France)
Chrome (Russia)
Codename: Outbreak (Russia)
Cossacks: Back To War (Russia)
Cossacks: European Wars (Russia)
Curse: The Eye of Isis
Cycling Manager 3
Dead to Rights
Demonic Speedway
Desert Rats vs. Afrika Corps (France)
DTM Race Driver 2
Emergency Fire Response
Enigma: Rising Tide
Etherlords I&II
Fire Chief
Fire Department
Gangland
Heroes of Might & Magic IV: The Gathering Storm
Horse Race Manager
Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter (UK)
IL-2 Sturmovik (Russia)
Kill Switch (france)
Korea: Forgotten Conflict
Magnamedia
Mercedes-Benz World Racing
Might & Magic IX: Writ of Fate (Russia)
Pax Romana
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Russia)
Pro Rugby Manager
Rally Championship Xtreme
Restaurant Empire
Revolution
Runaway: A Road Adventure
Silent Storm (Spain)
Sniper
Tennis Masters Series: Battleground of Champions
The Heroes of Three Kingdoms (Asia)
The I Of The Dragon (Russia)
The Westerner (France)
TOCA Race Driver 2
Track Mania
UFO: Aftermath (seems spain only)
V8 Supercars 2
Wildlife Park
World War II: Frontline Command
X2: The Threat (US version clear)
Xuan-Yuan Sword 4

 

[Xavier]

GAH! They DID re-insall themselves on a second reboot. :/

FFS is there something that can immunise your pc against these fuckers?

Immunise? you can't run any StarForce3 based games without letting it install, so the only immunisation is to avoid all games which use it.... pretty simple.

Xav

 

[WPKenny]

Immunise? you can't run any StarForce3 based games without letting it install, so the only immunisation is to avoid all games which use it.... pretty simple.

Xav

That's a great idea with hind site but what about the people who have it now? Will that little app get rid of starforce until the next time it's installed along side a game? Or will it only work until the next reboot? And how can we tell whether the game's going to install this software as there's still quite a bit of confusion around about it?

What I'm after is something that gets rid of this thing and in the future asks me permission for it to run when installing games and places a restriction on the data it sends out, such as tricking it into sending it into a black hole somewhere on your own pc?

 

[Mazling]

I had/have it (just removed) ...
Not seeing any of my games on that list, though.

 

[inactionman]

I've got it, removed it, but lots of people seem to get it back after a few reboots!

Suspect mine came from a game a friend bought me (I-Ninja, the dates match), been wondering why my computer has been a lot slower since i installed it!

I guess I'll have to root around in the registry, see whats making it re-install!

 

[Xavier]

That's a great idea with hind site but what about the people who have it now? Will that little app get rid of starforce until the next time it's installed along side a game? Or will it only work until the next reboot? And how can we tell whether the game's going to install this software as there's still quite a bit of confusion around about it?

What I'm after is something that gets rid of this thing and in the future asks me permission for it to run when installing games and places a restriction on the data it sends out, such as tricking it into sending it into a black hole somewhere on your own pc?

For one the 'reporting home' mechanism seems to use the system-level local account on your PC, so you can't stop it - in essence it's uses the same level of permission to call home as you'd use to stop it.

If you're 'infected' then chances are you're using a game which relies on it - it's more than likely they'll stop working.

Thus far, the only place to identify which games are running it is by reading the shifty sorts of websites which list warez releases - very few other webbies catalog the protection types on games, and seeing as StarForce3 games take a LONG time to crack with the current 'tools' the warez monkeys have you'll know which games are SF3 by their absence on the 'scene'.

StarForce3 is necessary for both the install and execution of the games it protects, and with the diverse range of installers developers and publishers use there's no tool to spot its arrival on your system.

Unless Star Force were taken to court and forced by legal judgement to have publishers mark clearly games which use their code you're not going to get any warning when you install a game, even if someone put something together to look for it it's likely the SF devs will engineer a solution to sidestep such monitoring in a matter of weeks.

 

[Xavier]

Update: (albeit a bit off-topic)

If anyone here was considering returning games in the future which they've bought and later found use shifty stuff such as StarForce you'd be wise not buying your PC games from GAME.

It seems GAME have just revised their retail 10-day returns policy to exclude all PC titles!

Triffic

 

[Xavier]

Another update - just bought Bym "Beyond Divinity" and during the install a "StarForce" window popped up. Unfortunately it didn't say "warning, this game requires the installation of a driver" or give the option to stop install but instead only alerted her that the copy protection had just been installed. Arses.


Xav

 

[Sar]

I'm guessing the copy of UFO: Aftermath I installed the other week installed this on my PC.

So it's not just the Spanish version that does it.

:/

 

[Whipped]

yay! Not on my machine at all

 

[Cdr]

I dont got it neither guv'!

 

[Jonaldo]

I found I had it, I checked after remembering I had played Broken Sword 3.

I uninstalled all and then ran the 'Starforce remover' program type thing posted. Just checked and I don't have it still (must've booted at least twice I think).

Will now reboot and have another looksee.

 

[TedTheDog]

I got it. X2 I guess.

Uninstalling the game and the fucking drivers and then cleaning and then hoping.
Bunch o wankers

Anyone know the address the fucking thing reports back to? Wanna block it at my firewall.

 

[Jonaldo]

ok have just rebooted and fortunately it still seems to be missing.
I don't know if it's necessary for things to be done in that order or anything to do with me running Win2k.

I feel almost violated that something can be installed on our PC's without our express permission, no matter what effects it has on our systems.
Don't suppose anyone has gone back and checked all the EULA's or other agreements on installation for those games to see if we did actually agree to install that thing?

 

[TedTheDog]

Bah, cant download the cleaner, no response from the site.
Anyone got another link?

 

[Jonaldo]

Bah, cant download the cleaner, no response from the site.
Anyone got another link?

I could probably mail it to you, it's only a teeny tiny 17k .exe

 

[TedTheDog]

Got it now, patience, it seems, is a virtue. Ta though.
Uninstalled, cleaned and rebooted once. Will do it again in a mo.

 

[TdC]

bah, I'm torn between wanting to play X2 and wanting this shite off my windows pc. I suppose I could block the report site on my firewall's internal interface. I'll bet someone in a newsgroup knows what it is.







edit: wanting shite off my windows box actually is quite a funny statement imo

 

[Sar]

I'm still clear after 3/4 reboots.

 

[Xavier]

Anyone know the address the fucking thing reports back to? Wanna block it at my firewall.

Noone has found it thus far, seems the app resolves one of 255 different DNS names, the IPs of which they resolve to are changed to stop such blocking.

Remember, again guys - StarForce3's use is becoming widespread - if you disable it from working within your systems you'll be unable to play future games which rely on it. Makes more sense to join the uprising against the protection method than deploy countermeasures against it.

StarForce3 pro or whatever it's called will use its calling home mechanism to activate games and check keys regularly, stop that from happening and the games themselves will be inoperable.

 

[Nos]

Mine's clean so far, after owning the original X, X2 was on my shopping list, not any more though :/

 

[Wij]

Another update - just bought Bym "Beyond Divinity" and during the install a "StarForce" window popped up. Unfortunately it didn't say "warning, this game requires the installation of a driver" or give the option to stop install but instead only alerted her that the copy protection had just been installed. Arses.


Xav

Piss

I wanted that game. I'm definately NOT buying it and will wait for a suitably cracked pirate version to appear

 

[Ch3tan]

This is really shitty. Now I will have to wait and see if a game uses starforce before buying it....and if it does, then I wont be getting it.

With shops cracking down (most notably GAME) on PC software returns, its not like you can buy the game and return it if it uses this shite.

So where is the official "i wont buy your game if it uses this" petition then?

 

[sibanac]

This is really shitty. Now I will have to wait and see if a game uses starforce before buying it....and if it does, then I wont be getting it.

With shops cracking down (most notably GAME) on PC software returns, its not like you can buy the game and return it if it uses this shite.

So where is the official "i wont buy your game if it uses this" petition then?

Mail the desisigner and publisher, you where going to buy the game till you heard about starforce and tell them they just lost a customer

 

[Xavier]

I wanted that game. I'm definately NOT buying it and will wait for a suitably cracked pirate version to appear

Good luck with that mate - but tbh it's probably not going to happen for months. As an example as to the effect StarForce3 has had on 'teh warez' BD was released into retail on the 30th April and thus far it hasn't been cracked... Had it used a conventional protection method it would have probably appeared not long after going gold...

The devs have been clever too, they've patched the game four times already and each new patch would of course require a brand new crack.

 

[Will]

My PC is clean...not really playing games any more helps. I've only got Quake, Painkiller, Neverwinter Nights, and Warcraft 3 (for the gf) on my PC.

If you get the list of DNS addresses that SF3 reports to, could you not add them to your hosts file?

 

[rynnor]

Grrr - X2 got me - I'm going to have a look through the EULA - if it doesnt mention installing 3rd party software they could be in trouble.

I seem to remember the Computer Misuse Act has a pretty broad definition of what constitutes an offence in terms of use of a computer without permission - unless the contract mentions this other software they are probably guilty of a criminal offence.

Trading standards would probably be interested if this is the case.

<goes off to read eula>