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DRM Software Company Takes Legal Action Against Cracker
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* m2 stares at the monitor... it looks like a hamburger...
m2 - that's a bad sign
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @11:43AM (21 children)
Sounds painful.
The guy posted a statement. [reddit.com] Seems the DRM massively impacts game performance and there's strong justification for disabling it on legally purchased copies?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 27 2018, @11:52AM (13 children)
Bulgaria, eh? I bet if he lived in Russia or China he wouldn't have had any problems.
Sometimes it's good to have a criminal state or two around the globe.
Bulgaria = vassal state.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by unauthorized on Friday July 27 2018, @01:22PM (1 child)
It doesn't matter where you live, US law will be enforced upon you as long as someone with a lot of money wants you badly enough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @02:34PM
But I live in New Zealand not the US
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday July 27 2018, @01:41PM (10 children)
"We have our own orphanage!"
-- Slavic Child Pornography Website
I don't know that it's Russian specifically, just that all the kids in the photos appeared Slavic.
Child pornography is just as unlawful in the Russian Republic as in the US, it's just that the laws aren't always enforced.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Friday July 27 2018, @02:02PM (3 children)
https://www.tripsavvy.com/worst-case-guide-to-russian-travel-1622531 [tripsavvy.com]
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-quality-of-Russian-police [quora.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_Russia [wikipedia.org]
There are differing views on the amount of routine corruption experienced there, but if you have friends/connections, a lot of activity could be overlooked.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @04:05PM (2 children)
That is the same everywhere. I've lived in the UK, France and Spain, and in all three countries, those who are well connected can get away with pretty much anything. The authorities will look the other way.
That is not a Russia/Slavic/EastEurope specific thing. I have not lived in the USA, but based on what I've read in the news and opinions of US Citizens, sounds like corruption for the well connected is alive and well for the USA too.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 27 2018, @04:25PM (1 child)
I dunno. Let's say you start Michael David Crawford's Orphanage for the Production of Child Pornography (unofficial name). You bribe the first cops and officials to start investigating the joint, or you cultivate a relationship with them in advance. Some countries must be better than others for not getting busted. Maybe Russia is better than the UK, France, and Spain, and Ukraine is better than Russia. And Syria or Yemen beats them all.
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(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @09:41PM
what about offering participation credits, like an achievement of participation award and stuff like that? sometimes money isn't enough
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @02:04PM (5 children)
1) Russian Federation
2) The laws are enforced alright. Just that the police there have decided to cut out the middlemen politicians in the business of taking bribes to define what is legal. If you can pay your way out of it, jail is avoidable. They've bet you at this particular facet of capitalism.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @02:40PM (2 children)
Except that most often that not Russian police doesn't know Russian laws. And they don't really care about that.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @03:04PM (1 child)
So, the same as the US?
(The US courts have repeatedly ruled that the police officers do not need to know the laws they're enforcing. Yes, that happened.)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday July 27 2018, @04:30PM
Watching experienced First Amendment auditors, you will definitely see them school U.S. cops on the 1st Amendment and ID laws (these vary by state).
Cops have an advantage over ordinary folks: they are authoritative figures with wide-ranging powers. They can detain most people without cause, and most people won't realize that the cop is in the wrong. And they can always just make up a resisting arrest or disorderly conduct charge. Even if the person goes free later, arresting them in that moment might have been the cop's goal.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday July 27 2018, @02:42PM
I should not drink and public.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday July 27 2018, @02:49PM
... The Ukrainian Angels studio raid was done in cooperation with some foreign law enforcement agencies.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @12:48PM (5 children)
> Seems the DRM massively impacts game performance and there's strong justification for disabling it on legally purchased copies?
Modern forms of DRM (stuff like CD-keys excluded):
- openly treat customers like criminals
- bloat binaries*
- degrade performance
- randomly stop your legally purchased software from working
- are completely indistinguishable from viruses and trojans
- siphon off private data, so also indistinguishable from spyware
* As an extreme(?) example, the recently released Puyo Puyo Tetris apparently takes ~130 MB on disk; ~5 MB of game and ~125 MB of Denuvo.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @01:37PM (3 children)
That's why it's called Digital Restrictions Malware. It's also why I no longer purchase software. If you're going to treat me like a criminal even after I try to do things legally I might as well save a few bucks (or $60) and just copyright infringe your software to begin with.
AND STOP CALLING IT PIRACY! PIRACY IS NOT COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT AND COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS NOT PIRACY! IT'S NOT THEFT EITHER, SO JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY!
Ok, I'm done screaming.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Friday July 27 2018, @07:44PM (2 children)
> why I no longer purchase software
With commercial software, there's usually more problems than DRM. How about, rushed out the door with major bugs and missing features? Occasionally, I used to buy $60 blockbuster games. But when one was shipped without the multiplayer feature working, and was "fixed" 3 months later with a "bug patch", and several others put me on the expansion treadmill, so that every time an expansion came out, I had to have it or the game was for all practical purposes unplayable, I quit.
And as for business software such as office suites, I've heard about and seen enough of M$'s crap to know I don't want any part of it. File format lock in, lack of backward compatibility, the upgrade treadmill, the possibility of them remotely disabling the app, erasing the data, declaring that you are a pirate, etc. No thanks. I really don't understand why businesses put up with that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 28 2018, @12:45AM (1 child)
That has puzzled me a lot. I have seen how businesses around here gang up on people of Mexican heritage and INSIST that only English be spoken at the workplace.
Yet those same tie-wearers and shakers of the hand accept software that phones home behind their back, and is obedient to someone else, not them.
I have to consider this kind of stuff as "Business-Class software" or "Executive-Grade software".
You can't trust it. It has hidden agendas. Its like someone who offers to clean your house for cheap, but once in the door, goes through your house with a fine tooth comb and tells all their friends what they found there.
All I can figure is that people that frequent forums like this know good and well whats going on, and it does not have to be that way. Its kind obvious that other people who have concentrated on business skills are more concentrated in legal and leadership skills, neither which apply to a machine which by design is absolutely loyal only to the guy who speaks to it in the machine's native language, not some highly paid guy, dressed to impress, hocking up orders and directives.
My only guess is that when one is that high up in an organization, it really doesn't make that much difference at that level whether or not stuff works... at that altitude, the whole thing is nothing more than a bullet point on some memo. Lay everyone off. Kill off the company. Re-organize the decision-makers under another name. Rinse. Lather. And repeat. Make another cash-cow and milk it until she croaks as well.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday July 28 2018, @01:40AM
I think the best explanation of these business decisions on this is "business philosophy". It's scary how religious they are in their professed belief in capitalism and "you get what you pay for". Even after decades of evidence showing them that they are wrong, they persist in believing that if it is free, it's no good. They've swallowed and totally embraced the propaganda that deliberately ignores the fundamental distinction between the abundant and easily duplicated world of information, and the scarce, material good world, and buy that nonsense that copying is stealing. They think their lot is with producers, and want their precious company secrets protected to the max. Fear of loss really pushes people's buttons, no matter how much the gain more than offsets the perceived loss.
When I've tried to ask if that's why, I've gotten bull for an answer. Basically the tone of the answers is that I'm an engineer not a businessperson, and therefore unqualified and incapable of understanding the company's decisions on these matters. Now go back to your cube and work on engineering stuff, and leave business to the pros.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Saturday July 28 2018, @05:33AM
So why on earth would anybody part with their money to pay for that excrement? Why not just do without for a while and starve the beast?
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 27 2018, @07:15PM
You want a 100% legal method to get past this DRM? Boycott it until it's removed by the company. If EVERYONE did this instead of putting themselves at legal risk we'd be better off.
Personally I find out a game has that shit on it in steam I just click "not interested" and never look at it again. I have plenty to play without having to worry about it, so I'll never feel like I'm "missing out".