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posted by n1 on Tuesday June 06 2017, @05:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the russians-everywhere dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

In what could be a severe case of irony overload, anti-piracy company Denuvo is being accused of using unlicensed software to protect its infamous anti-piracy tool. A developer of VMProtect, software which itself protects against reverse engineering and cracking, says that Denuvo has been using the product without obtaining the necessary permission.

[...] According to a post on Russian forum RSDN, Denuvo is accused of engaging in a little piracy of its own. The information comes from a user called drVanо, who is a developer at VMProtect Software, a company whose tools protect against reverse engineering and cracking.

[...] drVano says that around three years ago, VMProtect Software and Denuvo entered into correspondence about the possibility of Denuvo using VMProtect in their system. VMProtect says they were absolutely clear that would not be possible under a standard $500 license, since the cost to Denuvo of producing something similar for themselves would be several hundred thousand dollars.

However, with no proper deal set up, drVano says that Denuvo went ahead anyway, purchasing a cheap license for VMProtect and going on to “mow loot” (a Russian term for making bank) with their successful Denuvo software.

Source: TorrentFreak


Original Submission

Related Stories

Voksi Releases Detailed Denuvo-Cracking Video Tutorial 2 comments

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

Over the past few years, the name Voksi has become synonymous with game cracking, in particular when it comes to anti-Denuvo activities. This week the talented Bulgarian released a 90-minute video in which he reveals how he cracked V4 of the infamous anti-tamper technology. TorrentFreak caught up with him for the lowdown.

Source: https://torrentfreak.com/voksi-releases-detailed-denuvo-cracking-video-tutorial-180210/

Denuvo "is an anti-tamper technology and digital rights management (DRM) scheme developed by the Austrian company Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH".

Related: Denuvo Forgets to Secure Server, Leaks Years of Messages From Game Makers
More Powerful Denuvo DRM Cracked 10 Days After Release of PREY
'Rime' Creators Will Remove Anti-Tampering Code If It's Cracked
New "Out of Control" Denuvo Piracy Protection Cracked
Denuvo Accused of Using Unlicensed Software to Protect its Anti-Piracy Tool
Denuvo License Generator is Latest Circumvention Method


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @05:53AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @05:53AM (#521192)

    "If you didn't want us to pirate it, you should've used Denuvo DRM!"

  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by krishnoid on Tuesday June 06 2017, @06:52AM (3 children)

    by krishnoid (1156) on Tuesday June 06 2017, @06:52AM (#521205)

    It would be helpful to have a central site of these kinds of events, where defenders of strong copyright infringement penalties show up as intentionally having infringed copyright themselves without providing appropriate restitution.

    • (Score: 2) by sjames on Tuesday June 06 2017, @07:54AM (1 child)

      by sjames (2882) on Tuesday June 06 2017, @07:54AM (#521221) Journal

      If you include hollywood accounting used to shave royalties, your list is pretty much just defenders of strong copyright infringement penalties.

      • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday June 06 2017, @08:58PM

        by krishnoid (1156) on Tuesday June 06 2017, @08:58PM (#521567)

        You're probably right. I was hoping for a list with links to news articles showing when/where/what they infringed.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @07:58AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @07:58AM (#521224)

      One of the TFA commenters, thisguy1337, seems to be doing something like that. TorrentFreak uses Disqus for comments, though.

  • (Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Tuesday June 06 2017, @08:39AM (6 children)

    by Rivenaleem (3400) on Tuesday June 06 2017, @08:39AM (#521230)

    I seem to be misunderstanding something here. VMProtect costs their company X amount of money to develop, so they put a price tag of 500$ on a license. However when Denuvo go to buy a copy of it they are told "Because it would cost you hundreds of thousands to make something similar for yourself, the price is different." Is that not some kind of extortion? I know Denuvo are widely accepted as 'the bad guys' but they paid the standard license fee, why can't they use the software?

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @08:53AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @08:53AM (#521232)

      Because the standard license fee don't cover the their intended use?

      Like in any other bussines then license terms and prices must be negotiated as any other contract.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @09:36AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @09:36AM (#521239)

      Whether you consider it extortion or not, copyright and patents are basically all about this. They give monopolistic control over who can do what with their stuff. Denuvo doesn't have permission to ignore copyright law just because they disagree with what they're told. They can try to take it to court if they think they have a legal leg to stand on - apparently they didn't, so they didn't. If they get sued here as a result, I can't see them having a leg to stand on. Looks fairly cut and dry that they -willfully- infringed.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Wootery on Tuesday June 06 2017, @11:27AM

      by Wootery (2341) on Tuesday June 06 2017, @11:27AM (#521260)

      My reading was that VMProtect generally license their product as a DRM solution for use by ordinary software-as-a-product packages, but of course Denuvo isn't an ordinary software-as-a-product package, it's a rival DRM solution.

      In other words, Denuvo would essentially be 'selling on' the VMProtect product, rather than just using it in the usual way.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @12:08PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 06 2017, @12:08PM (#521266)

      It's exactly as much extortion as the following:

      While OEMs can get licenses to put Windows on the computers they sell, if they then decided to make their own operating system using those Windows components, Microsoft would likely sue them because that is not covered by the license. Even if they sell their own operating system only in combination with their computers.

    • (Score: 2) by BenJeremy on Tuesday June 06 2017, @12:28PM (1 child)

      by BenJeremy (6392) on Tuesday June 06 2017, @12:28PM (#521270)

      If I buy a song on iTunes, repackage it on a CD and start selling it, how is that much different from what Denuvo did? The VMProtect technology is key to providing the "uncrackability" of Denuvo, it is literally the key component that makes Denuvo's DRM valuable.

      At least with music, one could argue fair use if you remixed it into your own work, but tech works on much tighter definitions and fair use doesn't come into play, as Denuvo has nothing to do with artistic works.

      • (Score: 3, Informative) by andersjm on Tuesday June 06 2017, @07:24PM

        by andersjm (3931) on Tuesday June 06 2017, @07:24PM (#521508)

        Denuvo is using the software under license, so the only real question is whether Denuvo's use is covered by that license, as written. That's what a judge is going to care about, anyway. We can make all the fancy analogies we want, but they're not really relevant.

  • (Score: 2) by andersjm on Tuesday June 06 2017, @04:40PM (2 children)

    by andersjm (3931) on Tuesday June 06 2017, @04:40PM (#521410)

    In case anyone else was wondering, "making bank" means acquiring a significant amount of money in a short time period [urbandictionary.com].

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by requerdanos on Tuesday June 06 2017, @07:54PM (1 child)

      by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday June 06 2017, @07:54PM (#521529) Journal

      In case anyone else was wondering, "making bank" means...

      I think it's the way some people say "mowing loot".

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @10:03AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 07 2017, @10:03AM (#521827)
        I'm in favor of more loot. :p
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