this is so lame…and not the right solution…
I saw this article over at CDRInfo about a new copy protection scheme called Fade created by Codemasters and Macrovision that slowly degrades the playing experience of a pirated game by simulating scratches on a disc. If the software detects that it’s not the original disc with these software scratches then it starts to make the game behave oddly supposedly encouraging a person to go out and buy the product.
What happens if the disc is actually physically scratched? What happens then? Perhaps they’ve found a way around it. Perhaps not.
The big issue here is that this kind of “anti-piracy” measure is yet another one that doesn’t help solve the problem and instead, inconveniences the legitimate customer. The message it sends is everyone is inherently a criminal so we need to implement this. A lot of companies could learn a lot from Stardock Systems and their stance on the topic. It’s a good read and it’s good to know that at least one company out there has the right idea.
All of these hair-brained schemes make Microsoft’s product activation idea seem like not too bad of an idea. I didn’t like the idea of it in the beginning but it hasn’t been an issue overall. I just don’t like the whole please read me 50 numbers and letters over the phone and I’ll read you 60 back (or something like that).
