StarForce 3? copy protection cracked

[Jorge]

StarForce 3? Known to human as the toughest copy protection. After near misses and numerous attempts, it looks like the beast has been taken down. So what exactly is StarForce 3? StarForce 3 is a CD / DVD copy protection system designed for developers and publishers who wish to protect their software and files distributed on CD-ROM/DVD-ROM discs against professional piracy, similar in the purpose of SafeDisc and SecuROM, but not at all similar in the way they work. SafeDisc and SecuROM protected CDs/DVDs can be copied with the help of emulation and special copying software, But StarForce has proven great difficulty. So what is it about StarForce that’s driving people crazy? Well it’s because it uses its own drivers, blocking virtual devices (Emulation software) and checking ATIP on CDROM. It's hard to copy (almost impossible) due to the physical information printed on original media. StarForce3 uses different checks (angular values). If these values are the same that Starforce3 checks, then the copy will run flawlessly, otherwise it won’t work. 90% of CD-R media when burned have these values shifted and StarForce3 recognises this and prevents the software from loading.

Read the complete article (http://www.zeropaid.com/news/5763/StarForce+3%3F+copy+protection+cracked/)

[mcovey]

I don't buy copy protected CDs so I haven't seen this yet, but it sounds nasty.

[.:sp00ky:.]

secuROM sucks it has so many bugs and glitches and the fact that it tells you what you can have installed on your pc is just screwed.

[.:sp00ky:.]

"The way StarForce and a couple of its cousins does this is one of the more disturbing developments in the videogame war on piracy. StarForce installs a hidden driver onto your machine along with the game itself, without any explicit warnings. This driver is required to play the game and is not uninstalled with the game. It also has a rather disturbing tendency to re-install itself after either manual removal or cleanup using a provided tool that has to be hunted for across the Internet.

These new protection systems do not simply protect software from direct attempts to pirate it - they also proactively search out potential piracy threats on one's system and then prevent them from working. Programs such as Nero and Alcohol 120% are obvious targets here, though I have seen far more erratic and often times seemingly random tantrums taken by these systems. These range from disabling the recording device in Windows Media Player, to preventing access to the CD drive both on the software and hardware side. I usually find myself pressing the button to open the CD drive and then having to log out of Windows for it to do what it's supposed to!

The specifics of how many of these systems work is kept a secret - for obvious reasons - but the results of their usage are no secret, and can be extremely disruptive. I have even heard first hand accounts of people having to totally rebuild their computers after a nasty run in with them.

In an interview with Firing Squad, the makers of StarForce strenuously denied the fact that their driver causes problems to all but a slim minority of user systems. They then went on to state that the EULA covers them and the publishers from all liability of damage done by their copy protection. In other words, "we state that it doesn't cause problems, but if it does, we're covered by the EULA and you're not."

Taken from http://www.tomshardware.com/column/20051001/index.html

[crash4419]

fuck em i don't buy shit

[bart5986]

the so called "crack" for this doesn't even work alot of the time.

probably because my burner only goes down to 8x and the dye of my cds arn't the right ones...

This is pretty useless news if you ask me.

[black_magiic]

Ya I suppose I have this starforce crap on my pc as I have Chaos Theory installed. Along with the multiplayer demo of Bet on Soldier. Although I havent noticed any problems with alcohol nero or daemon tools. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

[method]

There are proper cracked versions of quite a lot of StarForce 3 protected games... it's just CD-burning techniques and cd/drive emulation techniques are often useless against it.

I'm suprised that no generic crack has come out after such a long time though.

[shawners]

only way to make things copy-protected is to make a format that cd-rom/dvd rom cant read like the psp.. yet then they create a thing to dump the files on the pc or xbox to ftp it to the pc to distrobute it. Theres no such thing as a fool-proof system.

[jaylarson]

y e a !

[jaylarson]

y e a !

[black_magiic]

This SF3 is getting bad, now you have to about disconnecting optical drives just to get things working. Or has that been a method for awhile.