BoingBoing’s Cory Doctorow is being threatened by StarForce because he posted an article claiming that StarForce DRM is malware. Given that it does damage your CD/DVD drive, I’d say that is a fair call. It’s getting lots of underground net press coverage, and hopefully the story will jump to the mainstream quickly.
This particular DRM story affects me personally, because I’ve always wanted to get Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory, but now must refuse, since it and most new UbiSoft titles contain StarForce DRM. Which I refuse to infect my computer with. So, I wrote a letter to the Ubi Corporate press contact. I encourage everyone else who plays games by Ubi or other related manufacturers to send similar emails.
Dear Sir,
It is well known that many Ubi games, including Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory, are equipped with potentially malicious copy protection software by StarForce. I own the first two Splinter Cell titles, and I fully support copy protection, but I refuse to purchase or install Splinter Cell 3 or any other Ubi game with StarForce protection. My broad estimation is that you are losing customers because of poor choice in DRM software.
Much like Sony has endured months of bad mainstream press due to its DRM rootkit, StarForce and affiliated game manufacturers will likely receive the same attention. I thought you might like to know, since I’m a fan of Ubi games, and would like to continue purchasing Ubi games.
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/31/1721241
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/30/anticopying_malware_.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/31/starforce_threatens_.html
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=&q=starforce&btnG=Search+News
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarForce
Sincerely,
Philip
Tucson, AZ, USA