Seriously it can cause CD drive damage, let me explain:
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For example, here's one of the common problems brought by Starforce: under Windows XP, if packets are lost during the reading or writing of a disk, XP interprets this as an error and steps the IDE speed down. Eventually it will revert to 16bit compatibility mode rendering a CD/DVD writer virtually unusable. In some circumstances certain drives cannot cope with this mode and it results in physical hardware failure (Most commonly in multiformat CD/DVD writer drives). A sure sign of this step down occurring is that the burn speeds will get slower and slower (no matter what speed you select to burn at). Starforce, on a regular basis, triggers this silent step down. Until it reaches the latter stages most people do not even realise it is happening.
Here's what Greg Vederman, PC Gamer editor-in-chief, experienced:
I'm okay with that in theory, but some of these anti-piracy software programs are so potent that they cause issues for legitimate game buyers. One of the leading brands, StarForce, is notorious for not only making it difficult for a small percentage of legitimate users to load up StarForce-protected games, but also for leaving potentially problem-causing StarForce software behind on your PC, even after you've deleted the game it was protecting. And this isn't just some story that I've read about online or in emails from readers. No, it happened to me.
Last year, my work PC suddenly began blue-screening (crashing) any time I popped an audio CD into either of my two optical drives. I went online and learned that other people were having this problem and that it appeared to be StarForce-related. Deleting my StarForce-protected games did nothing. I had to run a StarForce-removal utility before my system - filled only with legal, licensed software - could play audio CDs again.
It has been reported by many users that the slowdown caused by StarForce on some recent multiformat DVD writers can cause irreversible hardware failures on those drives (they aren't recognized anymore), as they aren't supposed to write at slow speeds.
Moreover, the Starforce drivers, installed on your system, grant ring 0 (system level) privileges to any code under the ring 3 (user level) privileges. Thus, any virus or trojan can get OS privileges and totally control your system. Since Windows 2000, the Windows line security and stability got enhanced by separating those privileges, but with the Starforce drivers, the old system holes and instabilities are back and any program (or virus) can reach the core of your system by using the Starforce drivers as a backdoor.
I just want to inform you that Starforce is actually extremely easy to crack nowadays. As far as I know, people just make a clone of the cd then use a program to hide the fake disc from starforce. No crack is needed whatsoever and the method is working universally.
One interresting post is in this tread
http://forum.ufo-aftermath.com/index.php?showtopic=865
I haven't studied StarForce particularly, but I *am* a programmer, so I can tell you roughly how it works and why people dislike it.
In order to be effective, it has to install as a device driver, which means for WinXP, it has ring-0 privileges, something normally only Windows and "real" device drivers have. With this greatest of privileges comes the greatest of responsibilities - a bug can do almost unlimited damage to your system integrity, because it's operating as close to the OS itself as 3rd-party code can (in the Windows World). This is one reason why people dislike it - writing software that operates in this ring is demanding and easy to get wrong. This is why you see a low percentage of true horror stories - some relatively corner-case bug can very easily result in filesystem corruption.
Next, in order to prevent various circumvention techniques - mostly, debuggers - copy protection schemes like Star Force do NOT just start up when the game starts. That's BS, pure and simple. The drivers are loaded when the OS boots, and block various tools like debuggers, drive emulators, and the like from operating in the way they're intended to work. This is a wonderful way to do what Star Force wants to do, but it is NOT something the computer owner wants. This is the next reason people dislike it - Star Force is asserting, on the game's behalf, that the game's owners' rights are more important than the users's rights to know, and control, what happens on their system. Arguments that the OS and other apps do the same kind of thing are misleading - some games try lesser approaches to the same thing (always running full screen, attempting to find debuggers already in memory and not loading if so, etc.), but Star Force's approach is taking it to the next level - directly interfering with OTHER user-space software to enforce its copy protection.
Finally, it's apparent that not all programs that bundle Star Force uninstall them correctly (I haven't tested to see whether the demo cleans up properly or not). I suspect few if ANY do - because otherwise uninstalling the demo would break StarForce for other programs on the system. Maybe the program loader re-installs the drivers if they're missing? I dunno. Either way, this is the third reason people dislike Star Force. It's interfering behavior - blocking debuggers, drive emulators, etc. - often remains even when the protected program is removed.
In short, the arguments FOR such protections are valid in some ways: There are known techniques for copying games, and Star Force goes farther than most in thwarting those techniques.
However, the consumer's points are also valid, and in my opinion, more telling. The user should be presented with clear notice of what Star Force wants to do to their system and possible side effects - they shouldn't be left to wonder why some of their other software/hardware suddenly doesn't work correctly.
Also, as has been pointed out, it is a LOSING proposition that publishers (and some developers) still fail to grasp. You simply cannot thwart an intelligent cracker because you're installing software on his machine, and the first rule of hacking is that a hacker is the lord of his own machine. Tools like Star Force simply cannot work in the long term.
They can reduce piracy - somewhat - by making it harder to crack a game immediately. But, when you add up the benefits there, and weigh them against the hassles to, and the ill-will from, your LEGAL users - and the relative numbers of each - I just don't see how a software vendor can justify the former at the expense of the latter.
This is from dailytech.com:
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=1209
As if enough people weren't already upset enough with StarForce, the company proved that they are no longer just dabbling in the rights of the users who use its software. No, it seems that the company has actually started to openly pirate video games that do not use it's copy protection scheme.
Earlier this week Stardock, the publisher for the wildly successful Galactic Civilizations 2 videogame, made the following statement with regard to copy protection:
And here’s another thing to consider — Galactic Civilizations II has no copy protection whatsoever. Not even a CD check. Heck, you can install the game and toss out the CD and use the included serial # (which you don’t even have to use to install) to redownload the entire game from us even years in the future.
This quote was unfortunately horribly taken out of context (
www.dailytech.com]view the whole text here[/url] ) and the original source was removed. After several blogs began to pick up the story "Stardock Wants Piracy," a StarForce employee posted a working BitTorrent URL to the game in the corporate forums claiming:
Right now several thousands of people are downloading the pirated version only from that web-site. Is it good for the sales? Unlikely. Good game surely would have the high sales rate even if it doesn't have any copy protection, but not because of that. Good protection is the tool, which increases the rate.
Poor grammar aside, the StarForce employee thought it OK to post a working Torrent link to pirate Galactic Civilizations 2 in order to prove a point. In any case, Stardock (not StarForce),
www.dailytech.com&AID=106741]does not want people pirating its game[/url] . We've been beta testing Galactic Civilizations 2 for months now, it surely warrants a purchase.
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