Protection will Never Work!

[mezarashi]

I'm sick and tired of reading new news about how some company or committee has come up with a new way to encrypt or protect their content from piracy. The truth is that piracy will continue to happen, because there is nothing fundamental you can do to protect media and software from being pirated. This leads to a couple more issues.

 

1. Who are you actually hurting? The bootleggers who know how to hack and get around your "protection" technology and are selling your DVDs for a dollar a disk down in China or HongKong. Or is it actually the innocent consumer who is becoming increasingly hassled with all the protection unlocking steps (like for Windows XP even a hardware detection system). This completes another cycle: I get the bootleg because the installation and usage is more convenient than the original.

 

Accept it, the majority of software, media piracy is done by people who know how to get around your technology. Once they create a "ripped" version, this version becomes easily distributable. Often, these rips are not any lower in quality than the original.

 

2. Is it even possible to protect media? Once the original copy is in my hands, then I can watch it. What I can watch and hear I can record. For games, what I can install I can copy. If you try to disable something, then I disable whatever it is you are using to disable. It's always a losing game for the guy on defense in the world of computer programming.

 

3. Do you think that those people who watch pirated movies and download pirated software would buy otherwise? If they can't get their hands on Norton, there are also free anti-virus scanners. If they can't get MS word, there's also Open Office. If I watched that pirated movie, it's because I didn't have any more money to spend at the cinemas. I think this third issue has been shown to be imprecise time and again. Just because someone has $30,000's worth of mp3's on his/her computer doesn't mean that the MPAA has lost that much in revenue, nor do I think it would've been a significant amount ( an average college student can barely earn 1/10 of that per annum in free allowance )

 

So, after saying all that, WHY DO THEY DO IT? Why put millions and billions of dollars into investing something as absurd as this. WHY is it that everytime I play Warcraft 3 using my original copy, I have to put in that annoying CD while my friend who got the bootleg for free doesn't!

[5614]

It is true, protection for CDs and DVDs will never work. Even the first few CDs using safedisc v3 were being copied and now safedisc3 is becoming popular, why, it's easy to copy it, just as easy as v1 or v2!

 

I think the initial copy protection systems worked because it stopped the average Bob from copying/pasting files just using drag and drop. But now a days people who use CD copying, emulation and cracks will be able to copy anything because they just get the update for their program so it can bypass new security measures.

[jcarlson]

Media will never be pirate free for the simple fact that no matter how many protections you put on it while it is in a digital form (either as a CD or DVD or a file), at some point between the source and the output device (speakers or CRT/LCD) it has to be converted into a raw, unprotected analog signal, which, with the proper equipment, can be easily copied.

 

Software pirate proofing tech may have better luck in the future with advances in encryption technology, but keep in mind that those trying to crack the software will have access to the same new tech.

 

All in all, I'm not against companies trying to protect their work, as long as it doesn't create an overwhelming burden on the consumer. XP's authentication system is pushing it, but for other software typing in a product key isnt that much of a hassle.

[5614]

but for other software typing in a product key isnt that much of a hassle.

It's not a hassle to do it illegally either!

[insane_alien]

keygens(programs that can give you a valid key) are numerous and free on the internet.