Stopping Illegal Cracks for Spiderweb Games
| Author | Topic: Stopping Illegal Cracks for Spiderweb Games |
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Apprentice
Member # 3391
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written Tuesday, August 26 2003 17:35
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Is there an email or a website where we can report sites that are illegally providing programs that register shareware games? Posts: 18 | Registered: Tuesday, August 26 2003 07:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 3320
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written Tuesday, August 26 2003 18:03
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There probably are, but I doubt that there is anything that can be done about it. If you stop one website, several more will pop up in its wake. Look what happened to Napster. They closed it down, and dozens more were create. I can try to help, but I'm not sure that I can promise much. There are sites that can give a company like Spiderweb Software and bunch of software that will help report and prevent anyone from registering illegally. Exactly what site is this? Maybe I can help to stop it. You can post it here or send me a private message and I'll see what I can do to stop it. It all depends on the websute. If it is commercial, it will be hard to stop, but it is possible. If it is a private site, than it can be stopped more easily. We need to know what the site is. We can put a stop to it. If there is a way to stop it, we can find a way to do it. -------------------- Mrs. Peacock: "Everything all right?" Colonel Mustard: "Yep. Two Corpses. Everything's fine." "Keep your wits about you, the game is afoot!!" - Sherlock Holmes Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00 |
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Erudite*
Member # 3042
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written Tuesday, August 26 2003 19:59
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Maybe try e-mailing Jeff. I did that once to report a site giving out free Exile cracks. Send the e-mail to spidweb@spiderwebsoftware.com[/url]. -------------------- The Club of All Chance Forums I was once member #2475, but then my account was deleted because of a bug. Post count=406+whatever it says below. Posts: 402 | Registered: Thursday, May 29 2003 07:00 |
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Babelicious
Member # 3149
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written Wednesday, August 27 2003 08:03
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On behalf of all of the people here who aren't frothing Vogelophiles, I'd like to ask you to take a chill pill. You won't be able to stop the crackers. It's like drugs. As long as there's a demand, there'll be a supply. When it comes down to the bottom line, the small amount of revenue siphoned off by cracks or warez is just part of the software business. There's only one sure way to prevent crackers. -------------------- You are my precious thing Thing of speed and beauty, You are my precious thing As long as you remain beneath me -- Big Black Posts: 999 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 2978
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written Wednesday, August 27 2003 08:13
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Blunt trauma to the back of their heads? Only making freeware? Not making any games? go back in time to kill their parents? Dammit man you got me hanging on the edge of my seat now. What... Is... It??? -------------------- Contradictions get me everything I want. Love is all. Love is Evil. Posts: 148 | Registered: Tuesday, May 13 2003 07:00 |
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Babelicious
Member # 3149
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written Wednesday, August 27 2003 08:28
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Giving the software away for free, of course. -------------------- You are my precious thing Thing of speed and beauty, You are my precious thing As long as you remain beneath me -- Big Black Posts: 999 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 32
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written Wednesday, August 27 2003 08:44
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The best thing you can do is to keep the site to yourself Chloe. If others are desperate enough to find it they will do it on their own eventually anyhow. -------------------- Lt. Sullust Cogito Ergo Sum Polaris Posts: 2462 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Wednesday, August 27 2003 10:23
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Nobody needs anyone to tell them crack sites, you can actually find most of the Exile/Avernum games cracked with google and a bit of time (and a lot of patience). I said so to Jeff in a mail, but he just said "crackers aren't our target audience, they never pay anyway", so I doubt he did anything to stop it. His decision, his money, I say; reporting it is the most I can do.  -------------------- "And all should cry, Beware, Beware! His Flashing eyes, his Floating hair!" S. T. Coleridge --- "It is as if everyone had lost their sense Consigned themselves to downfall and decadence And a wisp it is they have chosen as their beacon." Reinhard Mey. --- Quote of the Week: "I have a high opinion of myself, which makes up for my total lack of intelligence." Anon. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 3135
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written Wednesday, August 27 2003 11:06
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A good way to hamper their efforst is to stop using those registration codes (exile,avernum) and instead do separate file for demo and registered version (BoE). You can get a crack for most spidweb games in minutes using google, but you can search for weeks and you wont find any way to play the full version on BoE without paying. (on another topic) there should be an option to order games either on cd or download, instead of both. Why would i want a cd if i already download the game from the spidweb ftp weeks before? Posts: 8 | Registered: Sunday, June 22 2003 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Wednesday, August 27 2003 11:12
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Problem is, I heard there are h*x cracks that also take care of BoE. Dunno if that's true of course, only a rumor. -------------------- "And all should cry, Beware, Beware! His Flashing eyes, his Floating hair!" S. T. Coleridge --- "It is as if everyone had lost their sense Consigned themselves to downfall and decadence And a wisp it is they have chosen as their beacon." Reinhard Mey. --- Quote of the Week: "I have a high opinion of myself, which makes up for my total lack of intelligence." Anon. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 2978
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written Wednesday, August 27 2003 12:15
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quote:Well then, ponder it from a different angle; even if you want to have the games on cd (because the cds are pretty, or as backup since CD-Rs are useless for that, and so you wont ever accidentally remove them, or whatever) would you not want to be able to start playing at once by also being able to download it? -------------------- Contradictions get me everything I want. Love is all. Love is Evil. Posts: 148 | Registered: Tuesday, May 13 2003 07:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 18
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written Thursday, August 28 2003 06:28
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Hey I'm guilty, I remember someone asking me once how to turn the Editor back on in Avernum, so I made a rescompare patch (this is the old days of OS9) that altered the prefs file and changed the Editor flag - unfortunately it changed the registration flag too. Good thing I pulled it before anyone could get their grubby little fingers on it. Anyway, my point is. Anyone with a reasonable head for this stuff and a few hours could crack the mod based encryption with reverse eng. Fortunately Jeff's just so lovable we want to keep him well fed and making games for as long as possible. Cheers Jeff, you keep making 'em, I'll keep paying for 'em. Md. Posts: 304 | Registered: Monday, October 1 2001 07:00 |
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Agent
Member # 2820
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written Thursday, August 28 2003 06:43
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In suppose there could be two things done about this. First of all, I think Jeff uses a formula for all the registration codes in the games. I think he should use a randomizer to at least make it harder to find the code. The whole concept of shareware is actually at fault here as well since someone could just E-mail the files to someone. I think the only real way to stop cracks is to somehow not include the information itself to play. You can find different little hacks for demos and such, but you will never be able to have everything or play with full-version users because the information just isn't there. I forgot what the second thing I was going to say. -------------------- How do signature's work? -Keep Posts: 1415 | Registered: Thursday, March 27 2003 08:00 |
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Shake Before Using
Member # 75
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written Thursday, August 28 2003 07:21
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If someone is going to engage in the sort of piracy which involves sending someone files, the full version and demo being separate files is not going to set them back.  Posts: 3234 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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Babelicious
Member # 3149
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written Thursday, August 28 2003 07:27
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Yeah, then it's just warez instead of a crack. Ara> Problem is, I heard there are h*x cracks that also take care of BoE. Dunno if that's true of course, only a rumor. What the hell is h*x? In my eight years as a programmer and cracker, I've never heard of such a thing. EDIT: Imban informs me that h*x is supposed to be hex. As in short for hexadecimal. As in a patch created using a hexadecimal data editor, the programmer's best friend. I would like to take this moment to say: HEX HEX HEX HEX HEX HEX HEXADECIMAL HEX EDITING (PERFECTLY LEGAL YOU STUPID IDIOTS) HEX HEX HEX HEX HEX!!!!!!! [ Thursday, August 28, 2003 07:51: Message edited by: The Ready Men ] -------------------- You are my precious thing Thing of speed and beauty, You are my precious thing As long as you remain beneath me -- Big Black Posts: 999 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00 |
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BANNED
Member # 3121
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written Thursday, August 28 2003 08:49
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I am planning on kicking you in the groin so hard that you choke on whatever that comes up. -------------------- - WITH LOVE, THE OL' RELIABLE BOYLOVE, TO BE EXACT Posts: 761 | Registered: Thursday, June 19 2003 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 2984
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written Thursday, August 28 2003 08:59
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TRM, I'm perfectly aware of what hex editing is. The CoC of these boards actually forbids to talk about it, since it is apparently easy to bypass the shareware barrier with it. So it actually *is* illegal here.  -------------------- "And all should cry, Beware, Beware! His Flashing eyes, his Floating hair!" S. T. Coleridge --- "It is as if everyone had lost their sense Consigned themselves to downfall and decadence And a wisp it is they have chosen as their beacon." Reinhard Mey. --- Quote of the Week: "I have a high opinion of myself, which makes up for my total lack of intelligence." Anon. Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00 |
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Shaper
Member # 517
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written Thursday, August 28 2003 11:11
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Actually, the CoC says not to request information about it. It doesn't say not to give information about it... -E- -------------------- Let them eat cake! Polaris Boards: The System is Up. Perennially. Posts: 2314 | Registered: Tuesday, January 15 2002 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 18
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written Thursday, August 28 2003 16:37
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The general concensus on the best way to prevent piracy is to make the application itself web capable. There are tons of apps that do this already, of course, they call it "looking for a new version" but in actual fact it's far more likely that they're checking up with some online database to compare registration info. Someone said random before, but I'd like to point out that it already is randomised. The serial number you send to Spidweb is a randomly generated number, it's also the input to an equation. You send the number away, it goes through the same equation at Spidweb, it gets sent back to you. The only real problem with this shareware model is that it's entirely self-contained (theoretically); you can observe the application when it puts the randomly generated serial number through the equation locally. The idea of an outside computer as an authority creates an element smart (but evil) people can't control - they can only work around it (like the BoE hack). Finally, shareware needs to be an entire package. Only giving the user half, then letting them download or buy (over the counter) is just a demo, not an unlockable shareware application. It's a crying shame that there's so many scummy people out there that can't even take the time to shake their mummy's arm long enough to get a couple of bucks so they can give it to starving shareware developers. I'm hungry, let's go get a Taco. Md. Posts: 304 | Registered: Monday, October 1 2001 07:00 |
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Babelicious
Member # 3149
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written Friday, August 29 2003 07:39
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quote:I know the rules, dearie. I wasted a few months of my life enforcing the damn things, so please don't try to tell me about them. By "illegal" I didn't mean "banned by the feverish mind of an idiot" but rather "banned under applicable law." WORD TO YOUR MOTHER: Yes, a hex editor can be used to crack shareware games. So can a text editor. So can a debugger. So can a number of other tools. Why ban discussion of a perfectly legitimate tool just because it can be used for cracking? MESSAGE TO MR. THOMPSON! You already have a rule that forbids discussion of cracks. Isn't that enough? Teaching someone how to edit their save file to give them supar powars!!!wtf isn't going to endanger Vogel's profit line one bit. едитед [ Friday, August 29, 2003 07:50: Message edited by: The Ready Men ] -------------------- You are my precious thing Thing of speed and beauty, You are my precious thing As long as you remain beneath me -- Big Black Posts: 999 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00 |
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BANNED
Member # 3121
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written Friday, August 29 2003 09:24
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Yes, it IS a gentle hint. -------------------- - WITH LOVE, THE OL' RELIABLE BOYLOVE, TO BE EXACT Posts: 761 | Registered: Thursday, June 19 2003 07:00 |
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Apprentice
Member # 3388
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written Friday, August 29 2003 09:46
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yes, well, with protection from naughty words on this forum, such a link isn't going to work offcourse.. -------------------- Many an ancient lord's last words have been, "You can't kill me because I've got magic aaargh." -Terry Pratchet ---- "Never build a dungeon you wouldn't be happy to spend the night in yourself. The world would be a happier place if more people remembered that." -Lord Vetinari Posts: 49 | Registered: Monday, August 25 2003 07:00 |