Ubisoft pirates game fix from pirates

@ Joerg

So now I'm a potential undercover super secret agent for a software house too. Cool!

On a serious note though, you should get these paranoid delusions seen to by a professional.

So someone who is a member of a cracking group who must clearly have skills in order to reverse engineer software might have the wit to use their skills in their career and actually get paid to work as well as being a member of a pirate group? A real revelation there. How they thought of that is astonishing. We all thought they were highly skilled software engineers in their spare time whilst holding down a job at McDonalds to pay the bills.

a title is NOT required

debaser - point 1: DRM avoidance is only a solution when a DRM-free version of the media is made available as a choice for the consumer - it isn't. The "every 5 minutes" comment you make is a salivating kneejerk misread of the article and the responses - your rewording is typical of a profit obsessed, short-game focussed screw-the-general-public games manufacturer... anything you wish to disclose, tw@? ...and as for the console suggestion that too can fill the orifice from which no sunshine escapes as it is unrelated to the subject (still requires constant swapping of disks, still sensitive to scratches, cracks and jam) and thus is neither constructive nor helpful. Yes, books are fine when all a person wants to do is read a book. Are you suggesting that everyone stop supporting the games industry just because you said so?

debaser - point 2: Again you miss the point entirely... the games manufacturers are the ones pointing their customers to the dodgy sites for NoCD craks because they are unable (or unwilling) to do what the warez community are emanently capable of, to wit: fix their shit. You sir, would be completely transparent were all the shit to become kicked out of you.

@ Joerg

I think you're just trying to boost your ego. There are youngsters out there that can do just what you claim they can't. I'm speaking from the position of a 20 year IT professional that sees them run rings round me.

They can, and do, disassemble and hack code (the DRM is just on the playing, the program files are still there ase .exes) Whether you agree with what they do is another discussion but denying it goes on is just foolish.

@ debaser

'Ooooo having to keep putting the CD in the CD in the drive is such an inconvenience'

Yes, it is bloody irritating actually.

Case in point: yesterday I was listening to a CD on my laptop, and decided to have a look at the DVLA theory test software which is installed. I needed to go find the CD, stop my music and put the shitty disk in for the software to run. I've bought the software, why the hell do I need to dick around proving to the installed software that I've legally bought it every time I want to use it? Each time it happens I want to punch someone in the face.

@Anonymous Coward

You don't have a clue of what you are talking about. How old are you, really? Disassembling it's easy for you, uh? And cracking DRM protected and encrypted code it's even easier, right? Of course, so easy, they developed it to let everyone crack it, that's the purpose of encryption and DRM systems for you.. they spend millions in R&D to ensure that they don't give any real protection.. sure. Yep... Keep dreaming...

@ Anonymous Coward

So you are frustrated because you see others better than you at your job and without understand complexity of things you think that they are that good and able to crack DRM protected code, uh?

Keep dreaming and believing in myths, you are getting fooled by them if that's the case. You sentence above "(the DRM is just on the playing, the program files are still there ase .exes)" clearly shows that you have no clue of what you are talking about, really. Study DRM systems basic specifications and standards for a few months and then maybe you could see how much complex and difficult things really are and maybe you could even stop dreaming and get back to reality.

@Joerg

Fsck off tw@

I'm not frustrated by youngsters that are better than me at coding, it's not my area of skill anyway. I also understand the nature of life, I'm orders of magnitude better at what I do than the previous generation and the same holds true for the generation(s) that are following me. That's life, learn to live with it.

Why on earth would I want to study a discredited and failed technology. There are tens, possibly hundreds, more so called black hats working to break DRM than there are advocates trying to strengthen it. It's an arms race that's already been lost.

You should try coming down from cloud cuckoo land and realise that, despite your fantasies, DRM is breakable and has been broken. Time and again.

You could, perhaps, return to your (sock-)puppet masters and report that they'd be better off trying a new business model that doesn't alienate their customers. That's true for games publishers, music companies and film companies. If the end users weren't dis-satisfied with the costs and/or restrictions imposed on them, they'd be less inclined to try to circumvent controls. You will always get those that want something for nothing and DRM will not stop that but publishers could go a long way toward reducing their numbers by reappraising their methods.

@Anonymous Coward

You keep dreaming, insulting and acting in a childish way. Do you really believe that the world is full of hackers and crackers able to break DRM protected code?

You live in your own personal fantasy world. What you see on movies it's not always true, you know..?

asm, cracking, etc

Ah, the allegattion that assembly language is some mystical beast raises its head again. It's a lie.

Yes, I imagine software corps pay folk to reverse software made by their rivals. I know for a fact car manufacturers do it with cars, Sky are reputed to have done it with satellite/cable DRM, and I see no reason that software houses wouldn't do it, even if it were only to learn new tricks.

However, you don't need a PhD to do it (although if you want to get paid for it will probably help) Reversing isn't a matter of staring at reams of hex dumps whilst blathering on about some crap a la the late night TV movie you saw this weekend. Modern tools like IDA Pro, Olly Debug (which was written as a hobby, not by a wage slave) and SoftICE make the job infinitely easier. Note I said easier not easy - it's not something you spend 3 minutes watching a YouTube video of then jump right in, but anyone with an IQ over 100 *can* learn.

Game cracking has been going on for decades. Monkey Island 1 had a codewheel that you had to use everytime you loaded it up, and it got cracked and thrown up on various BBSs. Remember X-Force? Did they do it for cash? No, for "props". It still happens now. Yes, organised crime will work in this area, but as with botnets, some folk do it for the bragging rights. I mean hell, just go on IRC and you'll see what I mean.

To Joerg et al - I'm going to say one thing. Breakpoints....

@Joerg

You accuse me of being insulting yet that's exactly how you started your contributions to this thread. I don't believe that the world is full of hackers and crackers but I'm not so 'up my own arse' as to deny they exist.

Just because you don't have the skills or intelligence to do it, don't try to boost your own ego by denying it can be done. You're inadequacies aren't representative of the population in general.

The proof (it goes beyond evidence) is the fact that these games have been cracked. As have all other DRM methods so far deployed. If your paranoia won't let you accept that there are far better coders than you are then continue in cloud cuckoo land.

@AC. I know that not all crackers are blackhats, it was a simplistic view to make the point. That point bears repeating: It's an arms race that's already been lost.

in your own words, debaser...

<What total f*cking twaddle> - a general insult to everyone who posted previous to your outburst. Great place to start when you go to such length later to have a go at me about ruffling your feathers.

<some small argument for torrenting film and media> - really mate - you never actually bothered to expand or justify that ... it just popped out randomly, another glib mouth off by the mouthpiece devoid of reason or argument. I agree though, there most certainly IS a small argument (the try before you buy one, featured heavily elsewhere on ElReg but the relevance to DRM quite escapes me since NoCD executables rarely reside on torrent sites, the best are found at G-C-W).

<then happily install> - wrong in so many ways (I corrected your spelling for free) - you're really not very good at this. Nobody is "happy" about installing unknown 3rd party software, many are not keen to install windows FFS. It is even more insulting to have your valued supplier send you off to find, download and install unknown 3rd party software because they can't fix their own problem. Grabbing a replacement exe and overwriting the original is small fish by comparison. What really pisses people off is when someone grabs the wrong end of the stick and runs with it. Heel boy!!! (You do GET sarcasm don't you? - it's the *lowest* form of wit and should therefore be just right for the two of you).

<Get over it> - get over what exactly? This was a collection of just reasons to object to excessive DRM security measures before you blew in - the best you can manage is "read a book"??? On you go then... I'm not stopping you.

<Owwww...get you> - LMfAO... that is such a gay phrase. You offering to scratch my eyes out too?

<How are things down there on your level?> - My level is not *down* from you, it is at worst *across* - you want to chastise me for being insulting then might I respectfully suggest that you try to avoid making the same mistake (*nobody* loves a hypocrit) or do us all a favour and just stop being a complete dick. You undid all the possible benefits of your reply right there and then. Nice one.

<Really ruffled your little anorak didn't I> No - you proved what a complete fool you are and I merely bothered to point it out. Three cheers for me eh?

<never an excuse for personal attacks like that on El Reg> - I have to disagree on that point; sometimes all we have, after certain idiots insert their 2p, is to call them for the misinformed fools that they are. To do otherwise would effectively condone the outlandish comments that they had made and reduce the value of ElReg to gossip and here'say (which is fine for a Friday afternoon). Should you wish to continue your disagrement with that idea then might I suggest either [a] - read some of the moderator replies and/or [b] Go read a book.

<In doing so most people will disregard any useful comments you might make and see you for exactly what you are> please feel free to ellucidate my simian counterpart. I recognise your right to voice your opinion just I have a right to disagree with it. That won't make either of us correct. Pick 12 peers ...

@Joerg

C.O.R.E - Challenge Of Reverse Engineering - one of the predominant cracking groups. I draw attention to the R.E bit. Prior knowledge you say? Which part of reverse engineering means you know what the code is already?

Did not Compaq invent the 100% IBM compatible BIOS by reverse engineering the IBM BIOS itself?

DRM has one function, to protect the income of the producer, it has only one effect, to harm the consumer. Much like a lack of standards does.

I note in point that my DRM free mp3's play in both media player, and iTunes, thus my mp3 library can be used in both applications and on my iPod. The story with AAC/WMA - forget it!

Some points a little off topic, but just a winder point on how DRM fails.

Is it not legal to use a NoCD crack anyway? Using a NoCD crack is different to using a pirated version of the product if you own the original media. I might be confusing NoCD with BackupCD cracks though.