Isn't Starforce Illegal?

[TheJkWhoSaysNi]

Looking through the Licence_UK.rtf file on the SC:CT DVD-ROM there is no mention of starforce or any kind of copy protection. It never says that starforce will be installed with the game.

Computer Misuse Act 1990:

3.—(1) A person is guilty of an offence if—

(a) he does any act which causes an unauthorised modification of the contents of any computer; and
(b) at the time when he does the act he has the requisite intent and the requisite knowledge.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)(b) above the requisite intent is an intent to cause a modification of the contents of any computer and by so doing—

(a) to impair the operation of any computer;

(b) to prevent or hinder access to any program or data held in any computer; or

(c) to impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of any such data.

This is exactly what Stafrorce does. It installs itself without you knowing and stops you using certain programs (CloneCd, Alcohol 120% etc). Definatly breaking the computer misuse act there.

I dont know about laws in other countries but Starforce is definatly illegal here in the UK.

[Luci]

well in my opinion i think it is why?
the reason you mentioned.
any writing on your pc without your permission(they don't say it)is illegal

[Monty Burns]

Yep, have to agree totally.
But, there isn't much you can do about it.

The only thing that I do, is not to buy sf protected games.....sometimes hard (I'd really like to get my hands on still life, e.g.), but I if available, I get a console version.

[Isis192]

SC:CT says "Please resart to install the copy protect drivers" or something in that way.

[TheJkWhoSaysNi]

I dont remember seeing that. Heh, i probably just diddnt pay attention.

Even so, that's still after it's been installed and doesnt give you a choice as to whether to install it or not.

[billos]

Yep,

The latest starforce installation with some games is really a mess

I've made several trials with my hardware (Burner : NEC3520-A, Reader :
Toshiba MD-S1912) and the conclusions are that even if you use "sfclean"
program to remove starforce from your pc , all the later DPM extraction (that you
can do with Alcohol or with Blindwrite) are no more valid

One solution i've found is to install Windows on another HDD on which
i'll never install starforce protected games. When i want to extract DPM
info, i boot on this one and no more problem occur with DPM quality ...

Maybe we'll have an update of sfclean to resolve this point (i hope...)

Bye