Somehow the links dont work, and I got problems with imageshack, so here again the link to the german news page, there you can click on the pic to see it: Link
Sry for Doublepost, but edit didnt worked

LOL. There's already a big post about this on the
main page with about 150 replies to it already.
Oh well, with so many redundant threads (ex. 6 seperate threads on "whens the game demo comes out"), page loads take forever and its easy to miss the main topics sometime.

Totally agree with you about these forums. I accidentally triple posted, now I get an error message when I try to delete my redundant posts. Maybe I've got a setting set wrong in Stardock Manager tab or something. I didn't think that had anything to do with just browsing forums with IE though.

an admin of the StarForce Forum posted a link where you can illegaly dl Galactic Cicilisations 2

IF that's really true, then talk about sore losers!

Actually I just found out, GC2 DOES ship with StarForce, it is the Dread Lords uber technology and it gets activated if you lose the game to them...




(KIDDING)

Has anyone considered going to thier forum, accusing them of intentionaly allowing thier own game to be pirated, and then posting a link to where it can be bit torrented like every other game in the universe?

Nothing like a taste of your own medicine, I say. But then Im a bastard.

some of you(this is directed towards the OP and many other posters who never read news and post whats already mentioned) need to read the gc2 news -press home and scroll down..

the OP got the info from a site which got the info from this site.

That russian SF developer is just so near-sighted, it's incredible. I've never bought a SF protected game and I never will. With my money I will not finance the development of copy protections - and that's basically what people do if they buy copy protected software. I admit I downloaded Galactic Civilizations 2 from P2P, evalutated the software and then bought it on EBgames.com (this is not a lie, I will register the game as soon as I have the box and whoever is in charge of this board can verify that). And yes, I admit that's how I do it - briefly test the software, then either delete it or pay for it. Having said that I'd never be so incredibly stupid and post links to warez!! How desperate must these guys be. I thank the developers of GalCiv2 for NOT protecting their game but investing the money where it's supposed to be: in the game. Look at the reviews of GC2 - enough said.

Interestingly, the developers of Spellforce 2 announced that the American version of their game will NOT be protected by Starforce due to the recent incidents. Good news, isn't it?

just for the record: the second i read about galciv not being protectet by starfu.. err ... starforce, i went to play.com and ordered the special edition tin box. i live by the rule that i decide whats happening on my pc and i decided that that monster of a driver crippeling, system cracking piece of *peeep* will never ever touch my system. it was starforce that drove me away from several titles i really would have liked to play, one of them being the new ufo aftershock/aftermath. i love this series (although they had their downs ... think interceptor ^^) and already was at the store holding the game in my hands ... then i found out it was protected by starforce. well i left the shop barehanded.

as for the link providet at the starforce forum: i did some googeling and found several torrent-links for ufo aftershock after about half a minute (active and seeded ones that is). it took me another 2-3 minutes to discover about 20 sites where descritions (and some tools) to work around starforce where provided. don't misunderstand, i didn't download the game or used any of those tools.

i just want to make it cleare here, that a company spent a healthy amount of money for 'copy-protection-software' that:
- is not uninstallable by itself (you have to search for the tool to get rid of the sucker, it has no uninstall routine itself)
- sometimes has the effect, that other games/tools won't work properly anymore or even the original game will refuse to work after some time (happened to a friend of mine with some racing game of his - don't recall the exact name as i'm not interestet in racing games, sorry)
...

and the company consideres all that to be worth it because it keeps people who want to pirate their game busy for about ... well ... 5 minutes? maybe 10 if youre watching tv besides ... smart move ... really.


YAY for the stardock guys - keep up your good work and i'll always be a reliable customer to you


ps.: sorry for any typos / bad gramma ... i'm no native speaker ...

Illegaly downloading a game to 'evaluate it' is still theft. Would you go steal a Corvette from the dealership to 'evaluate' it, and would the cops care about your protests of "But I was going to buy it, honest!' No, thats what game demo's and a test drive is for.

I don't care if people steal. But at least have the balls to admit to what it is, theft. I'm not anti-copy protection as some kind of nerd crusade, like some apparently are here, but copy protection is ultimately pointless. Its always circumvented, so why bother? People say oh well it makes it so you can't just copy a game and give it to a friend, so its useful after all. Yeah, for about 5 seconds until you go download a 'no-cd' 'backup' for it. So maybe it stops the extremely stupid, which may be a worthy goal in itself.

About 11 years ago there was a small software rental chain that had virtually every game, every MS Office program, etc. available for a weekly rental. The idea was you were "evaluating" the software. Eventually some lawyers took them to court, saying they were making it easy for people to copy / "steal" the software. The rental chain lost and then quickly closed its doors.

I miss that store. The items that were junk, were junk and I didn't need to waste money on them. The items I liked, I eventually did buy.

That's one person. I'm sure there were any number of people who were using the store to pirate software. A business does have the right to protect its product from theft. Starforce just makes it a pain for the legit owner to use a product saddled with it.