Cars that no long steer, guns that can't be aimed and footballs that zoom off into space, by which time, "the player has become addicted to the game".

The name of the game is Subversive Code and it's a "a radical new anti-copying strategy" that could kill off software piracy, says an article in the October 8 New Scientist.

"Illegally copied games protected by the system work properly at first, but start to fall apart after the player has had just enough time to get hooked," says the report. "As a result, the pirated discs actually encourage people to buy the genuine software, the developers say.

"The new protection system, called Fade, is being introduced by Macrovision, a company in Santa Clara, California, that specialises in digital rights management, and the British games developer Codemasters, based in Leamington Spa. It makes unauthorised copies of games slowly degrade, so that cars no long steer, guns cannot be aimed and footballs fly away into space. But by that time the player has become addicted to the game."

It exploits the error correction system computers use to handle scratched CD-ROMs or DVDs, the New Scientist says, going on that software protected by Fade contains fragments of 'subversive' code designed to seem like scratches and, "The bogus scratches are arranged on the disc in a subtle pattern that the game's master program looks for. If it finds them, the game plays as usual."

But when someone tries to copy the disc on a PC, the error-correcting routines try to fix the fake scratches and when the copied disc is played, the master program can't find the pattern it's looking for and therefore knows the disc is a copy.

"What happens next turns the usual rules of software protection on their head," says the report.

Instead of switching the game off, the master program begins to disable it and, "The beauty of this is that the degrading copy becomes a sales promotion tool, "claims Bruce Everiss of Codemasters. "People go out and buy an original version."

Fade was devised by Richard Darling, who founded Codemasters 16 years ago, and has now been included in Macrovision's SafeDisc anti-piracy system.

Next year, Macrovision plans to release SafeDVD, a DVD movie protection system which will use a similar technique to make copied discs stop playing at a key point in the movie's plot.

Fiendish.

Already read at gamefaqs.com... You know what somebodys going to do? make a program that searches the software for the special parts, then deletes them.

Also, it probably won't start screwing up the game quickly enough, many people will finish the game before it screws it up.

Oh yeah, how the hell would it detect whether the game cd was being played from hard drive or from cd?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Codemasters try something like this with Operation Flashpoint?

Someone managed to bypass that, by somehow making a full copy of the CD, errors, fake scratches and all.

lets see, I admit to using copied burned cds(poor student), I use programs such as Alcohol 120 and Daemon Tools to simulate an extra cd drive located on my hard drive... I'd like to see them try to detect that.

OT: Robute Guilliman, is that name from 40k?

Ohhh and also, I've discussed this with others and we've come up with an interesting thought. Software companies(game) should not be *****ing about hacked copies, the industry has been experiencing a growth for a long time and so should not be *****ing until it starts declining.

""Illegally copied games protected by the system work properly at first, but start to fall apart after the player has had just enough time to get hooked," says the report. "As a result, the pirated discs actually encourage people to buy the genuine software, the developers say."

No. It would piss people off to the point where they won't buy anything from the company as long as they are ripping off the consumer.

Take Enter The Matix, for example. I bought this game the day it came out, and I got through the game up until a certain point, and it stopped working. It froze, and didn't move past that point until a few days after the game "got used to my PS2 system". Now I will never buy another game from Atari (previously Infogrames) or anyone affiliated with them in the making of a game.

ouch, I hated Enter the Matrix, most bug ridden game -ever-.

sorry for not reading full article... I'm sure somebody will edit alcohol or something so that it copies the cd in full, not trying to fix anything.

Yes Codemasters did use fade. It was pretty cheesy though. I managed to find a way around it on gamecopyworld allowed me to make a backup for myself. Which I'm glad I did because now my original is scratched and doesn't work anymore. Fade technology is extremely old. And frankly I'm surprised to hear something so old is in a scientific magazine.

hello, just don't use a copy program with error corection, duh.

Novel idea and as usual it has an up point to it. How many have went and bought a game that just turned you off or you couldn't stand? Now you get to try it and find out if it is worth it or not. They don't seem to mind. If it is worth, neither do I, if it isn't worth it then I saved money.

Why don't companies offer good products at an affordable price that people will gladly pay for. I tip my waitress. I don't have to bu I do because its the right thing. But if my wiatress came up to my table and took away my sandwich after the first couple of bites and demanded her tip or she wouldn't let me finish, then I would have to say that I would stop tipping and get my sandwich someplace else.

I agree with wet1,, I have no problem with this idea. To me it would be like having a fully functional Demo with all levels,instead of the one or half of one level in a demo. If I like it I will gladly buy it,if not I wont,and I have lost nothing in the process.

raolduke1 - but you still pay for the sandwich. Who tips software companies? nobody does.

wet1 - but copy protections were made to be broken, this one will be broken, and the complaining about piracy will resume.

This company sucks, the word "macrovision" is enough to piss off the most legit customers. Turbotax anyone??????

I already buy copies of things I find that I like, who cares? All this provokes me to do is crack a copy (at first glance, it looks like just not using scratch correction will work) and continue using that just out of spite. I mean, hell, if I'm going to be treated like a criminal when I buy a legitmate copy of something then I might as well act like one.

I'd rather download cracked games anyday rather then buy and install anything that involves macrovision on my computer.

Most of the time these bastards dont tell you that they install trash onto your machine either, so you gotta be careful. Safecast is a bad thing too, it breaks your cdr recording capibilities, read about it.

That applies to Safedisk too.

Same here. The more "security" components they start putting into software, the less I will buy. For every pirate they stop, they will lose a customer. I promise. And that, my friends, is exactly how to destroy all of your customer base.

"An alienated customer is a forever loyal customer!"

By the way, read your lisence agreements before you agree to something like this:

"Licensee acknowledges that PunkBuster software is optional and is not a requirement in any respect for using or enjoying games that integrate PunkBuster software technology. Licensee also acknowledges and agrees that PunkBuster software is self-updating, which means that future updates will, from time to time and without any notice, automatically be downloaded and installed as a normal and expected function of PunkBuster software. Licensee further acknowledges and accepts that PunkBuster software may be considered invasive. Licensee understands that PunkBuster software inspects and reports information about the computer on which it is installed to other connected computers and Licensee agrees to allow PunkBuster software to inspect and report such information about the computer on which Licensee installs PunkBuster software. Licensee understands and agrees that the information that may be inspected and reported by PunkBuster software includes, but is not limited to, devices and any files residing on the hard-drive and in the memory of the computer on which PunkBuster software is installed. Further, Licensee consents to allow PunkBuster software to transfer actual screenshots taken of Licensee’s computer during the operation of PunkBuster software for possible publication . . ."

-a portion of PunkBuster's lisence agreement that I respectfully declined.

By placing such "scratches" on cds they make the cd itself less durable because there is no room for the software to do any error correction.

Also, clonecd and many other copier programs have foiled this same routine, by simply NOT correcting the copy protection "errors" which appear on a read cd, and by simply writing the "errors" as they appear on the blank. I've done it before to make an extra copy of virtual pool 3 for myself.

Macrovision's motto, and the RIAA
"If it fails once, try try again, its bound to work."

Ah good old punkbuster, had a few run ins with them and a lot more with Gator. It's almost better not to have an internet connection these days. Spyware can't spy if there's nothing to report to.

Nothing is foolproof as we will find out once this is released on a game disc.

Copy protection is a waste of time. If your product gets shit reviews, or i buy it and do not like it, i simply return it to EB. They have a return policy worth a shit, while most companies have a return policy that i wouldnt buy a stick of gum from them for threat of being sued if i got sick and died from it.

Long Live The FIghters!

Also with regards to SafeDVD thats coming out. If this is true of all copies, then it goes against our rights to make a backup copy for ourselves, thus making it illegal for market.

Undeath,

I agree with you that there is a risk that, rather than being hooked on the game, the individual with the degrading game program will conclude that the game itself is poor quality and will get mad.

This kind of copyright protection is risky for the company. If it works for them, my hat is off to them. But if it has the opposite effect on consumers, as you suggest, then they shouldn't go whining or suing like Sunncomm is doing now.

Are any of these people planing on providing the backups that we are being denied? Doubtful. Messing with error correction and adding "Fake" scratches is close to what caused problems with Copy protected CDs. Error correction on the CDs are there for a reason. By changing and using it for other reasons and requiring such a fingerprint method the CDs will most likely be more delicate to damage than standard CDs. Mix in a REAL scratch and suddenly the program starts to "think " a ligit disk is a copy. Its an interesting idea but they better be carful what they do in the way of adding Bug like quirks. If the player isn't told it is doing this deliberatly then they may just think the game is buggy and be glad they didn't spend money on it and never will. There are oooodles of bugs in games on PCs. All in all I like the idea better than some anti copy plans but as far as games go their biggest problem is that they are the most expensive form of entertainment avalible. They need to be brought down to impulse buy products. I almost never buy a game when if first comes out. I wait till it drops and raid the bargin bins that now have some great stuff for 5-10 bucks. I have tones of games I have yet to really play through. I'm not going to drop 50$ on somthing I've never played. I will gladly drop 10-15 maybe even 20 for such a gamble.

If a waitress took a sandwich out of my mouth or off my plate before I finished eating there would be no way in HELL I would pay for the damn thing.

No, software companies don't get tipped. They survive on word of mouth and REPEAT business. As does the restaurant business. After a few people lost their sandwiches and told their friends, no one would bother going to the restaurant anymore. Same in the video game business. Have enough bugs or problems with your game, and your NOT buying games from that company again.

Regarding undeath's comment above-

This form of copy protection would surely piss people off and probably result in loss of sales. Just guess what the game developers will cry then. "PIRACY!"

Sound familiar?

Piracy is the perfect scapegoat and many people believe it. Nevermind that your products might suck, nevermind that you are working to make your products less usable. Piracy is the cause of all your losses!

Hmmmm. Let's see how to defeat this...

Done, copy the game to disk and write protect the directory just like a cdrom.

Can't fix if it can write!