At 11:59 PM on Friday July 7rd 2009 (249 Days 20 Hours ago)
Onionpaste posted the following:


What's wrong with it? Maybe I'm missing something but it looks like they're just making it harder for people to shoplift the actual merchandise from the stores.

At 01:43 AM on Saturday July 7th 2009 (249 Days 18 Hours ago)
DranoK posted the following:


Radio frequency unlocks the data, right? How exactly? Details are lacking. It's possible it could even be that the data is encrypted, the checkout radio key is stored on the cd jacket itself, and requires you to unencrypt the data during install. Who knows?

Like every other anti-theft device (in-store or out-of-store) these things malfunction and piss people off. Oops..it didn't unlock it. Another trip back to the store. You know how well these things work when you hear the anti-theft devices at the front of big stores always beeping. Even the employees get pissed and just let them scream.

Anti-piracy efforts DO NOT stop pirates. Anti-theft measures DO NOT stop thieves. They just punish law-abiding citizens.

At 05:26 AM on Saturday July 7th 2009 (249 Days 14 Hours ago)
Ratha posted the following:


Short version:

I think physical property protection is arguably good, where as software protection is generally bad. Id hate to be driving my car and it suddenly disables itself leaving me stranded when the anti-theft device malfunctions. However an anti-theft device which stopped the car from being driven off of the car sales lot, say.. by a wall, or a gate, thats perfectly acceptable to me.

I dont trust, and highly dislike active anti-theft/protection devices. Passive devices, as long as they do not interfere with the operation of the product, and are not a part of the product in any way during its usage, i think thats just fine.

-

Long version:

Im not sure i agree with anti-theft tags not helping prevent theft. I think your average would-be-thief (often teenagers) are dissuaded by the tag thats attached to the inside of boxes of most non food items these days. Most of them know that if they try, the sensors will beep and then they will either have to run, or get caught stealing. Its makes things far from anonymous, or easy.

I think that the current method is the better of the two ideas, adding some sort of new measure which you wont know that its been unlocked for sure until you get it home and try it would be a severe pain in the ass, not to mention the fact that it cripples your soft/hardware if it should malfunction. The current method is at worst a minor inconvenience such as getting beeped at the door. It superficial.

I write it off as store security, the store protecting its physical assets. It has zero impact on the actual product itself once it leaves the store. Anti-theft is entirely different than anti-piracy methodology though. Anti-theft does not stop thieves, but it does often deter someone who might consider stealing.

Anti piracy.. may have worked in the very beginning, but now, not so much, there are too many programs and too much information out there about how to rip/burn/patch/bypass. Software piracy/downloading often has a near-zero risk percentage, and is incredibly easy today. Many to most of the people who would pirate a game would have likely never purchased it to begin with, and thusly cannot generate loss of sales. It all happens fairly anonymously, and if you are caught you get a letter in the mail, you dont usually get taken to jail and charged on the spot as if you were caught stealing.

Anti-piracy efforts; protection mechanisms on software, those are another story all together. They severely piss me off. Ive had many cases where i tried to play my own legit games and the software would abort, not launch, crash, or require being online when i currently cant get on. And 99% of the time the help desk will NOT solve your problem, they wont give you a magic key which bypasses the protection to get your problem solved in the interim. If they cant fix your problem, its your problem, not theirs. (Wouldnt a bypass key be nice? Though if it works for legit customers, it would probably work for illegit ones too.)

The idea of using different keys to bypass protections in the event of a problem does appeal to me, but the underlying problem (protection) still remains.

Worms World Party comes to mind as one i struggled with. I spent an entire week trying to figure out the problem with the help of the rather unhelpful support desk. Eventually i figured out that installing the UK patch instead of the US patch seemed to fix the problem, it was copy protection related though which had been broken by a windows update i believe. Who knows whether future operating system changes will break all of our current games because of their protection. Alternatively they probably wont be compatible in the first place.

At 07:35 PM on Saturday July 7th 2009 (249 Days 0 Hours ago)
Onionpaste posted the following:


This appears to be an anti-theft system, not an anti-piracy system. Ratha, I have the same frame of mind as you on the whole issue, so I really don't see the problem with it... Maybe I'm missing something, but it doesn't seem like it would impede my using the software once I've left the store.

At 02:15 AM on Sunday July 7th 2009 (248 Days 17 Hours ago)
Ratha posted the following:


The current piece of metal in our boxes is what i was saying i dont mind all that much, but if every piece of software had to be 'activated' to remove this locking technology at the register, it would interfere with the operation of the software, and some software would probably get by without getting unlocked. The cost to the stores and inconvenience to the customers would not outweigh the potential benefits of stopping theft of those devices i do not believe.

Its one thing to get beeped at the gate rarely, its annoying, but its significantly less costly in time and fuel than having to drive back into town after you just got home and were looking forward to playing a game. Discovering that the clerk who gets paid 5.50 an hour didnt take the time to unlock it properly, or the unlocking hardware malfunctioned, or your dvd-drive had issues with the technology, thats just not acceptable.

They say its "physical lock that is opened via radio frequency" but i have my doubts that its some sort of device that goes on/through/around the cd which could be both cost effective and not damage the software. Let alone be absolutely guaranteed to be unlocked every time with the swipe of the RF transmitter. After all currently people still get beeped at the gates when they havnt stolen anything and a clerk forgot or didnt get the thing demagnetized.

Id also put money on the idea that you could build an RF transmitter that would unlock the games for less than 30 bucks.