Ok, so I finally bothered to read said article. I assumed that they had something interesting that made it look to the error correction code like a scratch, etc... They don't. No such weakness exists in error correction used on CD's. Their protection is no more than putting bad error correcting codes on sectors, and when a CD copier is used, the "error" correction is corrected, but the software can detect that this is a copy. No different than current game protection (no different than the commodore 64 days either)... The "new new thing" aspect of it is that the copied game continues to run, making the guy doing the backup think he's got a good copy, but it slowly degrades itself. Degrade, but not in the sense of CD rot or scratches. So for a few hours(?), it's playable, but then it starts to no longer respond to user commands properly, and so it becomes a marketing tool. The luser will think it's worth buying their own copy after getting addicted to the game. So the rub, is that copies are allowed to be made, but unless cracked, the copies are nothing more than time limited demos. The only way that this could work is if they put up some sort of splash screen at some point to let the luser know that the program isn't buggy, but that the copy protection noticed it's a backup. After all, if you get a copy of a game from a friend, and it crashes on you all the time, would you think it's because the copy is bad, or because the software is as buggy as a Microsoft product? As usual, the real loser is the original purchaser, because if he scratches his CD, he's out $50-$70 or whatever games cost today, and he can't make backups. ----------------------Kaos-Keraunos-Kybernetos--------------------------- + ^ + :25Kliters anthrax, 38K liters botulinum toxin, 500 tons of /|\ \|/ :sarin, mustard and VX gas, mobile bio-weapons labs, nukular /\|/\ <--*-->:weapons.. Reasons for war on Iraq - GWB 2003-01-28 speech. \/|\/ /|\ :Found to date: 0. Cost of war: $800,000,000,000 USD. \|/ + v + : The look on Sadam's face - priceless! --------_sunder_@_sunder_._net_------- http://www.sunder.net ------------ On 12 Oct 2003, Steve Furlong wrote:

On Sat, 2003-10-11 at 15:55, Tim May wrote:

...

As the saying goes, the lessons of the past are learned anew by each generation...

And each generation invents sex, too.