Software protection scheme may boost new game sales

[Steve Schear]

Companies are using a new software protection system, called Fade, to
protect their intellectual property from software thieves. Fade is being
introduced by Macrovision, which specializes in digital rights management,
and the British games developer Codemasters. What the program does is make
unauthorized copies of games slowly degrade, by exploiting the systems for
error correction that computers use to cope with CD-ROMs or DVDs that have
become scratched. Software protected by Fade contains fragments of
"subversive" code designed to seem like scratches, which are then arranged
on the disc in a pattern that will be used to prevent copying. Bruce
Everiss of Codemasters says, "The beauty of this is that the degrading copy
becomes a sales promotion tool. People go out and buy an original version."
(New Scientist 10 Oct 2003)

<http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994248>

steve