This is bull!

[bflagg]

Sure - I mean, that's ideal. What it isn't is practical (at elast in an automated fashion)

 

 

To me the whole activation thing should be a simple point...

 

Hardware key is submitted before a serial number is generated.

Hardware key is compared against the prior one on record.

If they match, generate the serial number.

 

If they don't match and a certain time frame has passed then allow..

of course a few logical "if thens" would go here...

 

if not... a call to ED/Starfarce would be required to verify the hardware key...

 

Is this foolproof? No. But guess what, it keeps your honest people honest (after all that's all DRM does) and they can install to their single PC to

their hearts content.

 

They've made this harder than it should be...

 

...And for those who say.. "this version of starforce has never been cracked "... let me tell you now and here... a pirate or cracker, if the need is great enough, will get around this starfarce system.

 

LockON is not in the public eye as such to get the attention for those who can crack it to get(gain?) their notoriety.

[Guest ruggbutt]

See my thread here. I got the exact opposite response from ED.

[bflagg]

Glad to hear it went fine for you (and probably will for 99% of the people).

 

Maybe it's the way BuzzU requested it and came off a bit snippy and ........ ??

 

either way... BuzzU did you politely re-request a key since this thread started?

 

anyway... this thread is done for me...

 

peace / love / war dudes.

[Guest IguanaKing]

I think a couple things need to be taken into consideration:

 

Anyway, like I said, there are a lot of problems with the current scheme, and it's more useful to think of alternatives than bash the current one, which, despite irritating some customers, has done its job.

 

But I have offered alternatives, I have even explained how other companies do it with their software as a "Why don't they try doing it like company X does?" kind of challenge. ;)

 

My router simulator had an internet verification scheme that reasonably ensured only one active copy could be used at any one time. So...it couldn't be used on two machines. But, at the same time, I had the freedom to deactivate it on one machine and activate it on another. This was the same scheme used on the CMax software I use when upgrading Avidyne EX500 MFDs. Both of these programs gave the user that freedom and they both cost quite a bit more than a $40.00 computer game. ;)

[Trident]

The interesting thing is that Starforce was apparently intended to work similarly - Roman (G) makes some good points.

[Guest IguanaKing]

I agree...good points are being made now, after 10+ pages of discussion. Much of this conflict could have been avoided if the supporters of StarForce had attempted to understand the situation and try to help this guy instead of jumping all over him and casting suspicion upon someone they don't know.

[BuzzU]

My exact mail to them. How did I know some of you would turn this around to be my fault?

 

 

Hi,

 

I've done a bunch of formats lately and i've run out of activations. Yes, i've used all 15 of them.;-) I have FC installed ok for now, but if I need to install it again i'll be in trouble. Can you please give me more activations? Here's my serial #.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

Thank you

Pete Gaimari (BuzzU)

[wolf8218]

theres one thing that bothers me, how can they NOT know that all of the activations buzz had used were on the same computer? When i bought the FC cd from bestbuy i emailed them asking to activate the game, and they immediately knew my user name on the system and my system specs. i think thats proof enough that youre not doing anything illegal, they should give you a new serial.

[BuzzU]

I was never told I was doing something wrong. I'm sure they know i'm a legal customer and all the activations were on my system.

[Igor Tishin]

Dear All

 

First of all, we appreciate your interest to LockOn. Unfortunately it is the only way to continue the product line is to sell protected products and it’s add-ons. At the same time it’s the only possibility to protect downloadable software is to restrict the number of activations. Used in LockOn the StarForce protection is a flexible system which allows to partial upgrade of hardware and upgrade of operating system without additional activation. Detailed instruction about it was published in FAQ on http://www.lockon.ru. We are monitoring the downloads data base regularly and collecting all information about users and their activations. According to our and Starforce statistics majority of users use up to 3 activations and rarely 5.(It is difficult to expect that someone will change computer completely more than 5 times during the product life cycle, which is 2 years maximum). So, the situation when it is necessary 15 activations is very rare. But nevertheless, we take care on every such situation and will find solution in this particular case as well.

 

Igor Tishin, Director of Eagle Dynamics