[Mr. Selvetarm]

< > Engadget knows all. A trojan has infected a butt load of people, installing itself if you torrented a piurated copy of iWork '09. I mean how dumb? Just dl the trial off the Apple website.

[teflon]

Well... yes....

but the trial runs out, at which point you need to purchase the thing. So its quite clear that all these people downloading this trojan are doing so with the full intent of pirating it, especially as the 30 day trial is with no limits. You can definitely tell if the programme is for you after 30 days.

I say that they deserve it.

[Magnum]

It is funny really, their fault for not buying it legally.

[the Battle Cat]

This is me playing the world's smallest violin. Now this is me smashing my world's smallest violin on my world's smallest amplifiers after my performance.

Here is a series of pictures of the event on the world's smallest microfiche ---> .

[Mr. Selvetarm]

Ooo, great detail.

[J'nathus]

<evil remorseless remark>

I work for a computer support company, and it's the pirating amateurs that keep my company in business, so for maintaining job security . . . PIRATE ON!

</evil remorseless remark>

I have a friend who gets a ton of music from Limewire. Although he is very diligent with virus scanning his downloads before ever using them, he's been telling me that a good 10-40% are riddled with viruses (depending on the type of item . .. music, video, pron.... )

[Bernie]

[Rev-O]

I've often thought if I was a big developer I'd surreptitiously release a virus/trojan riddled version of my product via torrent and sit back and rub my hands together and chortle evilly.

[charmin]

Since it's incredibly illegal, you'd have to be very discreet

[Mr. Selvetarm]

Just make sure to chortle softly.

[Rev-O]

charmin, on January 24th 2009, 03:35 PM, said:

Since it's incredibly illegal, you'd have to be very discreet

Indeed! Hence the whole surreptitious angle

Mr. Selvetarm, on January 24th 2009, 04:23 PM, said:

Just make sure to chortle softly.

Yes, I would have to reserve my loud guffaws of evil for times when I was locked in the bathroom. If anyone should happen by and ask why I was guffawing with such evil fervor I would cover by saying I was flossing. That should confuse them enough to stop the whole conversation in its tracks!

[teflon]

yes, but the rather childish falsetto-esque voice, completely bald head, horrendous scar and some form of cat should also stop them in their tracks...

not to mention that its probably going to be your henchman inside your lair.... So discreteness shouldnt matter too much..

[the Battle Cat]

A man should be able to chortle as loud as he wants in his own lair. This actually boosts the moral of minions, henchmen, abettors and hatchet men. When venturing out though, you really should chortle softly, perhaps into your hand. I know I know, when you try to stifle a chortle it just makes you chortle even harder, but lands sake man, get a grip.

[Rev-O]

Same trojan is apparently showing up on the crack app for torrented Photoshop CS4.
Buyer beware... oh wait. These folks didn't buy the program! Nevermind!

[charmin]

Well there's a removal tool, so it's a bit of a non-issue.

[macdude22]

So I pirate the software. Check.
I authenticate to install pirated software. Check.
I get garbage. Check.

I'd say I got what I deserved, hypothetically.

Maybe apple leaked the Trojan out, no DRM for you and I who bought it legit (I personally find iWork amazing), the pirate's get a nice scary treat. I doubt that's the case but I'd be all right with it. My beef with DRM'd garbage isn't that it's hard to pirate (it never really is) but that it's annoying for me as a paying customer.

I'll ring the fire alarm when Mac's can get infected via a botched facebook AD like Windows users running IE.

[teflon]

perhaps a new type of DRM for games is called for.

The installer itself wont run unless its on a optical disk. - work around available.
built into the base engine is a CD/DVD check that kicks in 5 minutes into the game, or during the first level loading screen. It only checks this the first 5 times that the game is run. - same work around available, but most people go for cracks not disk images.
If there isnt a DVD in the drive, then it creates a new process that will phone home 2 minutes after youve finished playing (to catch out those who turn off their net connection to counter phoning home). - work around is that you shut down quickly or quit the process.
Home then logs your motherboard make and serial number.

The next major release from that company then wont install on all of those logged MBs stating that you have previously installed a pirated version of game X. - work around dead simple.
It then continues with the above process.

after 3 pirated games, a new process is created the next time you play that game which will download a trojan to pick out your email address and register it with every single porn/spam site out there, sends an email to your ISP to notify them that you illegally download games, and modifies the system to gradually fragment your files over the next 3 weeks.

I hope you keep a backup, and yes, I realise how inherently evil that is, but if you dont pirate, then it doesnt affect you, and all youre dealing with is putting the DVD in the drive to play.

[macdude22]

I like Stardock. No muss to install right from the disk, no serial, nothin. You want updates and additional content, register your serial they provide with them. They treat paying customers right, and ignore pirates. Moar money for them from me, less hassle for me.

[Sneaky Snake]

Ideally though the DRM will allow you to run the game without the disc, since using the disc is such a pain. My entire windows gaming collection (which is all legitament copies) has no-cd cracks. It not illegal if you own a copy of the game, just like DVD movie ripping onto your computer

-Snake

[charmin]

Sneaky Snake, on January 28th 2009, 01:57 AM, said:

It not illegal if you own a copy of the game

In other news, it's not gay if you close your eyes.