Pirate software erases device

Uncle Toxie

Uncle Toxie

Gawd
Joined
Aug 22, 2004
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513
Looks like there are some developers that are getting sick of software piracy. The programer who wrote Pocket Mechanic has allegedly placed code in an update that will erase your Pocket PC device if it is a pirate copy. I say allegedly because he has not confirmed that he did it as of yet, the fact that the update will erase your PPC is confirmed (at least according to the author of the story). It is also rumored that your storage cards will be zapped as well.

Linkage to story here
 
IF that is the case, he'd better hire himself a damn good attorney and fast. Destruction of property can apply to data on a hard drive, or memory card. Fighting piracy (by having the program not work) is fine, but being destructive while doing it, is absolutely not. Effectively, he has written a virus, and if he does not want liability (both criminal and tort) he better stop this and try something else.
HvyMtl, esquire.
 
Either way, look how fast people cracked microsoft xp. hell, it took me only about a week of fiddling to figure out how XP's activation worked.

It will be the same with this guys "Vigilante Virus". Someone will be up all night with a couple coffey makers going, and will have a crack/patch or something out by the next morning.

I somewhat like the idea. But, I dont like my real software being deleted. How would it even know? Putting up with XP's "you must call us or you cant use it" system is fine. Getting junk deleted, illegal or not, is another thing.

People keep saying about stealing software. Its copying!!! Stealing means you took it and they dont have it anymore. Even "moby" the musician said he didnt care about people downloading his music. Its just like that episode in southpark (Not such a big deal!?)

I will be looking forward to finding a bug or loophole in this guys software if he doesnt get sued.
But since I do have a not-so EULA complaint software usage, I may have a baised opinion.
 
Tiny said:
Fixed it for you. :D ;) :p
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LMAO.


How many people do you think will stand up in court and say " I Stole software, and it damaged my PPC"?
 
Alias said:
LMAO.


How many people do you think will stand up in court and say " I Stole software, and it damaged my PPC"?
Click to expand...

they'll stand up and say "I accidentally installed pirated software thinking it was legitimate and it damaged my PPC"

And what if there is a mistake and it accidentally WRONGLY determines legitimate software to be pirated...? Because software NEVER has any bugs... :rolleyes:
 
HvyMtl said:
Fighting piracy (by having the program not work) is fine, but being destructive while doing it, is absolutely not. Effectively, he has written a virus, and if he does not want liability (both criminal and tort) he better stop this and try something else.
Click to expand...
You're right on the money. The measures he's going to, to protect his program are a bit extreme. I could see going so far as the program uninstalling itself with a pirated key, but wiping out the entire unit is just wrong.

 
rhouck said:
they'll stand up and say "I accidentally installed pirated software thinking it was legitimate and it damaged my PPC"

And what if there is a mistake and it accidentally WRONGLY determines legitimate software to be pirated...? Because software NEVER has any bugs... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Easy killer. I never said it was right. i understand where he is coming from. But you are right thoughm you just can't do that. It will make mistakes, and the end user will pay for them.
 
I think the programmer got the idea from Orin Hatch (personal note from someone that lived in Utah for over 5 years- Orin Hatch is beyond stupid, and has been suckling off the public teat since 1976-and yes I am Rebuplician, and no I don't like Orin Hatch). They both want computers to blow up! :eek:

They are technology terrorists! :eek:
 
part of me agrees with this method, the other part whole-heartedly agrees with this method. im all for this, be it legal or illegal. if it erases months of work from one pirate before its cracked, its worth it.
 
[RANT]I am one of those who makes use of opensource and freeware as much as possible, but I don't mind paying for the rest of the software that I have. That said, I have great difficulty reconciling any forfeiture of privacy rights in order to protect copyrights. Copyright protection is a job for the civil courts, and the burden of proof should always be on the plaintiff without compromising the privacy rights of others, whether they be defendants, or the population at large. To me, privacy rights are greater than copyrights by an extremely large margin, and that alone is reason enough for the governments of the world to stay away from Internet regulation. Give them an inch, and they will take a mile because it is the bureaucrat's nature to do exactly that. His perceived job is to continually expand his reach, and as a result, our basic right to privacy is at risk on every front. Copyright laws are civil ones, but powerful companies would like to see them become entwined in criminal law at a global Federal level, and that is a dangerous trend that will cost us dearly, if political pressure from these corporations and interest groups continues to escalate at the current pace. The idea of a world run by big companies scares the Hell out of me, but it may well be too late to stop it from happening.[/RANT]
 
I'm torn. On one hand I think ha you deserved it. On the other hand I think why didn't he just have the sneaky code uninstall his app only. There are a lot of people out there too dumb to understand pirating (the people that still think getting mp3s from kazaa are legal) and there could be some important irreplaceable corporate data wiped out. Though they are jackasses, I think they could make an argument for why didn't he just wipe his own program to protect himself. The difference between killing in self defense and disarming a robber THEN killing him because you are outraged that he would steal from you. One is legit, ones illegal revenge.
 
My primary fear is that of precedents being set for the big guys to follow. It is invasive, and that's scary.
 
doh-nut said:
how do you stop a burglar then?
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If he is observed during the theft, then the police should be immediately summoned and the suspect detained before they arrive, if possible. If it is after the fact, and there isn't enough evidence to name a suspect, then of course he walks free because no one knows who he is. However, if later on, evidence names him as a suspect, he should be tracked down and apprehended by the police. At no point should the destruction of his property enter the equation. I understand it's hard to correlate a situation such as this to the virtual world, but in principle those who break the law should only be punished by due process of law, for which there are remedies and courses of action, and you will find that destruction of personal property isn't one of them.
 
I am more for the take justice into your own hands kind of thing.

Do you know that in England...if someone breaks into your home....you are required by law to run away! Seriously, I couldn't make that up.
 
I guess that's because dealing with lawbreakers there is considered reserved for police, and they don't want people to put themselves in danger at the hands of the burglar. To add to that, they also banned guns there....but then again, people in England are generally more law-abiding anyway, and there is hardly any illegal gun trade for the criminals to get, at least compared to ours. Nothing wrong with taking justice into your own hands, but it works both ways. I'd like to see what this guy would have to say if his company's computers were all deleted! What protections should he have from others doing the very thing he was doing without authority of law?
 
Synful Serenity said:
I'd like to see what this guy would have to say if his company's computers were all deleted! What protections should he have from others doing the very thing he was doing without authority of law?
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thats not a possible scenario if the code only wipes data on a pirated copy. but the software pirate would say, damn, i deserve this, i guess thatll teach me.
 
Tiny said:
I am more for the take justice into your own hands kind of thing.

Do you know that in England...if someone breaks into your home....you are required by law to run away! Seriously, I couldn't make that up.
Click to expand...

Because they are pansy's that are not allowed to own guns. No wonder their crime rates are high....
 
Over there they use needles they say contains AIDS, etc. Nasty stuff... Creative though. :D
 
Thanks for that follow up OldPueblo. That makes me currious as to where the author of the article I linked to originaly got his information from. Thats a pretty hefty acusation to make againts a program.
 
plan and simple.

Don't take the law in your own hands. If this guy is doing this. he will go to jail and/or be paying a lot of money... He does not have the right to destroy data.
 
doh-nut said:
thats not a possible scenario if the code only wipes data on a pirated copy. but the software pirate would say, damn, i deserve this, i guess thatll teach me.
Click to expand...

Actually, it's theoretically possible for a software that uses anti-piracy methods to improperly detect that it is a pirated copy and decide it is. I once got this when some lucky person used a keygen and ended up with the same one I had (well, I'm hoping they used a keygen because otherwise they ripped it directly from the game's network since I never even shared it with friends.)

That said, it's definitely true that this is illegal, however, he would only have be sued and fined, not spent jailtime (unless he couldn't pay or something.)

I'll say one thing. The way this Anton person handles the situation is the worst I've ever seen. He skirts around questions, insults the people who asked them, etc. And, naturally, he used the always used and never valid "I can't be responsible for what code is in the cracked copy" when, as I understand it, most cracks just modify the checks (if I were to guess, they just switch the values of variables or something.) Really simple, and usually don't have much else, right? Someone know more about this than I do feel free to jump in and correct me, but, that's how I'd do it if I actually knew how (unfortunately, I don't even know enough to debug my own hello world style programs... *sigh*) What I mean is, it's the new copy doing the damage, not the old, therefore, chances are NOT in favor of the problem lying in the old copy. If anything from the old copy is being executed by the new, that wasn't being used in that old copy, something suspicious is going on.

This Anton claims to have answered the question, throws out insults, etc, but, never once answered a direct question with a simple yes or no. All I can say is, if I had a pocket pc, I'd use an alternative software. I do NOT trust this person with my data. How can you trust such an elusive person who chooses to berate potential/existing customers rather than help them?

BTW, anyone else think it's odd that some suspicious API code is left in there? Keyword, left. That means it was originally being used, right? I mean, why else is it in there? He said he didn't get around to removing it, but, that means he put it in in the first place for some reason... Does he routinely insert the code in everything new he makes and then remove it many many versions later? IMO, that's rather curious. One thing occured to me. What if it's not being used directly, but, indirectly? Is it not theoretically possible to arrange for a situation in which code not directly used in your program ends up indirectly used?
 
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