[Wine] things I miss in wine

Jochen blackdrag at gmx.org
Thu Jun 5 06:58:23 CDT 2008


vitamin schrieb:
[...]
> Jochen wrote:
>>> Creating (or trying to) create a 1:1 implementation of the
>>> software / driver / kernel layer used by starforce to detect a
>>> real cd and having some fake positives and some fake negatives
>>> due to errors *might* be seen as legal if it complies with the
>>> starforce license and the one of the product using it.
>>> 
>> have you an example of a product with a license forbidding this?
> 
> You don't need any license examples here - just pick any copyright.
> Creating something that matches 1 to 1 to the original called
> copying. And that you can't do on any copyrighted material.

If I create something that matches the original 1 to 1 it is still not 
necessarily a copy. Only when I use the original to create this new 
"thing" it is a copy. And when I am doing a copy in terms of 
reimplementing something that is already out there by not using the 
source code, it usually ends up in not being the same. So if I did not 
use the original and did not modify the original, then copyright isn't 
the problem. At least I never heard of such a copyright anywhere on this 
world. Of course that does not mean it is allowed. You could still have 
patent problems or problems with the naming. But these two are not 
copyright. I mean this whole project here would be against copyright if 
you see it like this.

> Besides you missed the part about DMCA which expressly prohibits
> *any* circumvention of security measures except for research work.

That's maybe because I am not from the US and DMCA is not known in this 
form here. Here it must be a "effective" security measure... DVD 
protection is for example not seen as effective here. And I somehow 
doubt that a protection system, that does not work is seen as effective. 
But don't let us discuss this... let us talk about: what exactly is the 
security measure?

I don't propose writing a general crack. For me it would be good enough 
already if stupid copy protection systems like starforce could simply do 
their work. Systems like these usually have two components if I am not 
wrong. One part that is in the system, and one part that uses the system 
part from inside the game. So, now why is it "circumvention of security 
measures" if I replace a non working system part with a working one?

Someone said Starfroce won't work on vista too... well 
http://www.star-force.com/support/users/group3.php I think many games 
will work. But think about it... you are replacing a security system 
here that is not from the same vendor as you got your game from. I mean 
for DVD for example... I was allowed to write my own player and to play 
protected DVDs I have to have a valid and legal key. There could have 
been even a player for linux like systems, if there would have been a 
license for a key. So why exactly is it not allowed to "fix" the 
starforce driver for wine? I mean if it where as easy as rewriting the 
starforce driver in the windows system, then we would already have a 
general patch for all starforce protected games. The important part then 
must be in the game itself and the driver on the system just gives 
access to whatever the game asks for.

that still does not mean that any image of the game would suddenly work


bye Jochen




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