A StarForce forum moderator has posted a link leading to pirated copies of Stardock's Galactic Civilizations II, reminding us of a more sinister form of "protection".
When a comment was made on the official StarForce forum mentioning the unprecedented sales success of a completely unprotected game JM, a StarForce moderator, offered readers a link to a torrent site that featured a pirated copy of Galactic Civilizations II. This was done, presumably, in an attempt to suggest that the game was being downloaded because it had no StarForce protection. JM also stated that the game ...would have the high sales rate even if it doesn't have any copy protection, but not because of that.
StarForce were alerted and have since removed the link while offering their sincerest apologies to Stardock. In the end, on behalf of the whole StarForce I would like to tender our apologies to all people, who have been working on creation of the game Galactic Civilizations II. We have to officially claim that what has happened is just a mistake of our employee that was boosted into "our planned PR action" by the people, who hate StarForce.
It seems that the success of Stardock's Galactic Civilizations II has ruffled some protected feathers since a game that features the most basic protection i.e. a unique serial number is doing so well. According to Stardock's Brad Wardell, I simply don't think CD-based protection is particularly effective. Any copy protection system, in my opinion, should be focused on trying to increase sales, not stop piracy. The two aren't the same. Most people who pirate a software product would never have purchased it. It's pointless to waste time on those people. The people to focus on are the ones who might have bought your product or service but chose not to because it was easier to pirate it. Apparently Stardock believes that offering frequent and substantial upgrades and a quality product makes extra protection redundant, can you believe their cheek?
StarDock has decided to be gracious about the entire mess and has already accepted the official apology issued by StarForce. It would seem however, that StarForce has not shown the same grace when its products were concerned as this recent story suggests.
