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Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

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Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#21

Post by wtallis »

capableweb wrote: post #15

Why is this hex dump being used as a verification rather than just showing the two (supposedly the same) hashes of the entire executable themselves? Should be a quick 20 minute job for whoever call themselves "journalists" today. I suppose it's possible for that particular string to get into the binary by some other means. Maybe failed anti-circumvention that checks for known strings in its own directory or something…

The location of the string is pretty telling: right after a 256 byte header, and occupying the first few bytes of a long run of zeroes. This isn't how you'd expect to find a constant embedded by a compiler or linker as part of code implementing a check for the presence of a crack.

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#23

Post by OnlyMortal »

jonny_eh wrote: post #6
robbiet480 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The game shown here, Midnight Club II, required the CD to be in the drive to play it. With the advent of Steam and companies releasing older games on Steam, they needed a way to bypass that check. Bypassing a CD (commonly called No-CD) was a very common crack/DRM bypass back in the day. Rockstar didn't want to bring up old source code and find someone who understood it enough to remove the check, so instead they just…

Razor1911 was the cracking group in this particular case.

Heh. I recall their demos on the Amiga.

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#24

Post by ohnoesjmr »

mabbo wrote: post #13
sixthDot wrote: post #9

Modified or not, legally R.S. Games owns it anyway.

They don't own the no-CD crack. So technically, they are selling software they pirated.

They are not shipping the crack. They are shipping their own binary that has been modified by the crack.

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#25

Post by madars »

jstarfish wrote: post #17

> This explains the myth of the retail MC2 crashing on Vista - the game is most likely innocent, as the demo works great out of the box. IT WAS AGAIN THE CRACK breaking it. Myth? Innocent? That game was totally unplayable when it first came out (for 98/ME?) so I doubt Razor made anything worse. I'd get most of the way through any race before the game randomly crashed. It would be funnier if it weren't so absurd, sinc…

There's probably an even stronger claim. It is not that Razor is not making things worse, rather a release from a reputable group is a strong indication that it works and that it will continue to do so many years in the future after activation servers are long gone/DRM methods are deprecated/etc. Quality and reliability is probably the reason why Microsoft used DeepzOne's Sound Forge [1] and Turner Classic Movies used subtitles from Karagarga [2] :-)

[1] https://boingboing.net/2006/07/19/windows-xp-sounds-cr.html [2] https://torrentfreak.com/turner-classic-movies-airs-a-film-w...

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#26

Post by thereisnospork »

mabbo wrote: post #13
sixthDot wrote: post #9

Modified or not, legally R.S. Games owns it anyway.

They don't own the no-CD crack. So technically, they are selling software they pirated.

They are also (arguably) selling software written/designed/intended for the express purpose of bypassing copyright protections, which as I understand is in and of itself a no-no under the DMCA regardless of underlying ownership.

I ANAL of course.

edit: per the sibling comment the crack might not be included, so this might not apply.

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#28

Post by phpisthebest »

demarq wrote: post #10
Reubend wrote: post #2

Could we get some more context than this tweet (which doesn't really explain what's going on)?

Cracking was a 90s term for pirating software

pirating software (movies, and music) is a term from the 90's by the MPAA, Riaa, and Games industry in attempting to link the act of simple copyright infringement, a civil non-criminal violation of the law to violent robbery on the high seas...

Cracking is a method of removing undesired features or inclusions from software, often licensing controls, or other anti-consumer features.

Many many many people "cracked" their software who where not eganged in the act of copyright infringement, they legally owned the software but for a number of reasons has no desire to run the invasive software bundled with the game or content they purchased.

Re: Rockstar is selling cracked game copies on Steam

#29

Post by Agingcoder »

Razor 1911 ! I had completely forgotten about them. They cracked games in the 1990s, and if memory serves well, there was a nice ascii art logo that came with games.

Apparently they’ve been active again since 2010, but in my ( much older ) mind, steam has made piracy mostly obsolete.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_1911?wprov=sfti1

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