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FlightSimLabs Alleged Malware Analysis

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Re: FlightSimLabs Alleged Malware Analysis

#11
post #10

I never understood the point of DRM. "10 extremely determined people want to steal my intellectual property! I'll go miles out of my way to design this in such a way that 1,000 people have a crappy experience to slow down the 10 people who want to be pirates!" Vendor makes a shitty product Pirates find a workaround, pirate shitty product anyway Vendor makes shitty product even shittier for all 1,000 people to agin tr…

The silliest part of this is pirates usually get to enjoy a better product because of their actions.

Re: FlightSimLabs Alleged Malware Analysis

#13

I wonder what their legal department told them about this idea. I can't imagine any well briefed copyright lawyer concurring with this.

My thoughts exactly. This is so unbelievably bone-headed.

I want to believe that this was slipped in by a small rogue group within FSL, and that its not something everyone approved of...

Re: FlightSimLabs Alleged Malware Analysis

#14
"How do we know that FSLabs don’t use this, just because they say so?"

How do you know the main executable doesn't do the same thing? How is trusting them not to run this .exe different from trusting them not to secretly implement this functionality in the actual program?

Re: FlightSimLabs Alleged Malware Analysis

#16

I wonder what their legal department told them about this idea. I can't imagine any well briefed copyright lawyer concurring with this.

My thoughts exactly. This is so unbelievably bone-headed. I want to believe that this was slipped in by a small rogue group within FSL, and that its not something everyone approved of...

LinkedIn only has 3 people who are listed at working at this company [0], so I'd assume it's a small indie shop without a legal department.

[0] https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/index/?keywords=Flig....

Re: FlightSimLabs Alleged Malware Analysis

#17

The passwords aren't protected somehow from copying?

Not usually, though perhaps if you've added a master password? It's the same reason why if you install a new browser it generally allows you to import bookmarks, passwords, and probably other stuff from an old browser.

Re: FlightSimLabs Alleged Malware Analysis

#18
post #14

"How do we know that FSLabs don’t use this, just because they say so?" How do you know the main executable doesn't do the same thing? How is trusting them not to run this .exe different from trusting them not to secretly implement this functionality in the actual program?

Well yeah. The appropriate reaction here is to assume that the company is shipping malware in the product regardless of what particular format.

Re: FlightSimLabs Alleged Malware Analysis

#19
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, this sort of attitude is not unheard of among proprietary software vendors - see for example FTDI bricking your hardware if they think it's counterfeit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8493849

Wouldn’t that be downright illegal? Moreover, someone bricking my hardware would inspire me to forcefully return said “brick” to them, through their nearest window.

Wouldn’t that be downright illegal? Moreover, someone breaking my windows would inspire me to forcefully discuss said behaviour with them, with their nearest brick.

Re: FlightSimLabs Alleged Malware Analysis

#20
post #10

I never understood the point of DRM. "10 extremely determined people want to steal my intellectual property! I'll go miles out of my way to design this in such a way that 1,000 people have a crappy experience to slow down the 10 people who want to be pirates!" Vendor makes a shitty product Pirates find a workaround, pirate shitty product anyway Vendor makes shitty product even shittier for all 1,000 people to agin tr…

The silliest part of this is pirates usually get to enjoy a better product because of their actions.

For example, the unskippable piracy warnings on DVDs.
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