What copy protection scheme will be on SOWBOB?
 

If it's Starforce I'm going to organize a boycott of this game.

How can intellectual products be sold... not stole?
 

I think Oleg learned on PE-2.

I've never bought another in the series of Lock-on, because of the anti-piracy junk. Then of course, I never liked flying over one map all the time either.

Who wouldn't blame him for trying to do something. There are millions of piracy DL taking place right now, and continually 24/7. It is worse than a shame, it is a disgrace. The broadband sellers like AT&T, Yahoo, TimeWarner, Cox, etc. here in the US all promote their superfast download speeds. Think about who that little bit of marketing is targeting.

Those who use the computer for legitimate purposes aren't concerned about download speeds for the most part.

Yet, when MSFT comes with a new fix or patch. Having a fast DL speed really does help with large files, and Service packs.

This is a fact, unless you take elaborate measures to disquise your internet identity your Internet provider can identify you. Remember, even if you are putting up a new IP each time the server assigning it via DHCP knows who and at what time it was assigned.

It wouldn't surprise me one afternoon to view on TV, where the US Department of Justice has been accumlating information on downloaders, especially those frequenting certain sites. Afterall, most piracy is coming from a handful of sites. I wouldn't want the feds knocking on my door wanting to ask me a few questions, or worse standing in my door with a darned search warrant.

A friend of mine is a musician that is with a darn good band. They put up one song on Youtube that has gotten millions of plays, and they have no idea how many were downloaded. The band members are constantly bummed, because they can't make it selling music. They have to make it on the road, and then it's hard times all the time. My friend said, "The reason the Pre-teens like Cyrus and the rappers are on big on the Grammy's and stuff is because their audience isn't computer literate enough to download music".

The "Grammys are based on sales" not the quality of the music.

We are definitely in a changing world, and at some point artists and people who develop intellectual products are going to have to protect their interests.

Thinking about IL-2 is available online with Steam, perhaps this would be an option for SoW as well. I don't have any problems with Steam either.

SoW's best protection will be its quality.
Be sure.

Agreed. Whatever you think about protection, Every protection so far has been cracked within 14 days. Several games without any protection at all are doing fine in sales. Copy protection as such is not helping anyone. The ligitimate customers are burdened with the negative side effects, the pirates upload cracked games and don't care one way or the other.

I really hope SoW will be unprotected like the US retail version of Sturmovik 1946, XPlane, and a lot of other fine games. Copy protection never stopped a single pirate.

It's not a question to ask the development team I think. The distributor (Ubisoft) decides on protection schemes.

I will buy SoW regardless. If I have problems with the protection scheme, I'll just wait. Sooner or later a solution will surface.

If SoW is sold through Steam then I will miss it. I don't like the way these download services work. Boonty box was bad enough. I want a physical disc, and no complex activation garbage.

It's getting harder and harder to run a gaming PC without internet connection.

I'm happy to make a phone call to activate a product, just don't want to load down PC with unncessary firewalls, antivirus, antispyware.

Personally I hope they do find a solution to the piracy problem with a protection system that works. Even then, I'd much rather have an annoying protection system than developers dropping combat sims because years of costly, complex work can be download in minutes by some lowlife.

For sure X2

Hey Nate whatever happened to the system checking software you were working on ?

I hate upgrade pc for every new simulation/pack! But i am a crazy, seems i will upgrade again :)))

I wonder how much copy right protection SOWBOB really needs. Even though its graphics should be incredable this is still a flight sim and one that won't have a small learning curve like the typical FPS. The average customer won't pick it up and become an instant ace, leaving it to a smaller segment of the customer base, us. With a smaller customer base compared to the likes of Crysis or UT3 it just may not be as attractive to the pirates who want to make a ill gotten buck. Now the noob hacks who want to rack up a lot of cheap kills online may be more of a problem than illegal pirating.

Flyingbullseye

I gotta repeat it... a little differently.

I hate the existing piracy protections schemes that mess with my system, i,e. boonty box, starforce, etc.

I hate piracy more, because it makes thieves out of otherwise decent people. It is terribly unfair to the developers of music, films, videos or software.

The piracy sites are making money off their advertisers, and you'll never stop that without some type of government intervention.

If Oleg wants to use a piracy protection on BOB SOW, just because it's Oleg I'll participate. Oleg, has done and plans to do another masterful job on the finest CFS ever. The guy deserves out support and bending his way abit may mean we make choices we're not altogether happy about.

It is not good for Oleg to put up his work and have it pirated all over the web. The Pacfic Fighters was on the piracy sites, before the boxes for the release were printed. This must have been the biggest neg out imaginable to Oleg and his development team.

Honestly, I admire Oleg for continuing with the series. The guy is one in a million, because most everyone else would have just said "Scr$w it and gone on to something easier to do, and more profitable".

Speak for yourself.

I will be making choices I'm happy with, and that includes knocking the SoW series back if I'm uncomfortable with the CP protection. And believe me, I'm looking forward to SoW everybit as much as you.

I mentioned above... I didn't buy PE-2 because I didn't want the Starforce or Boonty Box thingy, and I've never bought any of the followup releases of the Lock-On after the first release for the same reason.

There is nothing I'm putting on my computer to corrupt it for any game.

I'm just hoping Oleg can address the issue of piracy and still provide us a competent workable situation for protection of his software.

I know a few people that refuse to use games that run securerom (the protection system used on non-US 1946 DVDs) because of the way it interferes with apps like itunes and Nero.

In any case, I have to agree that any copy protection scheme that interferes badly with (some) PCs will force people who would buy the game to illegal copies, just to avoid this potential problem.

I say "potential" cause big problem with all this fancy protection schemes, is that no one can know for sure if they will affect his system badly or not and thus everyone prefers to not deal with them. Forums are full of legitimate customers who faced tremendous problems by stupid copy protection schemes.

Oleg should do it like musical artists, be screwed over by the record company on CD sales but make a killing on concerts ..... though I am not sure If I'd go to see a Oleg concert ;)

I understand the need to have something in place. Agree in the hope, that it's not too agressive