[Scummvm-devel] Detecting patched games

[Oystein Eftevaag]

Are you talking about versions that have cracks applied?

Because that doesn't necessarily imply piracy. I've applied cracks 
myself to many games I've legally bought, to bypass retarded copy 
protections like Starforce that tend to bluescreen Windows, and others 
that force you to stay connected to the internet. Or just to avoid 
having to pull out a manual/codewheel every time I want to play it.

The above is perfectly legal (possibly not in the US due to the DMCA, 
but at least pretty much everywhere else) and legitimate, even if the 
game studios aren't happy about it. It's fair use.

I'm all for blocking variants that we can know for *sure* are pirated 
versions, but blocking variants that could've been cracked for the above 
reasons sounds like a very bad idea. Display a warning that the variant 
is unsupported, sure, but don't block it, or you're punishing the 
legitimate users along with the guilty. Why should we?

// Oystein

On 8/13/10 10:00 AM, Eugene Sandulenko wrote:
> Hi team,
>
> Addition of SCI engine brought an old issue which has been in my mind
> for a while. That is hacked games with copy protection disabled. SCI
> has plenty of them due to the game popularity, so is AGOS, AGI and
> some other engines.
>
> The patches are pretty often buggy, but if not, it is not good to 
> support them.
>
> The problem is that when we remove those detection entries, we
> regularly get them reported again, which takes out resources.
>
> Thus, I would like to ask your opinion. What do you guys think about
> adding a special game flag like ADGF_PIRATED, and keep those entries
> where applicable. But during detection instead of our 'please submit
> md5' message show something like: "Hacked game variant detected.
> Skipping".
>
> Any thoughts?
>
>
> Eugene
>
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