If you read my E3 report about Starforce (shame on you if you didn't!)

SimHQ E3 Starforce Report

you know that we had an excellent meeting with Starforce representatives and they were very receptive to hearing our member's concerns, questions, and issues as respects their anti-piracy software products.

So much so, that I have just received an email from their PR Manager as a follow up to that meeting confirming their interest to get our feedback.

Therefore, now is the time to speak up and hear back directly from Starforce. We have had several threads in this forum, and others, but none recently, so I like to know what the fallout has been since the initial explosions of interest.

Please keep your posts in the context of problems that you personally have experienced, not something you "heard about" that someone had. Be specific about the product you bought that had Starforce on it, what the problem(s) was, how you first noticed it, if it was resolved how did it get resolved, if it's still a problem how are you coping with it and what have you done to try and fix it or get answers. A brief description of your machine specs would be useful, especially if it involves CD/DVD drives.

Realize that StarForce is a configurable product, meaning that the software producer/developer has some flexibility in how they utilize StarForce (such as limited activations) and that some of these issues may not "belong" to StarForce at all, but rather to the producer/developer's use of it in their product. We'll try and find out which issue belongs in whose court.

If you have StarForce questions, that's fine too, but keep them brief and to the point.

One final thing, which I hope you can all appreciate. I reserve the right to make decisions on what will be forwarded on to Starforce. If certain questions are closely related, I may summarize them into one, etc. In other words, I can't guarantee I will have an answer to every single question, but I will do my absolute best to see that every legimate question or issue is addressed.

With that caveat, I open the floor to you.

I am going to purchase Silent Hunter 3 this weekend and will benchmark IL2FB+Aces before and after installation and report my findings. This is the issue that has made me the most apprehensive about purchasing SH3. I would appreciate other's results of similar benchmarking. I have seen reports of lost performance here, but I'm not convinced that driver changes between benchmarks aren't to blame. Limited activations prevented me from purchasing Lock On FC by direct download from Eagle Dynamics by the way.

Is starforce developing or considering developing the ability for a user to make and use a backup copy of a game rather than the original CD/DVD?

I would not find the answer 'you can get the damaged CD/DVD replaced via the publisher' to be a satisfactory answer.

If installing a game with "Starforce" on it, causes damage to my other programs....say my DVD writer no longer writes properly...[a common complaint]...what recourse do I have to recover my lost time and money?

Can I sue them here, where I bought the product, or would I have to go to Russia?
Will they be obligated to pay, being from Russia and my being in the US?
Can Starforce just ignore me, with no penalties?

Hi Tom .

My system has slowed right down since I loaded SH3, some programs do not respond and I have to re-boot. The `security` programs I run also have a hard time with it.

I KNOW the problem lies with `Starforce`, IMHO they should sort this out NOW, many people have said that they will not buy any other products with `SF` included - I am one of them.

UBISOFT - are you listening ? (obviously not)

I will donate money to any person/group taking out a class action - this has got to be sorted out.

Hi Murphy, how ya doing?

I'm not sure about the "slowness" issue. Just from my reading, it does seem some people have had that problem, others certainly haven't. Don't know what the proportion is.

Guys, I will ask the questions, as I said I would and I am quite sure they will investigate and respond accordingly. It is clear to me that some issues properly belong to StarForce and others to the developers. Which are which? One of the things I hope will be clarified.

If there are problems which have occurred with DVD writers no longer working, or whatever, it may just be there are some fixes for what ails us, that do not involve lawsuits or threats or claims.

I don't think threatening them with lawsuits is the way to foster what I see as a cooperative effort. They have clearly stated their intention to hear us out, so let's give them the opportunity to do so.

Also, let me repeat, if you have specific problems, it would probably help to have some system specs. Just think about all the permutations of computers in the world, from OS to hardware, software, peripherals, etc. It's mind boggling and probably explains to some extent why certain folk have legit problems while others do not.

Hello:

I have SHIII and I have recently upgraded to Win64 XP. The present StarForce does not work under Win64. Do they have a 64 bit version of StarForce? If so, where can I download it or does Ubi need to implement a patch for SHIII? I cannot play SHII until this problem is corrected.

Thanks
SHunter

#1 installs off my toshiba but the SF cant read the dvd. Had to disable the toshiba and use an old flaky pioneer dvd to play.

#2 screwed up my backup software. Wasted 2 dvd+r + 1 with a error (data checked out though) before I figured what was up. Unstalled SH3 & SF and the problem disappeared.

switching the dvd is a pain but messing up my RW is too much.

Brand new system, P4 3.6 Ghz, NU DWD/RW.

After I installed SH III, it ran nice the first time. After that, whenever I tried to launch SH III, it would keep checking the disc and never start. It runs on my laptop though.

What is worse. I was no longer able to play any DVD´s on the drive, I uninstalled SHIII and starforce, reinstalled Powerdvd and now it runs.

I looks as if I won´t be able to run SHIII on this rig. Shame

Guys, we need a brief description of your machine specs would be useful, especially if it involves CD/DVD drives.