First we had the
Sony DRM Protection that stepped over the line, now we've got another company trying to outwitt the public and attempting to stop piracy... Starforce...
Now, Futuremark has uncovered a very dangerous anti-piracy system Starforce is now using. This copy protection system installs a driver that runs at the highest level of access on the system, which gives it low level access to the PCs hardware and any drivers and processes. This driver runs regardless of whether the game runs; keeping an eye out for any suspicious activity such as attempting to copy a protected disc. If something suspicious is detected, it forces the PC to make an immediate reboot, regardless of any other applications running and whether or not the user has any unsaved work.
Source: CDFreaks - Starforce enforces DRM by instant reboot (without warning)
Basically, this 'thing' runs at
Ring0 (Ring3 = User Access) level and has as-much access to the CPU/hardware as the operating system itself, so if it says reboot you'll be damm sure that it will immediately reboot. (Imagine your defragging your HD, or doing something important then ala-kazammmm... there goes whatever you were working on and if your machine was defragging - & probably if your unlucky - your hard drive!)
So how do you know if you've got this useless junk installed? Check the
Boycott Starforce website and in particular
this listing of games you should boycott (or atleast remove/not install) to not get in trouble... Honestly what is the world coming to? Its like car manufacter's sticking a homing device on cars that tracks you using it and if they find you driving into a mechanic they dont like or putting fuel they dont like, they turn off your engine and arm the security alarms... pathetic!
*gives the finger to Starforce and the tules who wrote it*