sparkomatic 7 Posted April 27, 2008 So, before someone vents their spleen, I own a copy of Silent Hunter III (SH3)...bought it on Amazon.com for $9.99 plus $6.95 shipping/handling, so SPARE the religious debate now... I installed SH3 on the Vista-equipped laptop in order to take it with me TDY...starfarce (copyright protection) refused to work on Vista...said no way at all, never...so I go to "a website" and find a "file" then replace the "files" with these and viola....works like it is supposed to work...so let me get this straight... The legal paid for with legal tender copy (that I had to wait a week or so to receive) did not work because of copyright protection, but the Buccaneer copy works...yep...that is exactly what happened...how sad is that... And, please read the first paragraph before you tell me that is wrong so that I can avoid emailing a picture of me with the SH3 box, receipt, Amazon.com shipping container, and a suitably obscene gesture for you ignoring the opening and closing lines in this post I do not in any way support Buccaneering, quite the contrary, it is because of such activities that we have starfarce in the first place...it is a sad state though when a commercial solution is broken and the "mod community" is the answer... Oh, and they even had the patched to v1.4 version so it was better than out of the box, commercial that I paid for already...nice... **** On that note, I know Mr. Dave S. has played it and SH4, any one else? And yes I know there is an entire section of combatace dedicated to such so why bring it up here...yeah go visit that section...it is like nobody there...sad it is a cool game... Sparked my interest again since I just finished reading "Iron Coffins" by Werner...my God...talk about officership...and dedication...it should be mandatory reading... Cheers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ONETINSOLDIER 2 Posted April 27, 2008 AHAR !! ya scurvy landlubber,,and ya thought we was the scum-o-the earth, did ya? lol I guess in a roundabout way, we do make contributions instead of just taking all the time, (in reference to certain "sites" and "files") :ph34r: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Gunrunner 313 Posted April 27, 2008 (edited) If it only was in some games... just think of the DVDs you can't legally read on Linux unless you broke your contractual agreement with the publisher, think of the protected CDs that no longer conform to the CD specifications and won't be played on most computers, play with degraded quality on most others and will just not work on old legacy CD players and car radios... Think of the eBooks so ridden with restrictions you can't have them on your home and mobile computer, you can't print them and in some extreme cases, can't search them. Think of the region encoded DVDs, just so you can't legally play a legally bought legit copy of a movie for half the price abroad once you get back home, just because publishers want to decide which country can support the most margin, and wish to enforce it even in your living room. Piracy never was the real reason behind those anti-consumer protections, piracy is only the excuse the content publishers have found to make money at the expense of both the consumers and the content creators, adapting to the new environment not by giving creators and consumers what they want (which would virtually eliminate the need for publishers and their fat margins, look at TK's business model), but by slowly but surely switching from a possession economy to a licence economy, where you don't own the music you paid for and can use it, resell it, transfer it as you see fit for your own purpose, but instead the publisher decides what you can do with the music, how you should listen to it, how long you are allowed to use it, etc... There has been precedent of this new economy where the servers authorizing the licences failed, or the services closed, leaving consumers unable to use the products for which they paid for (the DVD-HD scheme was such a catastrophe, it was basically DVD with WMV-HD films, requiring the green light from a server to play the content, the trouble was 1) you could only play your DVD on a computer 2) running a very recent Windows OS as the codecs won't install 3) with an internet connection; the trouble was for some users of the scheme, the servers were never up, or closed quickly, leaving users who paid good money for the movies as a premium product with a new shiny beer coaster; or think of those who bought movies through the online Google scheme, only to be told month later that the service closed, so they lost their movies but were instead given credits to be used on things completely different, and offering no way to get the movies back). The trouble is the legislators simply do not understand the technologies and stakes of this matter, following their limited understanding of the question and who represents the most funding and votes. The publishers either do not understand the technology enough and fall into the anti-piracy frenzy (making some protection software publishers rich), or understand way too well and scared by having to completely rethink their activity, do all that is in their power to stop the changes in economy. The consumers now, are mostly oblivious; for the vast majority, there is no trouble, if something doesn't quite work, they just buy another format, another player, and mostly never think of the underlying issues; they never go beyond the initial frustration and how things used to be simpler. The geeks now, are informed enough, but unfortunately, most are quite radical and way too involved, so much in fact that most sound like complete unreasonnable fanatics (or lunatics for some), and some really are, not helping one bit to change the situation for the best, their caricatural behavior serving as an argument for over-protection of publishers. Quite frankly, this is a pity, as what started to be laws and rules to protect the interests of creators against publishers now serves to protect publishers against creators and consumers, and that is very bad indeed, for everyone. OK, rant off. Sparko, don't worry, I myself am very used to buying crippled games/CDs/DVDs and then simply using a less legitimate version simply to avoid the hassles (or, as in your case, simply to get it working at all) of my legally bought one, that may be legally dubious, but morally neutral. Gwar, morally AND legally speaking, while taking, in this specific case, is alright, giving is, alas, not (since SH3 can't be considered abandonware by any stretch of the term, and even then abandonware still is, in most instances, a grey area). Edited April 27, 2008 by Gunrunner Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Syrinx 13 Posted April 27, 2008 Iron Coffins is a great book, I agree. Sparko, take a look-see here, if you haven't already... http://uboat.net/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+Dave 2,318 Posted April 27, 2008 Spark Its you vs technology.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Caveman 1 Posted April 27, 2008 Silent Hunter 4 is AWSOME!!!!!!! since u asked a MUST buy beats SH3 hands down IMHO Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sparkomatic 7 Posted April 28, 2008 Iron Coffins is a great book, I agree. Sparko, take a look-see here, if you haven't already... http://uboat.net/ Thanks, great link! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
