🚀 go-pugleaf

DoonMan wrote:

> This is true it's not a joke !
> -----------------------------------------------------------
>
> I am writing to inform ya and the rest of the world about blizzards
> unacceptable
> behaviour. This was first spoted by Beowulf of rzr and I give him full
> credit, I
> am so disturbed about his discovery that I feel I have to let people
> know.So far
> no one seems to care with Starcraft players being to preoccupied in
> their games....
>
> Apparently Starcraft being a program running on your pc is privliged by
> the os to
> access the registry of win95 and illegaly extract sensitive information
> about ya,
> like name and e-mail address.
>
> According to beowulf this are the keys beign accessed
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MS Setup (ACME)\User Info\DefName
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Mail and News\Mail\Sender
> Name
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Netscape Navigator\User\User_Name
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Mail and News\Mail\Sender
> EMail
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Netscape\Netscape Navigator\User\User_Addr
> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Kali\Kali95\User Info\email
>
> I did a registry check and it contained my real name.
> If u try to connect to battlenet without a valid key either cause u have
> the warez
> version or you made a mistake,your information is logged onto their
> system.
>
> I feel that this practice is unacceptable and If we dont make a stand
> against it
> now,every company and every individual can start to violate our privacy
> for his own
> personal reasons. Note that the registry contains passwords and every
> concernign
> u and ur pc..and even though the passwords are encoded, I am sure there
> will be a
> way to crack them.
>
> Finally I enclose the proof, as presented again by beowulf which I thank
> for his
> discovery. I feel I can never trust my pc anymore,and how cna we know
> that microsoft hasnt
> been doing that for years.
>
> BigBadWolf
>
> I have since verified this for myself..and it is true..
> they even extracted my local settings i.e country etc...
> this is sooo lame and i am soo pissed off please make sure the word is
> out on how
> lame they are..if they dont get a response they will jsut keep on doing
> it

This made the papers awhile ago, like about 3 or 4 months after Starcraft
was released.
Already a law suit had ensued. Unfortunately, with the advent of CD-Rs and
such, it is nothing to pirate a cd required game anymore. This was
appearently Blizzards answer to the crisis.Add in the fact that Blizzard
also runs free internet gaming and they get really screwed by piracy. You
know, get ten friends together, pop up a few bucks each
and away you go across the 'Net and bogging down their servers with their
game that the got nada for.
I am not defending Blizzard. If they haven't already paid for this
transgression legally, they are paying for it in the negative press etc.
Instead of an invasive form of minor protection like this that was rather
ill-concieved, they should be working with other developers to make it
harder to make these pirated copies.
Face it, we are the losers when dealing with this crap. Because of some
cheap shmucks, we ended up with this invasion of our privacy. Other pices to
come will be higher prices as developers try to prevent this; good companies
(especially small ones) going under; and Big Brother breathing down all our
backs.
It sucks, but dem the facts.
Like I said, I am not defending their (Blizzards) actions, just explaining
the facts on the subject that I have and maybe answering some questions.
And, if any of you folks out there have knowingly pirated games, do us all a
favour and keep the damn things to yourself and don't play them on the net.
Thanks, Squee.