Hyper said:
The only thing that I know of that has been secured quite well is online gaming, now most games are secure so they will only play a game online if your the only person using that cd key.
Also I think Steam is another perfect example of a piece of software that stops you playing online with a cracked game. Although there is ways round Steam, as soon as you try to access a server you wont be let in, good job Valve :beerchug:
There`s a big difference in the checking of codes online and from the software on a cd.
In it`s simplest form, a customers cd will-not contain all the valid codes. i.e. all the codes that are distributed (otherwize they`d all be extracted from the cd and used). The cd will only contain the means as to verify if the code is legitimately generated. Out of each 100 correctly generated codes, only a small percent are used - which is where online checking comes in, in this instance, the online source does have all the distributed, legitimate codes.
(in the same breathe, it`s wholey possible to setup a program to generate codes and check them at 100s a minute and spit out valid ones that give a different response from the server)
If some1 just won the lottery, won a bet on a 50000/1 horse and tripped over a 5 leaf clover, their illegal generated code might work online. However, as the legit code-owner buys their game, and hence complains their code is used, the code is blocked and a new one issued to the legit customer. Same scenario with those bad-boi game shop employees who nick codes out of game boxes.
In this day and age, there is 1 way an online code can be set for 1 user, be unique to that customer, be registered at the manufacturers and be activated by the time the customer gets home to install. A large % of members here could figure this one out. Don`t look forward to that day, but it`s coming.
btw. a cracker is not interested in sorting out codes for people to illegally play a game or source it`s attributes online. The crack is for "fun" and your encouraged to buy the game. The point of trying the crack/rip is so u can see how crap it is b4 u shell out $40.
[sorry XMS/Kemp/Frag, if this reply is not inline with the forum, just delete it]