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Forums - PC Discussion - Gary's Mod pirate trap

twesterm on 13 April 2011

[Source Kotaku]

its a trap

This Might Be The Best Pirate Trap We’ve Ever Seen

Luke Plunkett — Garry Newman, the creator of the Garry's Mod mod/machinima toolkit for the PC, just sprung one of the best pirate traps in recent memory, tricking those who did not pay for his product into essentially giving themselves up.

Newman recently programmed a little trap in the code of the game, which would generate an error message for anyone playing the game who did not pay for it. That error, "unable to shade polygon normals", quickly became the subject of a complaints thread on the forums of PC delivery service Steam.

Irate users unable to access Garry's Mod soon began posting their error messages in full, which alongside the above line also contained a series of numbers.

Those numbers, however, were not related to the "error". They were that user's Steam ID number, allowing each and every one of them to be swiftly banned from playing the game.

Garry's Mod catches pirates the fun way [Gamepron]



 

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twesterm on 13 April 2011

And before anyone complains that legitimate users could get banned, before banning Steam checks the user ID and sees if they actually bought the game.  If they haven't, they're banned.



 

ssj12 on 13 April 2011

this type of anti-piracy measures i can get behind. Developer made ways to prevent and ban a user. Not some bs DRM system that screws your PC up.



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richardhutnik on 13 April 2011

And we have a big DUH moment here.  If you pirate a game, don't expect to get tech support.



thranx on 13 April 2011

lol. Serves those pirates right!



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leatherhat on 13 April 2011

Fantastic stuff



ǝןdɯıs ʇı dǝǝʞ oʇ ǝʞıן ı ʍouʞ noʎ 

Ask me about being an elitist jerk

Time for hype

naznatips on 13 April 2011
ssj12 said:

this type of anti-piracy measures i can get behind. Developer made ways to prevent and ban a user. Not some bs DRM system that screws your PC up.


Totally. Fighting piracy in ways that doesn't hurt legitimate buyers = win. 



ssj12 on 13 April 2011

The one thing I find sad is that these users dont realize they are posting up their steam ids.. I know my Steam ID number, so i wouldn't fall for this. But I guess the general userbase isn't used to a 1 - 8 digit steam id.

Mine is 5 digit for anyone whe knows how Steam IDs work. =P



PC gaming is better than console gaming. Always.     We are Anonymous, We are Legion    Kick-ass interview   Great Flash Series Here    Anime Ratings     Make and Play Please
Amazing discussion about being wrong
Official VGChartz Folding@Home Team #109453
 
twesterm on 13 April 2011
ssj12 said:

The one thing I find sad is that these users dont realize they are posting up their steam ids.. I know my Steam ID number, so i wouldn't fall for this. But I guess the general userbase isn't used to a 1 - 8 digit steam id.

Mine is 5 digit for anyone whe knows how Steam IDs work. =P


If he were real smart he'd put a set number of randon numbers in front and then 3 or 4 set numbers after it.  That way he would always know to throw away the first x and last y numbers and that would easily keep people from seeing their ID so easily.



 

forest-spirit on 13 April 2011

I like this!