Razor42 posted at 1:02PM Fri, 29 January 2016 - #4251925

No doubt the new encryption will curtail some of the casual illegal sharing among friends/family. However, if the crackers (meaning those that just love to crack software protection schemes) see this as someone throwing down the gauntlet, and worthy of their time, then the once encrypted content will show up just like the current un-encrypted content, either being fully un-encrypted, or with a simple way to install the encrypted content and have it fully functional on any computer. If this happens, then what will the real benefit to curtail real pirating be (not casual sharing)?

I honestly have trouble getting my ahead around this type of theory. There hasn't been a physical lock invented that 100% works every time, a Safe designed that will keep everyone out forever. All of these are security devices that mitigate. Have you ever heard anyone saying they are worthless because they are not 100% effective all of the time? I also think people have an inflated rating of the average pirates ability to hack or crack anything more difficult than a pack of Doritos. Most piracy is the form of exploiting a loophole. In existing content the loophole is the .zip format which has 0 protection.

A lot what happens if/when Daz 3D product encryption is hacked/cracked is pure speculation. As a lot would depend on the method. Can you use a cracked product on any version of DS? Will you need a cracked version of DS? Can you use a cracked version of DS with the store and not have the store know that its cracked. If you are using a cracked version what happens with upgrades, WIll your cracked version be dependent on a small group that can release cracked product etc? The only pirated encrypted product I have seen so far used an export method to circumvent the encryption and was rather sloppily done.

Plus cracked version of a pirated item are at least 5 times as risky, because the potential for a skilled black hat to embed malicious code is far greater than in a straightforward .zip of content that you can scan easily. Want to crack DS encryption? Just run this little program make sure to turn of your security setting first so Daz isn't alerted....

Casual piracy goes beyond friends and family sharing. It refers to an unskilled pirate picking up a .zip and uploading it to a torrent site with no actual barriers to impede them.

Content compatibility in my eyes is the biggest issue at the moment with encryption, alongside of continued access to paid for legitimate content in the long term. Hopefully we will see both of these addressed in the future by Daz, I would expect at least Carrara to see some love for the encrypted format in the future. As far as Poser compat goes, the issue goes well beyond encryption with the divide between the two apps growing with each incremental update.

I think there may be a bit of difference between how you and I define some of the terms we are using, which is causing some of our incongruities. Anyway, to me casual refers to a very low risk activity, which would be the friends and family plan. Once someone illegally puts something on a torrent, then there is some higher level of risk (and intent) involved, which indicates either the person doing so has an issue with DAZ, the PA, or just believes that everything should be free to everyone. For lack of a better term I'll just call this level of sharing/pirating the Robin Hood Syndrome (RHS).

So, for illegal casual sharing, and RHS, encryption will definitely stop most, if not all of it. Simple export/import won't work either (due to the loss of quality that you mentioned), so truly cracking the encryption would have to come from more skilled individuals. Before I move on the the higher level, I am faced with the question, just how many of these people engaging in illegal casual sharing or RHS sharing will actually buy the products if they are never cracked? There are not good statistics to rely on here, just personal views, experiences, and instinct which ultimately forms our own opinions. My opinion is that the vast majority of the people involved in RHS downloading are not regular DAZ customers, may not have ever purchased anything from DAZ, and are unlikely to start now. As you noted from your brief trip to the dark side, many of these people feel it is their right to receive digital goods for free. I feel it is highly unlikely that they will purchase anything from DAZ if they can't get it for free, because that is counter to their world view (why people like this are often referred to as being a part of a counter culture).

I surmise from some of your statements above, that you feel the people downloading content from torrent sites are also paying DAZ customers. If this is true, then my assumptions are obviously wrong. However, even the comments you noted from your visit to the darker side seem to counter this view that the down-loaders are also customers (but no doubt some of the distributors are customers). If sales increase dramatically for encrypted content, then obviously my assessment of the situation is completely wrong.

The other question is will the crackers be interested in cracking the content and/or DS if needed. It really depends on if they see it as a worthy and worth while challenge. If a cracked version of DS would be required in addition to the content, many of the downsides you noted, such as no upgrades to DS, I would think simply don't apply to this counter culture. If they have a working version, that is really all that matters. They can wait until a new cracked version comes out if there are any new major features. Otherwise, they are already OK with the fact that they won't get continual bug fixes, after all, what do they expect for "free"??? There is one area though that we will simply have to agree to disagree. There is no doubt what so ever in my mind that if an experienced cracker decides to take on Encrypted DAZ content, and if needed, DS too, they will be able to keep the flow of perfectly usable DS content going. For the last 30 years, and probably longer, as far as I know, there has not been one commercial software protection scheme that has not been fully compromised when a dedicated cracker (or crackers) has taken on the task (I did spend some time as a part of my job on the dark side of the web years ago). Keep in mind their goal is to develop a crack that will provide everyone with full functionality. Maybe DAZ has developed a scheme that is more difficult to crack than anything else that has ever been used, but I honestly doubt it. These guys/gals who do the cracking are geniuses (seriously, those who have been caught typically have very impressive IQ's), and take real pride in the fact that they outsmarted the protection scheme creators (who are also typically really smart).

To be honest though, I doubt DAZ content will have the needed clout to even show up on the radar screen of the real crackers. The software is free, the content is inexpensive, so the status points for cracking the encryption are probably pretty low. However, it may still garner the interest of someone, and if it does, I have little doubt that it will be fully compromised, and once it is, the turn around from new release at DAZ to release on pirate sites will be quite short. Also, keep in mind I'm not talking about what you call the average pirate, the people who just upload and share files illegally(i.e. DAZ/Poser stuff, music, videos, etc.) are not in the same 'class", and do not have the skill set needed to crack the protection schemes. Again, only time will tell what will happen.

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