Use a hacked serial & lose your data

[altermind]

sue!... simple

[Emon]

sue!... simple

whatever dude .. no one can sue him .. not even God can. It's written on his goddamn EULA that he is going to erase the home folder if the user puts a hacked key.

[hog]

lol thats awsome

[EZRecovery]

I found something on the web, and I wanted to share it with you all. Is about a software deleting the home directory.

However, it has come to my attention that some developer I will not name here has moved further on the road of fighting the piracy. Here's what the software they make does:

If a pirated serial number is entered, the software erases the user's Home directory. Yes, you heard it right - the software completely erases it, beyond repair. This means all of the user's documents, settings, music, movies and whatnot are suddenly gone.

I don't know what to think of this. While I understand the developer's frustration regarding pirates, in my opinion, it is totally unacceptable to erase anything on a user's hard drive, even if he is a pirate. Dear developer, you do not have the right to touch a user's data. You have the right to fight the piracy in your own product. But you cannot touch any other sensitive data. It's not yours.

Source: Unsanity.org: Privacy Protection?

Update: As it appears from one of the comments (from WiseWeasel), the developer did removed the file deleting code pretty quickly. Therefore, my apologies to the developer for possibly some unneeded flak towards him. However, the point still stands, and I think it should be a good learning example for all of us. Thanks for your feedback!

Also found this, interesting: Booby Trapped Software

Edited September 14, 2004 by EZRecovery

[canadian397]

so is this deletion program for Mac, Windows or both?

[Southern Patriot]

Then what the **** is this! Why wont you just accept that the applications folder is in the Home folder of each user. Aswell as there being A completely different applications folder in the root directory ??

Because for the vast majority of users, the Applications folder is NOT there. Not sure how you ended up with it there, but mine isn't.

[8tImER]

whatever dude .. no one can sue him .. not even God can. It's written on his goddamn EULA that he is going to erase the home folder if the user puts a hacked key.

There are supposedly countries where EULAs are worth sh?t.

Or at least they are not able to overrule existing law.

So yes, he can be sued for deleting stuff that has nothing to do with is program.

[erp]

Companies have been successfully sued for forcing unfair agreements on their customers. It doesn't matter what the EULA says or how big the lettering is, the only thing that matters is what a jury thinks.

[ShaneSparky_YYZ]

haha

http://homepage.mac.com/digitalschism/choice.html

"Echelon has been discontinued due to lack of support, anyone who previously bought the program may still get support from [email protected], otherwise we no longer sell/distribute the product."

Looks like it got shutdown... hmmm... :yes:

[+Mystic MVC]

lol wouldn't that suck if your legally purchased key acted like it was hacked for a weird reason :p would certainly suck to be u :woot:

[EZRecovery]

so is this deletion program for Mac, Windows or both?

I take it is for MAC users

homepage.mac.com

[Bearded Kirklander]

haha

http://homepage.mac.com/digitalschism/choice.html

"Echelon has been discontinued due to lack of support, anyone who previously bought the program may still get support from [email protected], otherwise we no longer sell/distribute the product."

Looks like it got shutdown... hmmm... :yes:

He shut it down himself, or so the Google searches indicate. Got tired of being ripped off, so bailed on the project and basically said "Fine, then screw you pirate scumbags - I am outta here."

[joker999]

this is just ****ing wrong, what if i put wrong numbers then it delete my Home folder , i say BLAME them

[Emon]

Companies have been successfully sued for forcing unfair agreements on their customers. It doesn't matter what the EULA says or how big the lettering is, the only thing that matters is what a jury thinks.

so I wonder why all these stupid Spyware companies are not getting sued by any people. They are doing the same thing ..

[Rudy]

Google is your friend. :)

http://www.ngemu.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-3480.html

He did different things, changing in different versions. One was acting like the program was burning valid CD's, but in reality the CD's were corrupt or blank after the end of the run, costing you a CD-R. He also deleted the program itself, corrupted the file system, deleted system files and a few other things, depending on which users you talked to. I believe he stopped eventually, but the damage to his reputation was done.

i remember years ago when CDRWIN was THE software to burn cue files but with all that stuff the author did, people started using other programs

[JkFliPflOp]

Nevermind, already asked.

[tapo]

Just to clear up some things for a few people:

1. This software deletes a user's home directory. The home directory is located in /Users/username and contains a user's personal data such as Preferences and Music, as well as the contents of the desktop. Having it deleted makes it like a stock copy of OS X for the user.

2. This program, like what any other virus or trojan on OS X could do, cannot venture outside the home directory, so the rest of the system is safe. Applications are once again, not in the home directory by default, they're in /Applications. But on Macs, an application usually dosn't come with a folder and a bunch of DLLs, it's just an application, and you can move it wherever you want without fear of breaking anything. So it would be a problem if you simply left Applications in your home folder or on the desktop.

3. This program (a video file conversion program, frontend to ffmpeg) deletes the home directory if you're using a stolen serial, but due to user backlash (thank god) was removed in version 1.1. Since then, the program was discontinued.

See? Now you don't need to read the thread! ;)

[idbuythatforadollar]

i would still think it's acceptable, go out and buy the software if you don't want to something like that, it's worth the money. (and no, i am not saying you didn't buy it, i am just making a generalization)

how about if it was a bargin copy of XP that you got from eBay? ;)

Would you still be so willing to risk having your hard drive formatted because you can't tell if the key is legitamate?

[Starman]

Jesus, this guy should be tarred and feathered. It's well known that some serial number algorithms get hacked/reverse engineered, and some poor sap will have his entire life practically wiped away if a pirate happens to get the same # as a legit user.

This is BAD and this jerkoff will NEVER have a good reputation. I write Mac shareware and never, EVER have I even considered doing ANYTHING like this.

Here's what would be deleted:

Music

Pictures

Documents

Email

Applications (Panther has a /Users/username/Applications folder)

This is just wrong. This guy should get sued until his ass bleeds.

Mike

[electic102]

Nah, it would be worse. It would destroy everything. And software-destroy-hardware destruction is possible. Actually, one virus did the first thing I said in that post. :whistle: Would you rather lose your whole computer than a few files... :ninja: :whistle:

This is something that HP would do