YoYo Games / Softwrap Crappy License

[tinjaw]

And you can only install it on Tuesdays, when it is the month of December, and the wind is less than 3 mph, and you use a cassette tape to load the program after downloading it via a 300-baud acoustic coupled modem.

WTF

Dear 

Please save this email and print a copy for safe-keeping as confirmation that you have purchased  Game_Maker for $ 25.00
Net sales price   $ 25.00

License holder: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Purchase Reference: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Purchase Date xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Having purchased this software title through Softwrap Limited you are free to use it on your PC only, however you may also transfer your license free of charge once to your laptop or any other machine. This can be done by re-installing the software title on your new machine, running it, selecting "Reinstall" and entering your License Holder name and Reference number details as provided above.

In the event you no longer have these details please email support@softwrap.com with your full name, approximate date of purchase, first and last 4 digits of the 16 digit credit card number you used to effect the purchase as well as the name of the software title you are wishing to re-install.

For internet re-installations an internet connection will be required. For telephone re-installations please call one of the numbers listed in the contact section of the Softwrap website and a Softwrap agent will complete the process with you.

In the event that you require any assistance activating / licensing your software please contact the Softwrap support centre via email at support@softwrap.com. If you have a technical problem with the title which does not involve licensing, please contact the author at support@yoyogames.com. More details are usually found within their application or on their website.

Kind Regards

Softwrap Limited

SoftwrapSales@Softwrap.com

[scancode]

And you can only install it on Tuesdays, when it is the month of December, and the wind is less than 3 mph, and you use a cassette tape to load the program after downloading it via a 300-baud acoustic coupled modem.

WTF

Having purchased this software title through Softwrap Limited you are free to use it on your PC only, however you may also transfer your license free of charge once to your laptop or any other machine. This can be done by re-installing the software title on your new machine, running it, selecting "Reinstall" and entering your License Holder name and Reference number details as provided above.

It can, and does get worse.

5. Installation. The Wrapped Title can only be installed once on the User's computer, and hard drive failure, or installation on a new computer, may render the Wrapped Title unusable. In such an event, the User must phone the Softwrap toll free number and show proof of purchase via a transaction number to unwrap the Title for further use or alternatively the User may show proof of purchase online via the Softwrap wizards and transaction number in order to unwrap the Title for further use. This will only be done once for the transfer to a new computer or disk, and thereafter the licence must be re-purchased.

Luckily, Softwrap is easy to get rid of.
*coughcough*

[Chisaku]

I hope I'm not completely necro-posting here, but they've gotten rid of Softwrap in 8.1!
To update to that version from Game Maker 8 you'll need to upgrade your license in the YoYo Games store. When you upgrade, you'll receive a completely new code/key which you'll have to activate in Game Maker 8.1, which has to be downloaded separately. I'm not sure if this allows for more than the two installs in the Softwrap license, but my key activated just fine.

Here's the newspost for it. The "Pro" version has been renamed to Standard. I hope they're not coming to come up with a new version named Pro/Epic/Business/Gold/MEGASUPERAWESOME and then charging more money for it. xD

[scancode]

Current Features:

   

• No more Softwrap!

I love how it is the FIRST listed feature :3

[f0dder]

Current Features:

   

• No more Softwrap!

I love how it is the FIRST listed feature :3

Lulz

[Renegade]

First new feature~! That's cute!

It's amazing just how utterly douchey some licensing can be.

I'm all for getting paid, but making licensing like that just seems... well... icky.

That being said, the gaming industry certainly has it's fair share of piracy.

A "phone home" license check to make sure that the software is only installed on X computers seems reasonable to me. I do hate "activation" licensing though where you only get X activations. That sucks when you burn a machine and need to reinstall the OS and everything.

[f0dder]

Renegade: the only thing activation systems hurts is legitimate users. Just about every protection system out there so far has been pummeled to death by reverse engineers, often resulting in a much more enjoyable end-user experience. Apart from STEAM games, which generally have pretty unobtrusive protections, I download cracks for every game I've legitimately purchased, to remove slowdowns and annoyances.

[Renegade]

Renegade: the only thing activation systems hurts is legitimate users. Just about every protection system out there so far has been pummeled to death by reverse engineers, often resulting in a much more enjoyable end-user experience. Apart from STEAM games, which generally have pretty unobtrusive protections, I download cracks for every game I've legitimately purchased, to remove slowdowns and annoyances.

I know that if I used phone home system to check for activations with a machine signature, I'd have a lot more money in my pocket than I do now. There are pros and cons. The point is to make it usable and convenient while keeping the mostly honest people honest. I don't play games much, and haven't seen many real PITAs there.

I remember cracking one program I used a long time ago, then buying the license. I was bored and had some time to kill. I have a few friends that are very good at cracking, but only because they also do licensing. To me, it's all about intent.

But I wouldn't go downloading cracks... I'm too paranoid about malware. It's too easy to write. My guess is that security software only picks up a small portion of malware. Maybe I'm just too paranoid about it. Dunno. I'll stay on the safe side though.

[f0dder]

Get cracks made by one of the reputable(!) zero day groups, and get them from a safe place - there's publicly available stuff that's pretty much guaranteed to be clean. Relying on google searches or thepiratebay is a good recipe for malware infections, though.

There's a lot of PITAs with games, especially from the big brand companies. Driver-based protections that cause system instability, messed up schemes that will randomly shut down games (without proper error messages) if you have something as innocent as Process Explorer running, protection schemes where critical game paths are done in (slow!) VM code, draconian single-machine activation schemes, systems that require you to be online to play (even for single-player games w/o multiplayer content!), et cetera.

Plenty of reasons to always run a cracked version of your legitimately purchased games - if you must have that game. I prefer to vote with my wallet, I don't believe EA or the other fsckers deserve my cash.

[JavaJones]

I know that if I used phone home system to check for activations with a machine signature, I'd have a lot more money in my pocket than I do now. There are pros and cons. The point is to make it usable and convenient while keeping the mostly honest people honest. I don't play games much, and haven't seen many real PITAs there.

Or roughly the same amount of money but fewer people using pirated versions. So, a smaller user base, but possibly no greater income. Remember, a pirated copy is not reasonably substituted 1:1 for lost sales, not by a long shot. In many cases if someone can't pirate your product, they'll just use something else, free or pirated. I'm not excusing that behavior, just saying the realities of the market actually make piracy protection pretty useless beyond the very basics of casual license sharing (i.e. someone gives their friend a CD of an app to install that they're already using themselves; if you can prevent this you're preventing 99% of the piracy that's actually preventable and matters).

- Oshyan