Copy Protection Noshing, Taking a new look at Programs Options Track this topic Email this topic Print this topic Download this topic Subscribe to this forum Display Modes Outline Switch to: Standard Switch to: Linear+

[Spike]

The recent questions threads about the matrix and multiple copies of programs, Armies of Agents and 'what happens if I load Agent X into a commlink that is not on the wireless, turn it off.... what happens to my Agent...' and other stuff has got me thinking about the copy protection in the 2070 era and 'how things work'. Not everything is going to be rational or practical, but then not everything in life is... ask any five year old.

Before I move into heavy speculation, I'm going to put forth the fact that I haven't exactly tried to compare this to RAW. I'm working on speculation, after all, and I think I'm sort of working inside the 'gaps' of the game but I might stray a bit.

Now, we know that a commlink can run a set number of 'programs' at one time, but there isn't a limit on how many are loaded, that all nodes in a PAN can be used for storage, even if it might not make obvious sense...(whaddya mean my browse software is on my assault rifle I had to leave behind!??)

All of this is known. I've already speculated that you can abstract out and essentially handwave hordes of identical programs into the single die roll... multiple copies become fluffy ways to describe your 'attack' or 'Agent' rather than dice multiples....as you can bet your sweet bippy that hackers in 2070 are already doing shit like this, after all, tehre are more of them than there are us IRL people speculating on what they might try...


We also know that copy protection can be broken in a threshold 10-20 test, and a glitch can ruin the original you are trying to copy. Now, lets look at it a bit closer.


Lets suggest that at least half the copy protection is physical. Programs come encoded on special datasofts. They actually RUN off that datasoft, that soft has to be slotted for you to have access to it, period. Now, you can make a copy of it that is your active Matrix copy, and that copy can run anywhere you tell it to run... but you can only have that one copy from that one soft. The older copy is automatically overwritten by the 'Soft' when you try to load up a new copy, the copy is in constant communication with the sourcecode on the 'soft', and if it ever loses that contact, it self deletes.

Breaking the copy protection allows you to copy the data onto another datasoft, and even have mulitple softs running the same 'program', thus multiple copies can be running concurrently, each communicating with their own parent soft. But they can't just run mulitple iterations, the nature of the software is a check against that.

The only way to beat THAT is to either recode the software, removing these built in checks.... thus making it entirely a 'net entity', or code software from the ground up to work in that fashion. Either one of which will essentially be an extended 'building' task, taking months to years to accomplish for high end software.

Now, you CAN do it, so the problems with hackers with thousands of agents running around (even with the abstraction element) is still around. I mean, what I'm suggesting is a violation of all the basic Matrix programming 'laws', but those laws were designed by the corps to try to keep a lock on their 'intellectual property', rather than the nature of data flow.

But not entirely a problem. See, when you run a normal Program (with the 'base station' datasoft slotted in) you can fairly easily reload the program under normal operations. It isn't lost when the Node its on is shut down, destroyed or otherwise corrupted, the actual hardwired program is fairly durable. Not so much the hacked 'warez. First of all the uploaded copies might be more vulnerable to attack software, lacking teh error correcting hard data to refer back to. Second, once a given copy is corrupted it's useless. You can't fix it, re-rez it, anything. If the node goes down, the program is lost as well. Sure, you might be able to completely reload it from the original copy you made, that only makes sense after all, but you lose everything that active copy did prior to that. Never mind that the original hardcopy is, by default, not going to be hardwired into the architecture of the chip it's in. That means if it's loaded up on your commlink and you get hit by an attack program there is a chance the hacked ware is going to get corrupted (that's what attacks DO...)

But the big issue is this: Only hacked warez can be found 'online' in data havens. And those strictly E-copies (to use old terms) are already probably full of bugs, not to mention often being out of date. You CAN"T get reliable programs out of a Datahaven, not unless you can get a hardwired chip too.

Now, this makes the Matrix a tad more Gibsonian. A 'Chinese Military Icebreaker' is a real, and valuable thing, because it IS so hard to get ahold of, or to share. The GM can hand teh player a 'One Use Super Hack' Datasoft and make it mean something. Is it Shadowrun? Maybe not, but I don't think I've just re-written the Matrix either