Aren't EULAs great?

[janev]

I was going to give quake live a try, but having stumbled across this thread showing a choice exert from their EULA I'm no longer that keen. That is a ridiculous security breach to prevent a few hackers. Just in case anyone else missed that or cares.

Now where did I place my tinfoil hat.

[SlackerLinux]

good read and i dont like the EULA but they need to add all that to cover everything punkbuster has to do to find cheats
im not sure what punkbuster does exactly(hell noone prob does is since its closed source) but everything makes sense from scanning memory for hacks present aswell as modification of memory being used by the game then file scanning looking for the filenames of cheats they prob have several server-side detection features too which when triggered takes a screenshot so they can indeed see if your running hax since some often modify the screen(wallhax etc) taking hardware info would prob be used to identify and track any hackers since any game admin should know how hard it is to just use their ip address/some random data in a file to make a "guid" which can be easily deleted

punkbuster works cause it can do stuff like that clientside and ofcourse its far from perfect it does do better then what limited detection you can do server-side only(which is prone to false positives etc) maybe we can get rid of punkbuster and similar anticheat software if more events like this:http://tremulous.net/forum/index.php?topic=13105.0 happened.

[kevlarman]

good read and i dont like the EULA but they need to add all that to cover everything punkbuster has to do to find cheats
im not sure what punkbuster does exactly(hell noone prob does is since its closed source) but everything makes sense from scanning memory for hacks present aswell as modification of memory being used by the game then file scanning looking for the filenames of cheats they prob have several server-side detection features too which when triggered takes a screenshot so they can indeed see if your running hax since some often modify the screen(wallhax etc) taking hardware info would prob be used to identify and track any hackers since any game admin should know how hard it is to just use their ip address/some random data in a file to make a "guid" which can be easily deleted

punkbuster works cause it can do stuff like that clientside and ofcourse its far from perfect it does do better then what limited detection you can do server-side only(which is prone to false positives etc) maybe we can get rid of punkbuster and similar anticheat software if more events like this:http://tremulous.net/forum/index.php?topic=13105.0 happened.

it scans your entire memory for signatures of known cheats, which means if you're playing quakelive and someone pastes the signature of a battlefield cheat into an irc channel you're in, you're going to get banned. it doesn't however do very much to stop actual cheating. in the case of quakelive, the linux version is much more tame (it doesn't require admin and therefore can't read /dev/mem), but still not particularly pleasant to deal with.

[janev]

It was this part that had me worried the most

"Licensee understands and agrees that the information that may be inspected and reported by PunkBuster software includes, but is not limited to, Licensee's Internet Protocol Address, devices and any files residing on the hard-drive and in the memory of the computer on which PunkBuster software is installed."

Now that may seem trivial for many people...

Some will say you shouldn't have anything private connected to the internet in the first place. While generally good advice, I hate the idea that the burden to secure information could be legally shifted over to the end user, when all they intended to do was play a video game. A quick poll tells me that many people don't maintain multiple systems or read EULAs. Least of all younger gamers. PB may not intend to abuse consumer's information but in my view a clause like that goes against basic consumer protection. What do you think?

[Winnie the Pooh]

OP's reference thread seemed to say:

In order to protect you, we're going to invade you. That way, we can make sure no one else hacks.. only us.

[Plague Bringer]

I don't think they're going to find your kiddy porn. No worries, fellas.

[KillerWhale]

The section about your hard drive is included so that they have permission to delete any extra files out of the Quake Live folder, from updates and cheats or whatnot.

[Cadynum]

That's what I'd expect from an anticheat to be honest.
I doubt it's very efficient catching a motivated and talented cheater though.

it scans your entire memory for signatures of known cheats, which means if you're playing quakelive and someone pastes the signature of a battlefield cheat into an irc channel you're in, you're going to get banned. it doesn't however do very much to stop actual cheating. in the case of quakelive, the linux version is much more tame (it doesn't require admin and therefore can't read /dev/mem), but still not particularly pleasant to deal with.

That gets way more fun if you can send it through the ingame chat

[Cadynum]

Now where did I place my tinfoil hat.

Cant you create a new user in linux with minimal privileges and isolate it from everything else if you want to test the game?
(The game is pretty boring btw, not really worth the minimal effort if you ask me)