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Oculus Rift ANTI-PIRACY Update allows for even more Piracy

Maxxgold
Rising Star
http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/05/23/oculus-rift-anti-piracy-update-allows-for-even-more-piracy

BY JOE SKREBELS An Oculus Rift security update seen by many to be a response to Revive - the mod that allows players to play Oculus-exclusive games on the HTC Vive VR headset - has backfired, allowing for full-scale game piracy.

Talking to Motherboard, Revive's secretive developer, Libre VR explained that the update - which now includes a pre-game launch check to see if an Oculus is being used to play - actually allows for the entire security check to be bypassed.

It means that Revive can now technically be used to stop the system being able to tell if a copy of a game was legitimately acquired.

On Reddit, Libre VR said: "I still do not support piracy, do not use this library for pirated copies." He also confirmed that if he found a way to keep Revive's core functionality without bypassing the security checks and allowing for piracy, he would implement it.

When Revive was first released, Oculus told IGN: "This is a hack, and we don’t condone it. Users should expect that hacked games won’t work indefinitely, as regular software updates to games, apps, and our platform are likely to break hacked software."

It's likely that the company will now seek to counter this latest loophole sooner rather than later. IGN has reached out for comment.

37 REPLIES 37

jab
Rising Star
DRM is a fundamentally flawed concept, since it will only punish legal users with artificial limitations.

And speaking from experience. Trying to DRM restrict the coder/hacker type, is almost guaranteed to backfire. Nothing motivates a hacker like having a previously open system closed in his face.

Just look at what happened when Sony removed the Linux support on PS3. A feature nobody really cared about until they removed it.



Syrellaris
Rising Star
@CharlieHobbes Actually they did not close an "hack". Since Revive before this update still did DRM checks, it in fact was doing nothing illegal. Oculus closed it, because they don't want rift games working on a vive. This is what a closed system is and what Oculus apparently wants, even though they have said over and over again, they aren't going that route.

They pretty much forced him to go the illegal route. If they had just left it as it is, no harm would have been done.
Specially since both the vive and the rift are just screens.

Also I never stated that Oculus is fully responsible, just partially. You can't really compare this to a house either...

CharlieHobbes
Rising Star


@CharlieHobbes Actually they did not close an "hack". Since Revive before this update still did DRM checks, it in fact was doing nothing illegal. Oculus closed it, because they don't want rift games working on a vive. This is what a closed system is and what Oculus apparently wants, even though they have said over and over again, they aren't going that route.

They pretty much forced him to go the illegal route. If they had just left it as it is, no harm would have been done.
Specially since both the vive and the rift are just screens.

Also I never stated that Oculus is fully responsible, just partially. You can't really compare this to a house either...


Ah but you seem to be working from an initial flaw in your reasoning.

it was a hack because it allowed a Vive, which is an unsupported device, to play content that was created to be played on a Rift. 

Wether or not the player has purchased the game on Oculus home has no bearing on the fact that if Oculus decides that this software is not to be used with a Vive, any application that allows the software to run on a Vive is a hack. 

If I buy an Xbox game I am not entitled to run it on a Playstation. Even if there was 3rd party software that would make this possible. 

You are trying to make out as if Oculus is treading on your basic human rights, which they are not. 
They are owners of a platform and as such they are allowed to do this, especially since it is clear that the Devs that built the software in the first place have agreed to launch software on the Oculus Home platform. 

Your assertion that HMDs are just screens is fundamentally flawed and shows there are limits to your understanding of the current VR landscape. 

You would be correct in saying the HMD is just a peripheral if it wasn't for the case of the SDK needed to drive the HMD and it's functionality. 

If all this functionality was available much like a graphics driver in Windows then you could argue that the HMD is just the peripheral, currently however this is not yet the case (both for Vive and Oculus) so this does not apply. 

I can compare this to a house, and you, like many others are essentially saying that an owner (in this case Oculus, owning the Oculus Home environment) has no say on who comes onto their property (in this case Vive users) 

This is blatantly incorrect.

The fact that you own a Vive does not mean you have a basic right to access all software for all platforms. 

Now, moving on to the more interesting bit. 
You can argue a case that locking Vive owners out of Oculus home is an unwise choice (unwise being different from violating some sort of right you cooked up in your mind) and that this will have consequences for the success of the Rift, or financial impact to Oculus. 

in this you may be right and I would like to see a different approach too.

This however does not change any of the above, and creating functionality where the platform owner does not want the functionality to exist is a textbook example of a hack. 

Not only that but the creator of Revive apparently feels so entitled to create this functionality that he has now also broken an anti-piracy mechanic. 
His claims of this somehow being Oculus' fault are ludicrous at best and borderline insane at worst. 

Oculus does not force him to create a hack to circumvent a security they built in. 

Contrary to popular believe there is no defense for software piracy as a form of civil disobedience, you are dealing with property law, not with an oppressive government where you could be entitled to disobey or even rebel if your rights were being tread on. 

In the realm of software, you have no rights other than to choose not to buy the product if you do not like the owners policies. 

Vote with your wallet, don't try to drive arguments based around false entitlement or rights that do not in fact exist.


Synthetic
Rising Star
only maybe 100 or so people know whats really going on

the rest have read the story on the internet that puts the blame on oculus, which is wrong....

 all the negative posting about oculus has finally led to oculus being wrong by default no matter what they do

CrashFu
Consultant


Honestly, Oculus did this intentionally because they want a closed system. It is rather obvious. Yet, Gamers do not want Closed Systems. It is one of the most hated things on Consoles and it will be one of the most hated things in VR.


By Gamers you specifically mean those pretentious "PC Master Race" types, right?

"most hated things on consoles"   Only to people who look down on consoles to begin with.  Anyone who has ever owned and loved a gaming console is looking at all this melodrama and going, "Why is this even a big deal? Platform exclusivity is not a new thing, not even on PC, and it's natural for companies to oppose the piracy of their software."

The PC Master Race thinks they should own VR and dictate what it's supposed to be just because it requires high-end PCs?  Sorry, VR is a brand new medium and it's not going to be held back by the unwritten rules of PC gaming.
It's hard being the voice of reason when you're surrounded by unreasonable people.

jab
Rising Star

CharlieHobbes
Rising Star

jab said:



I don't quite understand why this article keeps being linked to as the author is clearly going into the article with an attitude strongly based in his personal opinion and an incorrect premise. 

He seems to feel that the existence of Revive is justified just because Oculus chooses to close off their store for the Vive (for now) 

This is a false premise, Oculus has every right to choose to do so and the existence of Revive is not justified. 

Boohoo, a hack stopped working. Let's jump on the Oculus hate wagon and get some clicks.

Syrellaris
Rising Star

CrashFu said:



Honestly, Oculus did this intentionally because they want a closed system. It is rather obvious. Yet, Gamers do not want Closed Systems. It is one of the most hated things on Consoles and it will be one of the most hated things in VR.


By Gamers you specifically mean those pretentious "PC Master Race" types, right?

"most hated things on consoles"   Only to people who look down on consoles to begin with.  Anyone who has ever owned and loved a gaming console is looking at all this melodrama and going, "Why is this even a big deal? Platform exclusivity is not a new thing, not even on PC, and it's natural for companies to oppose the piracy of their software."

The PC Master Race thinks they should own VR and dictate what it's supposed to be just because it requires high-end PCs?  Sorry, VR is a brand new medium and it's not going to be held back by the unwritten rules of PC gaming.


Any gamers, consoles, pc etc. Content locked to a specific console or just to pc is stupid and is the most hated thing in the Gaming Community.  I don't know how you found "pc master race"  in that.. Btw, for your information, i detest these so called PC Master race kiddies.

Syrellaris
Rising Star
@Charliehobbes  Sorry, I respectfully, fully disagree with you. Also, I do know that the Rift requires and SDK, I also know what an SDK is and even so, the Rift is still a screen and not a platform like say, the playstation 4. Specially so, since Oculus Home is not required to make the Rift work.


CharlieHobbes
Rising Star



CrashFu said:



Honestly, Oculus did this intentionally because they want a closed system. It is rather obvious. Yet, Gamers do not want Closed Systems. It is one of the most hated things on Consoles and it will be one of the most hated things in VR.


By Gamers you specifically mean those pretentious "PC Master Race" types, right?

"most hated things on consoles"   Only to people who look down on consoles to begin with.  Anyone who has ever owned and loved a gaming console is looking at all this melodrama and going, "Why is this even a big deal? Platform exclusivity is not a new thing, not even on PC, and it's natural for companies to oppose the piracy of their software."

The PC Master Race thinks they should own VR and dictate what it's supposed to be just because it requires high-end PCs?  Sorry, VR is a brand new medium and it's not going to be held back by the unwritten rules of PC gaming.


Any gamers, consoles, pc etc. Content locked to a specific console or just to pc is stupid and is the most hated thing in the Gaming Community.  I don't know how you found "pc master race"  in that.. Btw, for your information, i detest these so called PC Master race kiddies.


Fortunately being hated for certain behaviours and being succesful in business aren't mutually exclusive.