Denuvo allegedly protected its own anti-piracy software with pirated anti-piracy software

[Cal Jeffrey]

Even though it seems to have been getting cracked left and right recently, Denuvo anti-piracy software has been a thorn in the side of software pirates since it was first introduced. However, in a bizarre and ironic twist, Denuvo Software Solutions is now being accused of piracy.

Update (Jun 6): We've been alerted of an update on this story. In short, Denuvo and VMProtect have either solved their differences or there were no differences in the first place. A short blog post on VMProtect's website reads today: "Referring to this circumstance we want to clarify that DENUVO GmbH had the right to use our software in the past and has the right to use it currently as well as in the future."

Clearly Denuvo is no gamer's favorite company -- though in all fairness, they're barely to blame for creating anti-piracy technology, while it's more game publishers' fault for utilizing it at the expense of troubling paying customers. Anyhow, this statement from VMProtect should put this topic to rest.

The original story follows below:

According to TorrentFreak, VMProtect Software has accused Denuvo Software Solutions of using an unlicensed version of its anti-piracy software. Three years ago, the two companies had been in talks regarding licensing terms. Denuvo wanted to use VMProtect's anti-piracy solution to protect its own software. VMProtect made it clear to Denuvo that because of the nature of the software, the standard $500 licensing fee would not be enough. This assertion makes sense considering Denuvo would be integrated into thousands of other pieces of software. Despite this, Denuvo decided to purchase a $500 license and use the software regardless.

It is worth noting that these allegations should be taken with a bit of skepticism since the source is an anonymous poster on a Russian forum that goes by the handle drVanо who claims to be a developer at VMProtect.

He maintains that VMProtect has informed Denuvo that they have revoked its license and offered to accept a modest compensation package, but Denuvo ignored the deal. VMProtect then contacted anti-virus company Sophos and requested that it start flagging “offending versions of Denuvo as potential malware.” The move to flag Denuvo as malware is not much more than a Bandaid to the larger concern, but drVano says that VMProtect is in the process of formulating a formal complaint with it ultimately leading to legal proceedings.

"In two years time I’m afraid there will be no free games to play in the world." – Chinese cracking group 3DM

Denuvo's anti-piracy software had been very effective in preventing piracy groups from cracking games. The software, which is a “secondary encryption system” used to strengthen the DRM in games, was so good that for a while it had some software pirates ready to quit. Then last summer the cracking group CONSPIR4CY released Rise of the Tomb Raider with a cracked version of Denuvo.

Since then other games such as NieR Automata and Prey have been cracked very quickly. In an attempt to combat its rapidly increasing failure rate, Denuvo expanded the number of checks the software conducts, specifically on the recently released game Rime.

TorrentFreak reported the new checks as “out of control” as they significantly affect performance and load times. The software allegedly performs 300,000 triggers “during initial game launch and savegame [sic] loading.”

That is compared to the 1000 checks that the software executed in previous games. It also calls for anywhere from 10 to 30 triggers per second during gameplay and after 30 minutes of playing the software has performed over 2 million checks.

Despite the ridiculous increase of validation Denuvo added for Rime, the game was still cracked just days after it was released reported Polygon. Rime developer Tequila Works has been receiving numerous complaints about the title’s performance, and the company said they would remove Denuvo if it was cracked. True to its work Tequila Works has released a DRM-free version of Rime and released it to Steam.

Top image credit: Kotaku AU

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/69572-denuvo-allegedly-protected-own-anti-piracy-software-pirated.html

 

[davislane1]

A notorious DRM dev commits piracy? A picture is worth a thousand words.

 

[Squid Surprise]

It's a bit of a clickbait title.... they aren't really pirating the software.... they PAID for the software, but are using it for more than the company is entitled to - according to some anonymous guy claiming to work for VMProtect that is...

That's a little different than using pirated software.

 

[Skjorn]

Haha finally. Invasive Deunvo charging out the *** to save each game from pirates cause games are fkn $60. Then they get caught trying to save money like a pirate..cant beat em, join em I guess LOL.

Saiyin it for years.. DOWN WITH DENUVO

 

[Darth Shiv]

I have a feeling this is a beatup. It's standard software licensing practice to license the software PER DEVELOPER who actually works on coding OR get a company license. If the company has only ONE person who writes the VMProtect wrapper code, it's standard to get the single user license. Every 3rd party vendor we work with this has been the case.

 

[Evernessince]

It's a bit of a clickbait title.... they aren't really pirating the software.... they PAID for the software, but are using it for more than the company is entitled to - according to some anonymous guy claiming to work for VMProtect that is...

That's a little different than using pirated software.

They are using the software outside the licensing terms and they were specifically warned before hand. This isn't just piracy, it's much worse and Denuvo will likely have to pay a cost for each game sold that includes their IP.

 

[Evernessince]

I have a feeling this is a beatup. It's standard software licensing practice to license the software PER DEVELOPER who actually works on coding OR get a company license. If the company has only ONE person who writes the VMProtect wrapper code, it's standard to get the single user license. Every 3rd party vendor we work with this has been the case.

It's not quite the same here though. Denuvo is using their product as a part of their own product. In other words, for each game Denuvo is in so is VMProtect. Not to mention that $500 is far too small a sum.

 

[Darth Shiv]

It's not quite the same here though. Denuvo is using their product as a part of their own product. In other words, for each game Denuvo is in so is VMProtect. Not to mention that $500 is far too small a sum.

Yes that's what I'm saying. We license email components for our product for example. We don't NEED to pay per site we sell our product to. We pay the license per dev or for the company. At WORST their company license is the cost of 2x single licenses.

Looking at VMProduct, their licenses appear to be the same as every vendor we deal with. Worst case, Company license. Not per customer. Denuvo should only have to pay at worst $999.

As I said, this looks like a beatup. I am completely anti-DRM as it hurts the legit people more than pirates but here Denuvo looks to be perfectly fine.

 

[Squid Surprise]

They are using the software outside the licensing terms and they were specifically warned before hand. This isn't just piracy, it's much worse and Denuvo will likely have to pay a cost for each game sold that includes their IP.

We don't actually know that... all we have is the posting of an anonymous user.... but this is still not really "piracy".... the software was not gained by illegal methods, but purchased. If the price needs to be haggled over, that's another matter...

 

[pengwinpiper]

To those saying it isn't piracy because they PAID for it, that's true of any pirated software. Someone has to pay for the original software, and then distribute illegal copies. In this case, Denuvo was using the illegal copies themselves.

 

[Gemini Iceland]

They are using the software outside the licensing terms and they were specifically warned before hand. This isn't just piracy, it's much worse and Denuvo will likely have to pay a cost for each game sold that includes their IP.

We don't actually know that... all we have is the posting of an anonymous user.... but this is still not really "piracy".... the software was not gained by illegal methods, but purchased. If the price needs to be haggled over, that's another matter...

They bought a licence to use a software. What they are doing is shipping that software with their own software to all their customers. That is called stealing. It is like you would buy Microsoft Office and then give every customer at you store (if you had one) the cd-key to use Microsoft Office.

 

[Squid Surprise]

They bought a licence to use a software. What they are doing is shipping that software with their own software to all their customers. That is called stealing. It is like you would buy Microsoft Office and then give every customer at you store (if you had one) the cd-key to use Microsoft Office.

We don't actually know that they are doing that, however.... we just have the word of an anonymous poster on a website... And yes, if this is true, it is illegal - but not exactly the same as using pirated software... different kind of illegal here...

When you play a pirated game, you have paid NOTHING for it... you know it's illegal, and if caught, you pay the price.... But purchasing software and then ALLEGEDLY using it for more than the license allows, while illegal, isn't the same.

 

[Evernessince]

We don't actually know that... all we have is the posting of an anonymous user.... but this is still not really "piracy".... the software was not gained by illegal methods, but purchased. If the price needs to be haggled over, that's another matter...

Yes of course. I was speaking as if this report were true.

 

[merikafyeah]

Asking to flag Denuvo as malware? I have no complaints about that.