Market place piracy protection ?

[dragonflightdesign]

This is just in passing: does anyone know if Microsoft have fixed their cracked MSFS DRM yet? When that Russian site first broke the encryption, they made a mistake somewhere. Their decrypted versions were a few bytes different from the OEM (I know - I develop for PILOT'S) and so with great glee I set out to create a WASM CRC checker that would detect a pirated version. It worked - perfectly!

Then the motherless sons caught up with their error and it's no longer possible to tell the difference 😠😠😠😠

[Beagle12]

Care Factor ?

[Luis Hernandez]

On 7/22/2020 at 2:37 PM, ark said:

I'd like to ask again, does anyone know if MSFS will support the add-on.xlm method or something similar?  There is likely to be a number of updates to the sim and it would be nice not to have to reinstall addons.

Well, actually MSFS has a better method (in my opinion). Check either Community or Official folders: the folder structure is the same one as in the P3D addons, without the need of creating an add-on.xml file (although editing JSON files are a black art for me). That's why, for freeware, a simple drag-and-drop usually works. 

Edited January 11, 2024 by Luis Hernandez

[RandallR]

It's not uncommon that end-users end up with pirated software.  I did.  As one who works in the multimedia industry I have to have specific software for my work that is very, very expensive.  Using a trusted discount software online store that had a decent reputation, I downloaded, installed and registered the new versions that I needed for some major savings.  I used the suite successfully for several years.

When I received a communication from the actual creating company that a major update was available, I logged into what I thought was my account and ordered the update.  Within 24 hours I received warning messages from the company that I was using pirated software and was threatened with legal action.  I immediately got on the phone, reached a reasonable representative, explained that I was unaware the software was illegal and worked out an arrangement for the real thing that fits my budget.

The last thing I would ever do is purchase illegal software or support in any way this type of criminal behavior, but it is so rampant that it's difficult to avoid at times.

[Delta111]

21 hours ago, RandallR said:

I downloaded, installed and registered the new versions that I needed for some major savings

 Clue #1....

If its too good to be true, it IS....

 

[RandallR]

4 hours ago, Delta111 said:

 Clue #1....

If its too good to be true, it IS....

 

Yes - but in this case, the site had been recommended to me by those that I trusted within the education and nonprofit communities.  These were persons that had already established good reputations, and to this day I still trust them.  I believe that they were also mislead.

Those of us that worked within these environments had nowhere near the resources of the regular corporate world and we were forced to find the best (and legal) way possible to obtain software.  I have to give a thumbs-up to the company I was dealing with for being amenable to my situation and helping me out.  They have a major world-wide lock on much of the software the multimedia production community needs and they certainly didn't have a reputation of being "caring".

When it comes to the flight simulation world, it's even more difficult (many more players/individuals) and it requires a good community like this to suss out the miscreants.

[Mike44]

Doesn't encrypt the Market place addons? I have not yet purchased anything, hence my question. I thought it to be piracy safe?