Sims 2 Bon Voyage Bugs and SecurROM Flame-O-Rama [BV patch download at risk]

[JCSpencer]

Since there's so much Sony love going around I thought I'd chip this in:

In Sony BMG's latest triumph in public relations, its chief lawyer has argued that copying a song you already own (such as onto your own PC from a legally purchased CD) is stealing.

"When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song. [Making a copy of a purchased song is just] a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'," she said.

Not surprisingly, Sony BMG head of litigation Jennifer Pariser's comments in the US have sparked plenty of reaction. In her ideal world you would pay separately for each device you listen to a song on - a Sony device, I'm sure it's safe to presume.

Out of curiosity, what's your BBS username, Teren Rox? Would love to see what you posted that got you banned. LOL. I'm working on it myself.

[lewisb40]

I for one after reading MaxoidSam's post and the reply to some questions, like what the analysis report show:

OK, here is what is in the SecuROM analysis file, according to Sony DADC:
"The launch analysis file gives a snapshot of what is occuring at an attempted launch.

This includes:

*type of operating system
*drives / drive types
*loaded drivers
*installed software
*running processes
*running drivers"

Please let's not add to this adventure with posts that say "that's from Sony...of course that's what they're going to say!" Either you trust it or you don't. There's really not much more I can add. I hope some will be willing to help so that we can get the answers we all want. Thanks.

-sam

I would not send a report! More invasion and people are being sued for music copyright laws. Be careful.

[Captain_Shepard]

Securom doesn't have the right to send information of our computers without the people accepting it. It's supposed to be anti-piracy.

Need more proof that's it's spyware?

[Sam the T-man]

Why don't those of you with issues just tell Sam of your concerns, give reasons why you won't send analysis reports? Okay, might be a waste of time, but doesn't hurt to try.

As for this:

In Sony BMG's latest triumph in public relations, its chief lawyer has argued that copying a song you already own (such as onto your own PC from a legally purchased CD) is stealing.

"When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song. [Making a copy of a purchased song is just] a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'," she said.

Not surprisingly, Sony BMG head of litigation Jennifer Pariser's comments in the US have sparked plenty of reaction. In her ideal world you would pay separately for each device you listen to a song on - a Sony device, I'm sure it's safe to presume.

I'm at a loss for words :oogle:

[Captain_Shepard]

I think that SimMaster already recevied enough emails lol

And there's no need to contact since they'll give you a bunch links to FAQ and techn issues.

As for the chief lawyer, that guy gotta be nuts. '' In her ideal world '' ? Of course if the profit went to Sony pocket . Bah I'm tired of senseless capitalism on software. Almost everything you do on the internet is illegal it seems.

[JCSpencer]

Why don't those of you with issues just tell Sam of your concerns, give reasons why you won't send analysis reports? Okay, might be a waste of time, but doesn't hurt to try.

While that is a sound, logical suggestion, unfortunately several people have tried it, and EA is ignoring them to the extreme. Since so many people have already uninstalled SecuROM (often at a cost, since they hired professionals, or reformatted their entire hard drives) they are completely unwilling to reinstall BV just to give them some file that may or may not contain information that is private. Several others refuse to comply because they want a method of discerning what's inside the files first, and even if they *could* read what was inside these mystery files, they are stating that they would refuse to reinstall BV after going through the pain and cost of removing it. Who can blame them? EA has no intention of replacing our games, let alone reimbursing us the cost of repairs.

All of these concerns are being posted in MaxoidSam's thread, but they've so far been ignored, other than a couple of attempts by Sam to convince people their's nothing secret inside the files; but he and the others don't even know what's in there - they had to contact Sony to find out. Heck, even Satan (Microsoft) asks us if it's okay to upload the error files before doing it, and we can examine the file because it's readable in even the most basic word processors.

I also think it's interesting how when anyone posts important *facts*, not merely opinions, they also go unnoticed (or get deleted/banned). However, I would recommend that anyone and everyone that owns Sims head over to the BBS and post at least once, because apparently THAT is how they are making their retarded "official" count of people with problems (number of posters, not number of posts). This kind of count obviously doesn't include the number of people that aren't aware of the problem, fixed it already not realizing it was related to BV, simply don't care to post on the BBS, or possibly don't even know about the BBS. Believe it or not, I was the latter - never realized there was an official BBS. Hell, I've hardly ever visted that lame website other than for patches anyway. And why bother? Other sites like InSim and MATY are 1000x better, more informative, more interactive, and, as Teren Rox put it, people over here aren't stupid.

[Captain_Shepard]

100% right.

There's already lots of people who wasted precious time on contacting the SimMaster and didn't get much out of it, and right now it's imposible since you can't complain because you get banned, if you critisize them as I did and say the hard truth you get banned , if you comment about this the analysis file it may be considered trolling.

As for the patches, I'd prefer a fan made patch then a EAxis patch.

[Sam the T-man]

I didn't know about that :-/ @Teren: Sam's not a SM, he's a Maxoid. Big difference; he's one of the people behind the game, whereas the SMs aren't. The SMs are nothing but moderators, while the Maxoids are the people you should (in theory) be able to approach with game issues. It's disturbing that the Maxoids are ignoring so many people who have these issues, and trying to pass them off as either small or non-existent.

I don't generally visit the BBS either; every time I've visited a link to that place I'm reminded why I stay away. Here's much nicer, and home to more intelligent people

[Captain_Shepard]

Ups sorry for my mistake Sadie79

I forgot there was Maxoids xD

[Sam the T-man]

Just making sure you direct your anger at the right people

[JCSpencer]

That's the only thing I feel bad about. Having worked in sales for as long as I have, I know that customers take out their anger on the wrong people, but unfortunately they don't have any other choice. I hate directing my anger at Sam (but not necessarily one of the SM's that shall remain nameless), but since nobody in EA wants to fess up, that's all we can do.

[AjaAja]

*quietly gloats* I have been saying for over two years that EA wants nothing but YOUR money, don't give a rat's ass for the so-called Sims Community, and couldn't care less if we all died  from brain hemorrhages as a result of stressing out over their mistakes, buggy code, and lies, all they care about is relieving you of your excess weight in the pocket-book.

I have been saying EA sucks and are a pack of liars since the day they rolled The Sims 2 out, I finally feel vindicated now that the bastards have become so openly everything I said they were I could just squee my pants.

I always knew it was for the money, and they don't care about us, but I just thought they'd have the common sense to act like they care, and put out something with some quality. I was hoping that they'd come to their senses (at the very least - business-wise), but apparently they've really gone off the deep-end. hearing about the BV patch (which I was waiting for to install BV), let's me know, that BV will just become an expensive paper-weight; I'm just glad I never installed, and I suppose a I've learned a $15 lesson. I'm as much a forgiving person as anyone else, but this whole thing with BV is where I draw the line. I suppose that's a lesson for me for giving big businesses a chance period - well, I know now - people can be forgiven, but big business can go to hell.

[JCSpencer]

well, I know now - people can be forgiven, but big business can go to hell.

Amen!

[Captain_Shepard]

Amen to that hell yeah!

[lewisb40]

This is a post made by Cecesaun1 at the BBS. http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?threadID=837a7e12b0353dcd8ba2bc97cbf0d930&directoryID=211&startRow=1&openItemID=item.211,root.1,item.61,item.104,item.41,item.127,item.23

This is very interesting. I am on my way to read up on this information.