News McAfee patents anti-piracy technology

I suppose it will be good for parents with young kids that haven't yet worked out how to circumvent the restriction, and for open wifi spots, but I can't see the wider population being interested in it.

 

So is this a McAfee technology, so you would need to install McAfee for this to effect you, or is it an Intel technology, so anyone who installs Intel drivers can look forward to this being bundled in the future?

Because Intel owns McAfee.

It doesn't matter anyway, because Intel couldn't give me enough in kickbacks to induce me to install McAfee on any system I own or control.

 

So is it a new technology if all there doing is adding web sites to the list used by there SiteAdvisor system ?

 

I think they will find that Apple has already patented that idea in 2018 for their as yet undeveloped iphone 12 and will sue mcafee for patent infringement

 

It doesn't just have to be novel, but must also show an 'inventive step', and certainly in the case of Europe, must have a 'technical effect'. If they go ahead in Europe, it'll become apparent fairly quickly (patent prosecution is a matter of public record).

Without reviewing the patent spec in detail, it looks a bit 'thin', but it'll likely fly in the US...

 

Haha.

 

I guess when people say the US patten system is a bit broken they are not kidding

 

Well - it's currently an application, so no worries yet...!

 

Wouldn't be surprised if there's an ignore button.

 

I don't see this being particularly successful. There's only 3 methods I can think of that would make this work:
1. When someone submits a serial key, often modern software will use online authentication. If the key is used too many times, McAfee will think it's pirated (but, I don't see why the actual product distributors don't do this...)
2. McAfee could detect someone running a keygen (or a program like Limewire or a torrent downloader)
3. If a drop-in replacement binary is needed to pirate a program, McAfee could check if the creation or modification date varies from the rest of the files.

But none of those solutions are very effective. Antipiracy is something that programs need to take care of individually.

As for who would use this, I suppose businesses would care most. Companies don't want to be held liable for things their employees do.

 

Its not the consumers who need protection, its the copyright holders!

 

Copyright holders can't tell people to install anti-piracy stuff. With things like movies, music, and text, there isn't really an easy or realistic way to prevent piracy without having everyone buy a new device. As for software though, I firmly believe it is 100% the fault of the developers if something is pirated. There may not be any amount of security that will entirely protect a product from being stolen, but, you can say that about real physical products as well. There are some products out there that are incredibly difficult to pirate, and even if you manage to do it successfully, you'll probably be missing something important such as updates.

 

I advocate the idea of software of this kind in principle, as long as it's optional. I know some of you most likely pooh-pooh it but I wouldn't trust a release group with regards to my machines security.

I doubt an implementation by McAfee will be any good though. I'll admit it's years since I've used one of their products, but McAfee Antivirus was complete garbage the last time I came across it on someones machine.

 

I won't go into anything regarding release groups or whatnot. But I have found that, providing you have an average to above average knowledge of the net, getting a virus infection is actually pretty damn hard.

I would have to go out of my way and actively seek out a trojan/virus to get infected.

 

Agreed, I think most people have viruses and malware from a billion dodgy toolbars they install, or software that get's bundled with other programs which people forget to untick as an install option.

Anyone want 10,000 free smileys?

 

In Russia this thing itself is ILLEGAL!

 

"same kind of 'protection' against copyright infringement as it offers for malware" Biggest chuckle I have it all week. Thanks. Can someone explain to me why any consumer would ever want this? The only advantage they could come up with themselves was that it may protect you from litigation...