StarForce threatens to sue over criticism

James Delahunty
1 Feb 2006 10:13

I guess if you don't like what everyone says about your harmful anti-consumer products, you can always attempt to shut them up by threatening to sue them and contact the FBI for apparent "harassment". At least that's how StarForce does business. StarForce copy protection can be found mainly on PC games, which are then referred to as "StarForce crippled" by some of its critics, including Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing, who's latest posts about StarForce brought him a lawsuit threat...

A company that was criticized on Boing Boing has threatened to sue me, and claims to have sworn out a complaint against me with the FBI.
Yesterday, I posted about StarForce, a harmful technology used by game companies to restrict their customers' freedom. StarForce attempts to stop game customers from copying their property, but it has the side-effects of destabilizing and crashing the computers on which it is installed.
Someone identifying himself as "Dennis Zhidkov, PR-manager, StarForce Inc." contacted me this morning and threatened to sue me, and told me that he had contacted the FBI to complain about my "harassment."
If you're looking for reasons to boycott StarForce-crippled games (besides the obvious ones), you might add their use of bullying legal threats to your list.

Amen to that last comment. It's a sad day when companies can't take criticism when they deserve it and even worse, when they threaten to go to such ridiculous lengths to stop it. Doctorow doesn't seem to be scared or deterred at all by this unnecessary threat however. Here is the threat he received.

From: "Dennis Zhidkov"
Date: January 31, 2006 9:55:40 AM BST
To: "doctorow@craphound.com"
Subject: StarForce Response to Cory Doctorow
StarForce Inc. response to Mr. Cory Doctorow
Dear Sir, calling StarForce "Anti-copying malware" is a good enough cause to press charges and that is what our corporate lawyer is busy doing right now. I urge you to remove your post from http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/30/anticopying_malware_.html because it is full of insults, lies, false accusations and rumors. Your article violates approximately 11 international laws. Our USlawyer will contact you shortly. I have also contacted the FBI, because what you are doing is harassment.
Sincerely,
Dennis Zhidkov
PR-manager
StarForce Inc.
www.star-force.com

And Doctorow's reply...

Thank you for your response. I have appended it to my original post and have forwarded it to the Chilling Effects project to be part of the permanent record of abusive attempts by companies to silence their critics

Here is the article that annoyed StarForce so much - http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/30/anticopying_malware_.html
Source:
Boing Boing