Where can I find information on creating my own NO-CD executibles?

Where can I find information on creating my own NO-CD executibles, I believe that fairuse as well as the 1984 Betamax decision and the 1999 RIAA vs Diamond Multimedia, 180 F. 3d 1072, 1079, 9th Circ. 1999 allow for legal format shifting. The DMCA is very vague and really allows you to sue for pretty much anything imagined (a garage door opener even)
I really am not worried because the legality is not decided and probably never will due to the frivilousness of nocd cracks. No company is gonna sue me and even if they did it would be a major waste of resources due to the immense legal costs and no judge is gonna throw someone in jail for using a nocd crack or for any minor copyright infringement even if it is proven. As it has not been decided which law takes precendence i feel that i am within my legal rights.

discussion welcome :)

stupid "your going to jail" comments > /dev/null please

I don't think you should do that b/c it's illegal and you will be arrested and go to jail. Actually this is an interesting topic....that I know absolutely nothing about so I can't really contribute much more than smartass comments like this one. ;)

Clarification: you aren't asking where you can find NO-CD cracks, you're asking how to make your own, right?

No-CD cracks and **** are legal if you legally purchased the game. At least as far as I know. There are people who don't want to wear out the CD, mess it up, etc...

Wish you could've posted this in the other thread before it was shut down by HT. =\

Greetings:

Actually, creating such cracks are NOT legal in the US, regardless of whether you own the medium legally or not (assuming you're not the original creator of the medium in the first place).

For informational purposes only:

This is one of the sites that I monitor to keep tabs on what the warez monkeys are up to. Take it, and everything on it, for what it's worth. Also keep in mind, these guys don't seem to care about the legality of what they are doing, so it's safe to assume much of what is available on this site isn't legal to use here in the US:

http://www.gamecopyworld.com/

Quote:

---

Originally posted here by JP
Greetings:

Actually, creating such cracks are NOT legal in the US, regardless of whether you own the medium legally or not (assuming you're not the original creator of the medium in the first place).

---

What is that based off? Do you have a court case that set a precedent or do you any document that would prove that it's not legal to use a no-CD patch?

I know that the software Alcohol 120% will allow disk images to be made and mounted as virtual drives which bypass the no-cd requirement.

There are additional copy-protection identification programs required that are run prior
to the images creation process. These programs can be found in the Alcohol user forums.

Quote:

---

Originally posted here by JP
This is one of the sites that I monitor to keep tabs on what the warez monkeys are up to. Take it, and everything on it, for what it's worth. Also keep in mind, these guys don't seem to care about the legality of what they are doing, so it's safe to assume much of what is available on this site isn't legal to use here in the US:

http://www.gamecopyworld.com/

---

Also keep in mind that allot of stuff from gamecopyworld is infected with some not so nice
"extra" software.

Have cleaned many a youngsters PC after trying to use "hacked" .exe files..

Greetings:

Quote:

---

Originally posted here by ;TT
What is that based off? Do you have a court case that set a precedent or do you any document that would prove that it's not legal to use a no-CD patch?

---

My name is not Lexis Nexis. I don't think I need to provide "documentation" and "proof" of everything that I post, haha. If you would like to take the time to do so yourself, feel free.

I can say, however, that this issue was brought up by a US Attorney at a conference that I lectured at a while back.

Requiring that a CD be present for use of the medium is a form of copyright protection developed by the manufacturer. When you purchase said medium, you are agreeing to the limitations and restrictions of its use when you are doing so. To create a device that bypasses such copyright protections, is a CLEAR violation of US law (DMCA).

All you would need to do is to make a working image of your game and then load it into the Alcohol Virtual Drive. Basically stick your game into your CD Writer launch copy protection identifying program. (Best is ClonyXXL, need help go here (http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....threadid=76916) )

Now you know what protection you are dealing with launch Alcohol. Go to make image (top left). Select your drive and so forth. Select the correct profile that you identified with ClonyXXL or another program. Hit next untill the image is made. Next all you should have to do is to find the virtual drive that was setup when you installed Alcohol. (If not then you can turn it on under the options menu the virtual drive , may require a restart in Alcohol). Right click on it and select load image and then find your image that you created on your hard disk.
That should be it. A game that you can play without the CD in the drive. Obviously though each image you create will take up approximatly 600mb. Plus if you game requires more than one CD I am not sure if you can change it on the virtual drive half way through.

Here is another way of going about it as well:
http://www.gameburnworld.com/beginnershelp.htm

Okay, I think some of you are confusing creating a virtual image of a CD with using a no-CD patch which is really a tweaked exe that doesn't check for a said media when running a program...

Quote:

---

Originally posted here by ;TT
Okay, I think some of you are confusing creating a virtual image of a CD with using a no-CD patch which is really a tweaked exe that doesn't check for a said media when running a program...

---

No, no confusion here.
Just offering alternatives.

It is illegal since the DMCA to write/use software specifically created to circumvent copyprotection mechanisms. That said, it is also illegal to jaywalk and smoke pot but I dont tell people not to do those either. However, last time I checked- the US (despite our increasingly strict laws on reverse engineering) is still a free country (mostly :)), and that means that I can talk about reverse engineering all I want. I know some of you have to resist the urge to bundle your children up and carry them to safety and place a call to the FBI when you see someone interested in playing with software they own on a machine they own, but wait I have a secret to tell you... if you payed for the software, no one gives a **** if you crack it. Its not worth anyones time or trouble to bother someone with a case they may lose and that doesnt matter anyway. Reverse engineering is one of the best ways to learn assembly and the methods you learn to debug code are invaluabe if you wish to move on to hunting for bugs and creating exploits. While I'm telling secrets, I'll tell you another one: all the people here who post about how horrible it is to reverse engineer stuff, don't know anything about it anyway and probably cant disassemble a toaster. If you would really like to learn here is what I suggest. Find yourself a book on Assembly language for the 80386 family. Get your self some debugging tools. There are plenty of free ones out there, some I like are:

IDA Pro Disassembler/Debugger: There is a free version (Last time I checked) and a pay version. A very nice product and worth the small price if you like it.
Olly Debugger Disassembler/Debugger: Probably the coolest free debugger there is.
and of course the one whose reputation precedes it....
Compuware/Numega SoftIce Disassembler/Debugger/Driver Studio: This product is not free, however it is cool as ****. It supports full kernel level debugging,remote debugging via serial/ethernet/modem, symbol loader,comes with a framework for creating NDIS drivers and other drivers,etc,etc.
HexWorkshop Hex Editor supreme

Now, go find yourself some tutorials and have fun and learn something, or you can sit around here and whine about how no one ever talks about anything interesting on AO anymore and wait for the next curious person to neg the **** out of.



-Maestr0

MAY BE OFF TOPIC:
hey i used clone cd ( virtual cd drive) in my computer for a while and it did copy my quake III game quite well and it also worked GR8, but all good things have to come to an end and like wise the trial period expired . so plz give a try to clone cd.

and by the by how legal is it to clone a cd on to a virtual drive ( just wondeing)

might be my over simplification of things but can't you just look into hows the command dd work in linux, cos thats to image disks isnt it and I suppose you then would mounting that image cause it to work?

so if you were to write something like this u'd need to create an application similar to mount that mounts the disk image you have created of it using the dd clone,

just a thought

i2c