History Main / CopyProtection

* On the topic of Android, many Creator/{{Kairosoft}} games require an internet connection to check its legitimacy with Google Play and/or Amazon AppStore if it was terminated and was last launched over 24 hours ago. Many of the game doesn't require an internet connection otherwise. However, as long as you do ''not'' terminate the game (or as long as it has not been 24 hours yet when you terminated it), it will still continue to run.

* ''WebVideo/MarioPartyDSAntiPiracy'', a series of videos documenting the (fictional) copy protection measures of ''VideoGame/MarioParty DS''. The videos all end with an image of the characters in a cage (from the game's intro) with the message "POWER OFF NOW" on the bottom screen, an anti-piracy message on the top screen ("PIRACY IS NO PARTY!"), and some unique music not found in the real game, sometimes preceded by having characters calling out the player and attacking their character. One video shows the system connecting to Wi-Fi to call 911 and orders the player to read a confession. A BilingualBonus reveals that these measures were being added without Creator/HudsonSoft's approval.

** The first [=PlayStation=] reads a tracking pattern pressed onto the lead-in of official [=CDs=], which cannot be reproduced normally. The [=PlayStation=] 2 uses a similar system. They will both refuse to read any disc that doesn't have a valid pattern. This makes it impossible to burn a disc that will pass the protection. However, there are points exposed where people can solder a chip in to override the attempt to read the signature and replace it with a valid one. People ''were'' able to press pirated discs once they figured out how the protection really worked, though, yielding the boot disc. Worse yet, it turned out that by using a single valid Playstation game and some quick swapping of the burned disc any reasonably dexterous person can play burned discs on a completely unmodded console. It takes some practice, but it's not that difficult. The final evolution of this "swap trick" was the production of kits containing stickers to hold down the "lid open" sensors (so the console won't try to perform the security test again when the lid is opened to swap the discs), and boot discs that pass the copy protection check, then stop the disc from spinning and wait patiently until the start button is pressed (so the user can swap in another disc at their leisure). Contrary to popular belief, the black coating on original discs is more likely for cosmetic reasons (e.g. to distinguish them from audio [=CDs=] and bootlegs) and has little to do with copy protection; any consumer disc drive can and will read a [=PS1=] game disc perfectly as it would with any media.

** Since August 24, 2022, Denuvo has [https://irdeto.com/news/denuvo-by-irdeto-launches-the-industrys-first-nintendo-switch-emulator-protection/ unveiled] their own protection for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch games in order to prevent said games from being emulated.

* In the first ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' game, there are be two instances in the early parts of the game where you have to look up a [[TechTree civilization advance]] in the manual: you are shown a picture of a random one, then given a large set of multiple-choice answers of which two advances are its direct prerequisites. (The in-game justification is that "A usurper claims you are not the rightful king!") If you're wrong, you lose all the military units you had outside of your cities. Ironically, all the advances are also documented in the ''in-game'' "Civilopedia" (though it is, of course, inaccessible ''during'' the challenge), and even if you don't read that, the answers can often be worked out logically anyway.

** The third game of the trilogy, ''Thief Of Fate'', has dimension-hopping as a crucial plot point. In order to travel from the main world to one of the seven other dimensions, the player has to not only cast the correct spell (see above), but then input the correct number from a three-layer card stock disc included with the game, similar to the Disney example given in this trope's description.

** In ''VideoGame/LeatherGoddessesOfPhobos'', the copy protection feelie is the ''map through the obligatory maze''. Considering that the maze is pretty much instantly deadly if you don't do the right things in the right places, this got rather irritating when the map was invariably lost. Also, the comic book includes unguessable clues (such as what actions you have to take while splashing through the maze, and the key to a cipher message).

** ''VideoGame/ZorkZero'' arguably contained more copy protection than actual puzzles. The manual and accompanying history are required to identify the items that need to be collected, to know what to do with them, to find multiple secret locations and to solve multiple puzzles. The most notable of these is Double Fanucci, an entire implemented graphical card game - which is actually completely random and can only be won by following a very specific sequence of moves described in the history book. When the source code leaked, it was revealed that Double Fanucci has more code than any other single part of the game!

** "A true gentleman" without the physical ticket simply brings up the note drawing thing implemented in this game and carefully draws the top and bottom parts of the numbers in the ticket to figure out the answer, or just grabs a piece of paper, copies the numbers, and folds it. Which, arguably, makes that puzzle even more of a puzzle.
* The original ''VideoGame/RailroadTycoon'' has you identify a railway engine (seen in the manual) at the start of the game. If you choose the wrong name, the game will confiscate all but two of your trains and make you unable to run more normally (though - perhaps due to a bug - clicking at the bottom of the train list actually allows you to view the lost train and buy it back by replacing its engine).
** Of course, railfans barely need the handbook because they already know at least some of the locomotives, and after playing the game for a while, they'll get to know the few they don't. Those who happen to be in possession of Brian Hollingsworth and Arthur Cook's ''Great Book of Trains'' have a good chance of knowing ''all'' locomotives in the game because they are all picked from this book, livery and all.
* The 1988 Microprose game ''VideoGame/RedStormRising'' will give you the profile view of a ship and ask you to identify it; all the requisite information is in the manual. Of course, if you're as big enough of a naval geek... [[SomedayThisWillComeInHandy guns in back, smokestack, missile pack]], [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krivak_class_frigate Krivak.]] Or you could just use Wikipedia nowadays.

* ''VideoGame/SimEarth'' took the manual bit a step further: it contains an almanac of planetary facts that is larger than many game ''boxes'', and the player has to look a different one of these up when starting the game.[[labelnote:Example]]Density of Mars (water=1)[[/labelnote]] The number has to be entered ''exactly'' as listed, too, making it harder to look up from other sources. (Not to mention that [[ScienceMarchesOn some of these figures have changed]] since the game was published.)

** Some arcade games also required "Licensing modules", which are a separate ROM board that holds only the decryption key of the game. Many newer games, since they're run on machines based on PC hardware, require a USB dongle to run. And of course, the USB dongle can hold an expiry date instead of the game, adding to the planned obsolescence method mentioned below.

** And to top it all off, a large amount of software that used this proprietary protection is unusable without the prerequisite hardware installed (ie ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rg7c7A3HJ0 software supplied with the Sequential Music Mate keyboard for the C64]]''), making the protection as redundant as the Pro Tools and ''Biggest Boon-Dongle in the World'' examples above.

** Needless to say, the game industry was caught off-guard when the [=CD-R=] was introduced, because it meant pirating games had never been easier. It's fair to mention that early [=CD-Rs=] were expensive and the drives cost well over a thousand dollars when they were introduced (and that’s before the required supporting hardware and software taking the price further up), but the media itself was still much cheaper than games--meaning that to some, the ability to copy countless games borrowed from friends or the local library/rental place justified the drive's exorbitant price tag. Also, the prices of both the media and drives dropped over just a few years.

* Flexplay was a means of DVD film distribution and rental that was [[NeverNeedsSharpening supposedly intended]] to reduce the need for the consumer to bring back the disk at all and allowed the distributor to sell it at a cheaper price. How it did this was by literally using a chemical reaction baked into the disk that [[SelfDestructMechanism would darken the disk, and thus unreadable,]] [[WeaksauceWeakness upon exposure to air and sunlight.]] The reaction would occur the second you removed the disk from the package, however over time Flexplay disks that were never opened would also often degrade due to natural chemical processes. Of course, the real reason for Flexplay was to prevent pirated copies of the film from being made - something it really didn't do very well since the disks lasted a maximum of 48 hours out of the package anyway. Plus, if you wanted to watch the film again, you had to buy another Flexplay disk, or more likely, just go buy the full DVD to own it. In reality, all Flexplay really did was create a lot of unnecessary plastic waste and be a much less useful way to distribute home video releases.

* ''Armored Warfare'', a free-to-play tank battle online game that was developed by Creator/{{Obsidian}}, of all developers (though Illfonic and then [=My.com=] took over over time as Obsidian left for another projects) uses a variant of the infamous [=StarForce=], of all systems, as the protection method. Whether it's meant to protect against cheaters is unclear as of now.
* Currently, AAA developers such as Creator/ElectronicArts, Creator/BandaiNamco, Creator/{{Capcom}}, Creator/SquareEnix, and Creator/{{Ubisoft}} (the last adding extra layers such as the universally despised VM Protect and their own [=UPlay=]) depends on ''Denuvo Anti-Tamper'', designed specifically for x64 games and by the same team of the infamously despised Securom (which was disabled by Microsoft come 2015) after the team left Sony. It works by encrypting, interleaving, overlapping, and combining multiple checksums over blocks of data that wasn't used yet, and decrypting it as the data is called for use in-game, by having the unused system process or processor cores decrypting it in real-time or as the game enters loading screen. For a while, it was boasted as being "nigh-impossible" to crack, with cracks coming as late as three to six months after the game's release.
** Several, usually earlier (as of 2015-2016) games protected by Denuvo has little to no noticeable impacts on game performance. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt_B1kat1nQ Some others,]] however, infamously affects performance.
** In response, several companies like id Software, Playdead, Tequila Works and Two Point Studios who initially used it to protect their games (''VideoGame/Doom2016'', ''VideoGame/{{Inside}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Rime}}'', and ''VideoGame/TwoPointHospital'', respectively) have eventually dropped it, while the above-mentioned AAA developers chose to stick to it.
** In fact, when id Software announced that they were putting a new version of Denuvo into newer versions of VideoGame/DoomEternal as an anticheat, they got major flak for it, with many people ending up refusing to update or even pirating the game to downgrade. Even worse? The version of Denuvo deployed was incompatible with Proton, punishing those who legitimately bought the game but are playing it on Linux. To say it severely pissed off Linux gamers is an understatement. All these factors led to disgruntled owners of the game review-bombing the Steam store page. Not only was Denuvo gone by the update after that, id personally apologized to Linux gamers and promised that they will consider the possibility of players using Proton in the future. The devs of Denuvo themselves were also extremely shaken by the whole ordeal and promised to make future versions of the Windows version of Denuvo Proton-aware [[note]]there is already a Linux-native version of Denuvo, but that will only work on Linux-native games[[/note]] so protected Windows games will still work within Proton.

* Some games on the original UsefulNotes/PlayStation, such as ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfDragoon'' and ''VideoGame/VandalHearts 2'', will detect if you have a mod-chip (which lets you play imported or copied games) in your system, and then the game will not play and a message to call a place to report the problem would come up on screen. What it boils down to is that people who had modchips and ''could'' pirate the games but ''didn't'' couldn't play the games they bought legitimately. It was probably an attempt to get people to abandon their modchip consoles - guess what they abandoned instead?

** Also, it was found that Konami actually made versions of these games that didn't need a connection to the eAMUSEMENT network that were meant to be sold only in Mainland China, probably because the country's Great Firewall is blocking access to Konami's eAM servers, and to fight off the ripoffs like ''Magic Cube'' and ''eMagic''. Needless to say, grey market sales sprung up around these machines ''instead'', never mind that this version is usually censored to meet the Chinese government's tastes.

* The Japanese DatingSim ''Cross Days''. Shortly after its release, fake pirated copies began circulating on the Internet. Playing one of these copies would prompt an online questionnaire, and if the player filled it out, [[DisproportionateRetribution it would be posted online, publicly exposing them as a pervert]]. The funny thing about this one is that in the Terms of Service for the fake pirated copies, it specifically states that ''it is not a real copy of the game''. Basically, it tells you that you're playing a fake. But since no one ever reads the Terms of Service...

** The original release is almost as bad, as the copy protection check is programmed based on an initial pre-layout draft of the manual. Don't know if a header counts as a line? Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Asked for the first word on a line that doesn't exist? It's the last word of the previous line from before the text was reflowed. Ugh.

* The ''VisualNovel/EfAFairyTaleOfTheTwo'' duology from Minori is one of the few visual novels with any sort of copy protection. The game uses a serial key encryption, but also begins extracting files to the user's computer while encrypting them at the same time. The copy protection was supposed to prevent people outside of Japan from being able to play either of the games. In addition to the above encryption and the fact that the computer clock must be set to Japanese Standard Time, a Japanese version of Windows XP or above is required to even get the game to run at all. When the FanTranslation group No Name Losers was working on an English localization of both games, they decided to do a combined stand-alone release that is run using a modified version of the demo's exe.

** After the rise of Steam, serial keys are abolished in exchange for identifying client ID associated with the store (in this case, usually Steam) client, to the point that since around 2009, most retail PC games are basically the launch version of the game files, the CD-Key to add the game into the account, and a Steam installer (or the associated launcher at the publisher's whim).

** On pack-in editions of the game, the necessary codes are actually printed on the disc's artwork. Of course, they're printed just as small as the boilerplate copyright notice, with no indicator of their importance, and you're going to have to copy them down before you begin playing, unless you have a glass-topped external CD-ROM drive and can either read a spinning disc or have enough patience to wait for the drive to spin down to save power...

* On pirated copies of ''Michael Jackson: The Experience'' for the Nintendo DS (which is basically an ''VideoGame/EliteBeatAgents'' clone, by the way), the notes don't appear, ''and'' it plays [[UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup vuvuzelas]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZwFxAi76iI over the music.]]

** FADE also appeared on ''Videogame/{{ARMA}} II''. [[RuleOfFunny Your accuracy slowly gets worse until you literally can't shoot the side of a barn]], it impedes your movement, blurs your screen, and it eventually turns you into an animal. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDKguXtrSxU Here's a video.]]

* ''Pirates! Gold'' would ask the player to identify a famous pirate you encountered by his flag. Answer wrong and your ship loses all cannons. It was still possible to win the ensuing battle if you had enough crew to board the enemy ship, though. Also, since the copy-protection scheme only kicked in sometimes and other times the game would tell you the name rather than ask for it, with patience it was possible to reconstruct the list from scratch.

* The copy protection software known as [="StarForce"=] was boycotted by some gamers due to making games it was implemented on virtually unplayable (and in some cases, making the system it was installed on unusable). Some of [=StarForce=]'s nastier side-effects included reduced system security due to the way the copy-protection driver was implemented, causing CD-ROM drives to step down into a form of data access that caused undue wear and tear on the drive, and [=BSoDs=] (and not of the {{heroic|BSOD}} kind either). It should be noted, however, that many of these issues are unlikely to be experienced by average gamers. For example, some copy-protection software works by checking the serial number of the computer's hardware, so that changing the hardware can confuse the copy-protection system into thinking you have just copied it to a different computer. While gaming journalists routinely swap out their hardware so they can test games on different computer configurations, some gamers are unlikely to be changing hardware enough for this to be a problem. Of course, this doesn't make these problems any less serious -- it just illustrates why companies can afford not to care.
** In a bizarre amalgamation of [[BadExportForYou Bad Export For]] [[RussianGuySuffersMost Russians]], most 2000-2010 retail disc DRM for the Russian market are [=StarForce=] despite the original release didn't use it for protection. Of course, the proliferation of UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} alleviate and turned it into a non-issue.

** On the other hand, the Microsoft Office series kept the heavy handed activation method where failure to activate or improper ones will make the Office works in a limited functionality mode (usually view document only) or not at all... unless a specific version of Office 2007 Enterprise, which only need a CD-Key during installation and nothing else.

* Creator/CDProjektRed is conspicuously famous for outspokenly shunning DRM and as a result ''not even using a single piece of DRM at all in their games''. You can literally just snarf an installed instance of ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3'' or ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'', transfer it into another computer, and it will run with absolutely no problems whatsoever, and one of the selling points of their video game store Website/GogDotCom literally is "we do not use DRM". This stance is rooted on the owners and executives of the company having a firm belief that people will eventually pay for the games they liked, and that pirated games nowadays have inherent disadvantages anyway such as no official multiplayer, no automatic updates and no official seasonal events.

** Actually, older commercial [=DVDs=] are copy-protected using a copy-protection routine called CSS. When a DVD player detects that a DVD is protected by CSS, it switches on a circuit built into the player that generates the Macrovision signal over all its analog outputs. Needless to say, CSS was one of the first things hackers set out to crack when the format was released. Later [=DVDs=] combine CSS with Sony's [=ARccOS=] (mentioned below) and/or Cinevia to make life more difficult for people who back up their [=DVDs=]. It should be noted, however, that a number of cheap region-free DVD players also lack the Macrovision generator module. CSS is now obsolete, not least because [[TechnologyMarchesOn it can be easily brute-forced within seconds by even the lowest-end PCs available nowadays]], the only reason it's still used is to coax the DVD players to activate the Macrovision generator modules.

* One of the early cases of broadcast copy protection would be channel scrambling. This method once was around to prevent unauthorized users from being able to access premium channels, as back before this was done, a skilled user could potentially be able to access them without having to pay the monthly fee based on old methods. Also, in worse cases, a non-cable customer also had the potential to use cable TV without a subscription. This is what slowly led to the development of the oft-maligned set top boxes that have become unanimous today in cable television. Nowadays, scrambling and encryption of cable signals have become so ubiquitous that most cable companies won't even let you use your service without a set-top box anymore, even the free over-the-air channels; some of this is due to the fact that scrambled signals happen to take up less bandwidth as a side-effect, and in the world of ever-increasing amounts of channels that have to be squeezed in, this is actually a bit of a genuine concern.

* In ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaMk2'''s remake, Re;Birth 2, one of the usual people on Chirper, Evil Kid, comes up upon these with things like his save game being deleted before the final boss. Considering he pirated his game from [[DigitalPiracyIsEvil ASIC]], it's intentional.

* ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'' makes threats to erase the user's hard drive if the user got his/her copy through illicit means in the exit message of the full registered version of the game. It's an empty threat (as noted in the disclaimer at the bottom of the message), but it does effectively get its message across.

* Parodied in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'' in a particular quest, where Geralt is hired to investigate a mysterious tower that appeared out of nowhere and brought with it a constant storm. In the tower he finds a wizard trapped behind a magical barrier. Apparently the wizard bought the tower at an auction but didn't realize it came with a "Defensive Regulatory Magicon" or [[UsefulNotes/DigitalRightsManagement DRM]] for short. When he entered the tower mistook him for an intruder and trapped the hapless mage. He then tasks the player with finding "Gottfried's Omni-opening Grimoire" in order to deactivate the DRM.

* Lumpy Touch's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FZDtowmrL0 Pokémon Red Anti-Piracy Screen]]", an fictional anti-piracy measure, is claimed to have planted by Nintendo to reduce piracy. At the very beginning of the game (as the player is about to start the game after setting up names for the main character and the rival character Gary), Professor Oak started to suspect the player has been acting kind of "sus" lately. When Oak brings the player to his laboratory, he refuses to give the player the Pokéball, and the real player's character is revealed to be [[BoundAndGagged tied up in his basement]] (according to Officer Jenny), and Oak makes ''VideoGame/AmongUs'' references while speaking about an impostor among them, revealing the player's character to be a [[{{Shapeshifting}} Ditto]] in disguise all along, who tied up the real person. Oak then says that stealing the identity of a human is an [[ThisIsUnforgivable unforgivable crime]] and brings out a special Pokéball (with a keyhole and the word "JAIL" on it) to seal Ditto permanently, as he thinks that this is the only thing he can do with naughty Pokémons (like the disguised Ditto). Then the game soft-locks as a message says the usual "It's a serious crime" and "report the stolen software immediately" message but not before announcing that the player's Pokémon adventure ends and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech tells the player that he's a fake rather than an real Pokémon trainer.]]

* Lumpy Touch's "Pokémon Red Anti-Piracy Screen", an fictional anti-piracy measure, is claimed to have planted by Nintendo to reduce piracy. At the very beginning of the game (as the player is about to start the game after setting up names for the main character and the rival character Gary), Professor Oak started to suspect the player has been acting kind of "sus" lately. When Oak brings the player to his laboratory, he refuses to give the player the Pokéball, and the real player's character is revealed to be [[BoundAndGagged tied up in his basement]] (according to Officer Jenny), and Oak makes ''VideoGame/AmongUs'' references while speaking about an impostor among them, revealing the player's character to be a [[{{Shapeshifting}} Ditto]] in disguise all along, who tied up the real person. Oak then says that stealing the identity of a human is an [[ThisIsUnforgivable unforgivable crime]] and brings out a special Pokéball (with a keyhole and the word "JAIL" on it) to seal Ditto permanently, as he thinks that this is the only thing he can do with naughty Pokémons (like the disguised Ditto). Then the game soft-locks as a message says the usual "It's a serious crime" and "report the stolen software immediately" message but not before announcing that the player's Pokémon adventure ends and [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech tells the player that he's a fake rather than an real Pokémon trainer.]]

* The {{TabletopGame/BattleTech}} PC game, ''The Crescent Hawks' Inception'', has two series of copy protection: one early on in the game, when you have to look up (or memorize) different Battlemech components to continue training at the Academy in your ersatz DoomedHometown, and one very near the end, where you have to look up some stuff on a star chart in order to get your father's ''Phoenix Hawk'' Land-Air Mech (AKA VF-1J Valkyrie, but that's another trope). Woe betide you if you lost the physical copy of the star chart.

* ''VideoGame/CenturionDefenderOfRome'' came with a map of Ancient Rome, necessary to answer the questions that pop up after running the game ("What is the capital in the province of [name]?")

-->-- '''''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIV''''', telling you how to acquire the code once you've entered the Timepod (Disk Version Only)

** Fallout 3 was then released in GOG with the GFWL integration being removed out of the box, along with making the game Large Address Aware for greater stability with mods, something must be added manually for the Steam version. Though, downloading the game via Steam is still highly discouraged (Steam will still force you to install GFWL, which at best it'll spit error about ordinal, indicating incompatibility, and refusing to run, or at worst, '''brick''' Windows 10's network stack, forcing restore operations, regardless when you try to run the game). This also makes the game a unique case of ''OneGameForThePriceOfTwo'' for those who had already bought the Steam version, had uninstall it, then upgraded to Windows 10, and now want to reinstall it.

* Windows 10 blocks access to some older CD-ROM based games (2003-2008) using [=SafeDisk=] and [=SecuROM=] DRM, citing them as being outdated and full of security vulnerabilities. The game still works (unless if the game is natively incompatible, which is very rare) if the executable is cracked, encouraging piracy. However, Microsoft states that there are already patches from developers for those games, and that sites like GOG contain versions of those games that work. Unfortunately, if you go the GOG route, [[OneGameForThePriceOfTwo you need to buy the game all over again]].

* Armored Warfare, a free-to-play tank battle online game that was developed by Creator/{{Obsidian}}, of all developers (though Illfonic and then [=My.com=] took over over time as Obsidian left for another projects) uses a variant of the infamous [=StarForce=], of all systems, as the protection method. Whether it's meant to protect against cheaters is unclear as of now.

* If the intro code of the arcade game ''VideoGame/MrGimmick'' is tampered with, the gameplay is replaced with a black screen with the text "BLACK HOLE" shortly into the secret Stage 7, preventing players from reaching the FinalBoss and true ending.

* Creator/CDProjektRed is conspicuously famous for outspokenly shunning DRM and as a result ''not even using a single piece of DRM at all in their games''. You can literally just snarf an installed instance of ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3'' or ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'', transfer it into another computer, and it will run with absolutely no problems whatsoever, and one of the selling points of their videogame store Website/GogDotCom literally is "we do not use DRM". This stance is rooted on the owners and executives of the company having a firm belief that people will eventually pay for the games they liked, and that pirated games nowadays have inherent disadvantages anyway such as no official multiplayer, no automatic updates and no official seasonal events.

* ''VideoGame/SiN'' encrypted the music files, to prevent them from being played outside of the game.

* The Windows version of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' was discovered to have implemented an ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}''-esque form of crack-deterrent which aimed to frustrate those who pirated the game. Merely bypassing copy protection causes the other failsafes to kick in, such as permanently stormy weather (which has a 25 percent chance of happening in the base game) and removing pedestrians & most vehicles, making carjackings significantly harder as the player would have to find a parked car in the city. You can still play the game, but good luck trying to save it after forty minutes -- the game will crash due to an unhandled exception, and your saved games will have the permanent rain and other nasties intact. To top it all off, sniper rifles would no longer dish out damage on targets, garages are disabled, and the radar is [[InterfaceScrew screwed]], rendering the game difficult if not impossible to complete.

* Pirated copies of ''VideoGame/SpyroYearOfTheDragon'' will have Zoe the Fairy appear at the latter part of Sunrise Spring telling players that the copy is hacked and as such will lead to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZinR10DC3-Q "serious issues"]] you would not experience on a legal copy. The game also featured a "save file erasure" element similar to ''VideoGame/EarthBound'', although in a more subtle manner. Instead of taking you back to an empty "select your save file" screen, it just stops the boss battle against the Sorceress and then a travel-between-worlds Saving-LoadingScreen appears, and after it, you return back to the Sunrise Spring Home with your hot air balloon, with the only difference being that your save file has been written with a new status - namely, a fat zero over everything you can collect. To sum it up, instead of erasing your save file, the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT9O62ZNQSU resets it back to the beginning]]. There is also a "software terminated" KillScreen which is triggered by anti-mod detection, that is if you're playing it on a modified console or attempting to use a Gameshark add-on, but it's much more overt: right before you get the chance to press start at the title screen it will cut to the kill screen instead.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1324948605037500100&page=1

!!Examples:

* Legend has it that paper map publishers came up with a unique solution to piracy after the introduction of commercial-grade xerographic copying:
** On city maps, they added a fictional street with a fictional name to every four square inches of their maps.
** Likewise, on state or national maps, they added a fictional town or land feature to every four square inches of their maps.
** This is actually a fairly common practice among map publishers. Many map makers use [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street trap streets]] to incriminate anyone who might copy their maps directly. These are single or non-existent streets with false names... which means any map that has that false street has copied their map. The theory is that while facts cannot be copyrighted (so an accurate map can be copied wholesale legally without any sort of punishment), fiction can, so if you copied the trap street you incriminate yourself.
** When Gousha still made maps, the state map of Minnesota included a huge non-existent bay along the north shore of Lake Superior between Duluth and Grand Marais. (It was obviously fake. Highway 61 ran over the 10-mile opening of the bay rather than skirting around its fictional shoreline.) No matter how many people complained, they never corrected the error.

** ''VideoGame/MetalGear2'' uses [[http://gtinter.msxnet.org/Operate2.htm "P23 tap codes"]] at certain points in the game, and the Colonel will instruct you to look at the manual for information on how to interpret tap codes. This is a frequency you need to continue, and while brute-forcing it is possible, it's far more annoying than brute-forcing Meryl's frequency in the sequel due to the MSX's criminal slowdown and Snake's insistence on starting every conversation with "THIS IS SOLID SNAKE. YOUR REPLY, PLEASE...". Even more annoyingly, the version included in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3Subsistence'' (the first release of the game in English) doesn't come with tap codes in the manual. Konami eventually provided a downloadable online manual with the tap code chart in. The European version of the ''Subsistence'' manual also omits the tap code chart, but does tell you the frequency, albeit without any context as to when it's required.

* Music/{{Brentalfloss}} uploaded an alternate version of his second album to pirating websites shortly before release. Every song on the alternate album called out the listener for stealing it. (You can purchase this alternate album from Brent's Bandcamp if you are interested of hearing it for yourself.)
* Most commercially released VHS tapes, and Betamax tapes (since 1983) are copy-protected by Macrovision. It prevents the tape on making bootleg copies. Copying it to a blank VHS or blank Betamax would cause the tape to act like it's damaged (just as well, because Macrovision was nothing more than an artificial video error). Transferring a commercially released VHS or Betamax to DVD will also not work ether. The DVD recorder will stop the tape and generate an error. However, some capture cards do ignore it.

** Even RCA's failed CED format also jumped in to Macrovision in its later years, with new content on the format releasing up until 1987. Even without Macrovision though, the unreliability of the format was enough of a detrerrent from trying to copy a CED disc to VHS or Beta since a CED disk that begins to skip is already unwatchable in itslef.

** For UsefulNotes/LaserDisc players, there was a [=VideoCD=] modchip released by a Hong Kong company to enable [=LaserDisc=] players to be able to also handle the Philips-developed digital [=VideoCD=] format. However, there are players that are incompatible with the chip, and installing the chip on such a player caused macrovision to trigger on protected discs and show color bands on the screen.
** Actually, older commercial [=DVDs=] are copy-protected using a copy-protection routine called CSS. When a DVD player detects that a DVD is protected by CSS, it switches on a circuit built into the player that generates the Macrovision signal over all its analog outputs. Needless to say, CSS was one of the first things hackers set out to crack when the format was released. Later [=DVDs=] combine CSS with Sony's [=ARccOS=] (mentioned below) and/or Cinevia to make life more difficult for people who backup their [=DVDs=]. It should be noted, however, that a number of cheap region-free DVD players also lacks the Macrovision generator module. CSS is now obsolete, not least because [[TechnologyMarchesOn it can be easily brute-forced within seconds by even the lowest-end PCs available nowadays]], the only reason it's still used is to coax the DVD players to activate the Macrovision generator modules.

* The CD-ROM itself. When it was introduced in the early-nineties, it was considered by the game industriy to be the be-all-end-all copy protection for one simple reason: It was nigh-impossible to copy. That is, the CD itself ''was'' impossible to copy. Furthermore, the installers on the [=CDs=] were either written without any "swap the floppy" mechanism (legitimately as they didn't run off of floppies in the first place), or files were made larger than 1.44MB so that they couldn't fit onto floppies if that wasn't sufficient. In case someone would use the old MS Backup trick, the game installer took up so much space on the CD that it would have taken dozens of floppies to copy it and ginormous hard drives to transfer it to — [=CD-ROMs=] have a higher capacity than most hard drives available (let alone affordable) back then. In those days, games were simply blown out of proportion for copy protection, and no actual copy protection was deemed necessary because whatever hardware would have been able to duplicate a CD-ROM was too expensive to use it for game piracy.

The Internet itself has brought the latest version of copy protection: Client-server verification, where the player is the "client" and their legal right to play the game is recorded on a central server database. The server is the central authority on who is (and by extension, is not) allowed to play the game, and can easily verify this with any given client, either during the game's initial installation or first time startup, or sometimes every time the game is run. While this comes naturally to certain genres (i.e. {{MMORPG}}), it can be a problem for others; for example, even if the game doesn't have any online features, it may still refuse to run without an Internet connection or if the central servers are down. It also has the issue of possibly leaving legitimate users with an unplayable legal copy if the parent company closes or decides to discontinue support on their end and hasn't planned for anyone else to take over. And again leading to vicious cycles, this can lead to instances where the protection is so restrictive to legitimate users that they might decide to pirate the game even when they intended to buy in the first place just to play a version that bypasses the whole thing.