TSR Privacy Violation

[Marhis]

Actually, I'm not very shocked about the whole TSR watermark issue; I think it's fair game: it's their stuff (except Shakeshaft's, of course ), they want to track who downloads what (according to informations they already left on their site - IPs and email)? Fine for me.
On the other hand, it's perfectly fine that downloaders (and PMBD) want to get rid of that, and preserve their anonymity in file sharing. Again, fair game.
Putting a watermark in a package is lame, but alas, being TSR it's not surprising. isn't it?

[wes_h]

A more sophisticated system would have put the user details in a log, and placed a transaction ID in the package. Then it is just a number, not so easy to recognize. While this method is simple, placing the watermark in the same spot consistently is easy to find and fix with a hex editor. It is not so easy to do a lot of locations unless you make a more sophisticated program that can bury it within some of the data items inside the package.

That would be truly devious, but would require a skillset greater then the average bear.

[J. M. Pescado]

A more sophisticated system would have put the user details in a log, and placed a transaction ID in the package.

That would actually be easier to detect and defuse than the current system!

Then it is just a number, not so easy to recognize. While this method is simple, placing the watermark in the same spot consistently is easy to find and fix with a hex editor.

That was the original system, but naturally, it was such a miserable failure that it was defused accidentally.

It is not so easy to do a lot of locations unless you make a more sophisticated program that can bury it within some of the data items inside the package.

They did that. It didn't help.

That would be truly devious, but would require a skillset greater then the average bear.

It would, but their kung-fu is weak.

[spambi]

All TSR put into the packages was the user ID, IP address, and date that the package was downloaded. (And they have come out saying they did so here.) That's it, and it had no effect on the packages when placed in the game that I ever saw.

Did you forget that when a watermarked TSR file was changed using the wardrobe wrangler, it would cause the game to crash? Major fucking pain in the ass.

[J. M. Pescado]

All TSR put into the packages was the user ID, IP address, and date that the package was downloaded. (And they have come out saying they did so here.) That's it, and it had no effect on the packages when placed in the game that I ever saw.

This is lies and propaganda. They put a lot MORE in there. We've seen it.

[spambi]

All TSR put into the packages was the user ID, IP address, and date that the package was downloaded. (And they have come out saying they did so here.) That's it, and it had no effect on the packages when placed in the game that I ever saw.

This is lies and propaganda. They put a lot MORE in there. We've seen it.

Please elaborate.

[jfade]

All TSR put into the packages was the user ID, IP address, and date that the package was downloaded. (And they have come out saying they did so here.) That's it, and it had no effect on the packages when placed in the game that I ever saw.

Did you forget that when a watermarked TSR file was changed using the wardrobe wrangler, it would cause the game to crash? Major fucking pain in the ass.

Actually I do remember that, and it was a pain, but eh, it was probably partly a coding error on my end. The problem went away so I mostly forgot about it.

All TSR put into the packages was the user ID, IP address, and date that the package was downloaded. (And they have come out saying they did so here.) That's it, and it had no effect on the packages when placed in the game that I ever saw.

This is lies and propaganda. They put a lot MORE in there. We've seen it.

Please elaborate.

Yes, please. I didn't really examine any packages past the first watermark, but I can't imagine what ELSE they'd need to put in there.

[Marhis]

Add me to the elaborateplz crew.

[wes_h]

I don't want to have somebody take off on me as supportive of their work, but I can guarantee you it would be significantly more difficult to find a watermark were I to want to put one in a package.

Still, the act of banning the people right after the packages were uploaded would trigger the "spidey senses" that something was in there. So the act is self-defeating, because if you look long and hard enough, you can unravel any mystery.

[J. M. Pescado]

Such a thing might be more difficult, but ultimately it is pitted against an obstacle of mentality: TSR has no one really to do this, so they'd have to bring in people to slap together something that no one really cares about doing, while their enemy is boredom: People who have nothing better to do than tear them apart, who DO have technical skills.

[Inge]

and then posted their email address and username in the private staff forum. Hardly a breech of privacy laws.

I have no idea what the law says about this, but my sense of morals is offended.  When people give an email address to join a site, they expect the admins to be able to see it.  They don't expect non-admin content creators to also see it.  If it had been shared only between the people who were supposed to see it, there would have been no need to post the details on the forum, the admins could have looked at the database for themselves.

[Treble]

and then posted their email address and username in the private staff forum. Hardly a breech of privacy laws.

Plus, they didn't just post email addresses and usernames--they posted some people's real names, even admitted by Steve himself over at TSR.  There was no need for that and it is considered a privacy violation.  I could actually understand sharing usernames of known filesharers (not condone, mind you).  After all, people freely share the usernames of known forum trolls.  But to post real names is going too far.

[Minena]

Has anyone else gotten this while simply browsing at TSR?
http://minena.prismbaby.com/images/ScreenShot166.png

I didn't click on anything but "next" for the next page and BAM, there it was.

[J. M. Pescado]

While it's true that visiting TSR can harm your computer, this looks like something that is just caused by crappy adware spam links from the advertisers they link to.

[Minena]

Thanks...I wondered if it was from all the craptastic ads they have.

I only go to browse for pictures of what I will eventually get at the booty.