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SOFTWARE companies that lose megabucks because pirates copy their Sony
PlayStation games will not be pleased to learn that a British company has had a
solution to the problem for two years—yet Sony has so far not adopted it.
The anti-piracy system is revealed in a patent application by a firm called
Ç-Dilla, which is owned by the video anti-piracy company Macrovision.

PlayStation discs carry a digital authentication code that contains
deliberate “mistakes”. The console checks this code before playing the game. If
a computer CD writer is used to copy a PlayStation game, it tries to correct the
mistakes and so alters the authentication code. The PlayStation console
recognises this change and refuses to play the game. The problem is that pirates
can modify consoles by adding “mod chips” that mimic the missing code.

Ç-Dilla’s answer is to place extra code on the game disc that tells the
console to register when the authentication data is received. Genuine code
arrives from the disc only once, whereas mod chips send it over and over again.
So if the console receives code after the game has started, it shuts down the
disc drive (GB 2 340 968).

The system’s inventor, Roger Edwards, says Sony would not have to modify the
millions of consoles already in use, since putting the code check program on all
new game discs will give even the oldest consoles a new layer of protection.
David Simmons, head of Macrovision UK, speculates that Sony’s lack of interest
might be because of the “not invented here” syndrome. A Sony spokesman refused
to comment—except to advise people not to buy pirated games.