Tom's Hardware, one of the most trusted sites about computer hardware, has a short column on gaming piracy and Starforce. The author is a game reviewer who had to work with Starforce-protected games on several occasions.

"I deal with copy protection products such as StarForce and Macrovision on a regular basis, as do my peers. In addition to causing a number of close misses and problems with various reviews and previews in the past, I have had many "odd" problems related to the driver. When the makers of these copy protection systems say they cause little or no problems I nod, call them a bunch of wankers, and get down to rebuilding system after system in order to be able to do my job. At least I'm paid to do it... Joe Consumer is supposed to be doing this for fun."

In case you didn't know, Ubisoft plans to use the Starforce protection with Heroes V, just like it did with some of its other titles. The makers of Starforce continue to deny that their system causes problems to all but a slim minority of user systems. Fabrice Cambounet also tried to reassure fans in the official forums. However, the number of concerned players in the community remains high enough, and they are bringing valid arguments.