StarForce offers $3,000 contest

StarForce is a program intended to affordably protect copyrighted material. Some claim it violates people's right to make backup copies, and a few maintain that it has ruined their hardware.

Here's the lowdown from their site:

There have been a lot of rumors in the Internet concerning DVD/CD writers malfunction after installation and star-up of StarForce protected applications. Some have even mentioned that should such “malfunctioning” drive be placed in any other PC without StarForce protection installed it will fail to work as well.
In the past year our staff and many of our clients tried restlessly to reproduce the matter based on these rumors. Using our hardware collection we assembled systems alike, but such problems never took place.
Therefore, we have no proven facts of such issues and we have found out that all of these rumors are false.
We have serious reasons to believe that such problems are pure fiction. However, if such problem does exist, it should be repeatable. Therefore, just to make sure, StarForce decided to have a worldwide contest among users of StarForce protected applications.
Anyone who can reproduce and demonstrate the mentioned above problem with CD/DVD drive in our office will receive $3000.00 US.

The prize also includes a trip to Moscow and two nights in a hotel. They were originally offering only $1,000, but quickly became more confident, and raised the stakes.

The contest ends on the 31st of January, 2006, and anyone in the world can take part. So, if you've got a bone to pick with StarForce, or you just like a challenge, here's your chance to win some cash and travel the world. µ