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One of the most common and longest enduring forms of DRM, SecuROM uses a variety of methods to verify the integrity of a game, as well as prevent disc copying of the protected material. The original disc-based DRM solution is simply called "SecuROM", or sometimes SecuROM Disc Authentication, while the online activation-based version meant for digital distribution is called SecuROM Product Activation. At the launch of a game and during play SecuROM (both versions) would also monitor the system, preventing the game from running if it detects applications or tools that can be used to enable piracy, disassembly, or hacking of the game.
The disc-based version of SecuROM works by using strong software encryption along with a special signature applied to the physical disc during manufacturing. The game will only launch if the original disc that carries the special signature of the game is detected, otherwise an error message will be shown instead.
For a list of games, see games using SecuROM Product Activation DRM.
This is the online activation-based version of SecuROM meant for games released through digital distribution and used on some of the later disc-based games. It functions much the same way as the previous disc-based alternative, although it replaces the dependency of a physical disk with an authentication license retrieved using a one-time internet connection and stored on the local hard drive. SecuROM Product Activation is integrated into the executable of the game, and after the game have been uninstalled only the authentication license remain on the system. Some older versions also used a background service to allow the sharing of these licenses between multiple user accounts in Windows. Use the SecuROM Removal Tool to remove the remaining licenses after all SecuROM Product Activation protected titles have been uninstalled from the system.
The ideological foundation of the Ustaše movement reaches back to the 19th century. Several Croatian nationalists and intellectuals established theories about Serbs as an inferior race. The World War I legacy, as well as the opposition of a group of nationalists to the unification into a common state of South Slavs, influenced ethnic tensions in the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (since 1929 Kingdom of Yugoslavia). The 6 January Dictatorship and the later anti-Croat policies of the Serb-dominated Yugoslav government in the 1920s and 1930s fueled the rise of nationalist and far-right movements. This culminated in the rise of the Ustaše, an ultranationalist, terrorist organization, founded by Ante Pavelić. The movement was financially and ideologically supported by Benito Mussolini, and it was also involved in the assassination of King Alexander I.
Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, a German puppet state known as the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was established, comprising most of modern-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as parts of modern-day Serbia and Slovenia, ruled by the Ustaše. The Ustaše's goal was to create an ethnically homogeneous Greater Croatia by eliminating all non-Croats, with the Serbs being the primary target but Jews, Roma and political dissidents were also targeted for elimination. Large scale massacres were committed and concentration camps were built, the largest one was the Jasenovac, which was notorious for its high mortality rate and the barbaric practices which occurred in it. Furthermore, the NDH was the only Axis puppet state to establish concentration camps specifically for children. The regime systematically murdered approximately 200,000 to 500,000 Serbs. 300,000 Serbs were further expelled and at least 200,000 more Serbs were forcibly converted, most of whom de-converted following the war. Proportional to the population, the NDH was one of the most lethal European regimes.
Mile Budak and other NDH high officials were tried and convicted of war crimes by the communist authorities. Concentration camp commandants such as Ljubo Miloš and Miroslav Filipović were captured and executed, while Aloysius Stepinac was found guilty of forced conversion. Many others escaped, including the supreme leader Ante Pavelić, most to Latin America. The genocide was not properly examined in the aftermath of the war, because the post-war Yugoslav government did not encourage independent scholars out of concern that ethnic tensions would destabilize the new communist regime. Nowadays, оn 22 April, Serbia marks the public holiday dedicated to the victims of genocide and fascism, while Croatia holds an official commemoration at the Jasenovac Memorial Site.
The ideological foundation of the Ustaše movement reaches back to the 19th century when Ante Starčević established the Party of Rights,[11] as well as when Josip Frank seceded his extreme fraction from it and formed his own Pure Party of Rights.[12] Starčević was a major ideological influence on the Croatian nationalism of the Ustaše.[13][14] He was an advocate of Croatian unity and independence and was both anti-Habsburg, as Starčević saw the main Croatian enemy in the Habsburg Monarchy, and anti-Serb.[13] He envisioned the creation of a Greater Croatia that would include territories inhabited by Bosniaks, Serbs, and Slovenes, considering Bosniaks and Serbs to be Croats who had been converted to Islam and Eastern Orthodox Christianity.[13] In his demonization of the Serbs he claimed " how the Serbs today are dangerous for their ideas and their racial composition, how a bent for conspiracies, revolutions and coups is in their blood."[15] Starčević called the Serbs an "unclean race", a "nomadic people" and "a race of slaves, the most loathsome beasts", while the co-founder of his party, Eugen Kvaternik, denied the existence of Serbs in Croatia, seeing their political consciousness as a threat.[16][17][18][19] Milovan Đilas cites Starčević as the "father of racism" and "ideological father" of the Ustaše, while some Ustaše ideologues have linked Starčević's racial ideas to Adolf Hitler's racial ideology.[20][21]
The outburst of Croatian nationalism after 1918 was one of the main threats for Yugoslavia's stability.[28] During the 1920s, Ante Pavelić, lawyer, politician and one of the Frankists, emerged as a leading spokesman for Croatian independence.[19] In 1927, he secretly contacted Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy and founder of fascism, and presented his separatist ideas to him.[35] Pavelić proposed an independent Greater Croatia that should cover the entire historical and ethnic area of the Croats.[35] In that period, Mussolini was interested in Balkans with the aim of isolating Yugoslavia, by strengthening Italian influence on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea.[36] British historian Rory Yeomans claims that there are indication that Pavelić had been considering the formation of some kind of nationalist insurgency group as early as 1928.[37]
The Ustaše functioned as a terrorist organization as well.[54] The first Ustaše center was established in Vienna, where brisk anti-Yugoslav propaganda soon developed and agents were prepared for terrorist actions.[55] They organized the so-called Velebit uprising in 1932, assaulting a police station in the village of Brušani in Lika.[56] In 1934, the Ustaše cooperated with Bulgarian, Hungarian and Italian right-wing extremists to assassinate King Alexander while he visited the French city of Marseille.[45] Pavelić's fascist tendencies were apparent.[19] The Ustaše movement was financially and ideologically supported by Benito Mussolini.[57] During the intensification of ties with Nazi Germany in the 1930s, Pavelić's concept of the Croatian nation became increasingly race-oriented.[46][58][59]
In April 1941, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers. After Nazi forces entered Zagreb on 10 April 1941, Pavelić's closest associate Slavko Kvaternik, proclaimed the formation of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) on a Radio Zagreb broadcast. Meanwhile, Pavelić and several hundred Ustaše volunteers left their camps in Italy and travelled to Zagreb, where Pavelić declared a new government on 16 April 1941.[60] He accorded himself the title of "Poglavnik" (German: Fhrer, English: Chief leader). The NDH combined most of modern Croatia, all of modern Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of modern Serbia into an "Italian-German quasi-protectorate".[61] Serbs made up about 30% of the NDH population.[62] The NDH was never fully sovereign, but it was a puppet state that enjoyed the greatest autonomy than any other regime in German-occupied Europe.[59] The Independent State of Croatia was declared to be on Croatian "ethnic and historical territory".[63]
This country can only be a Croatian country, and there is no method we would hesitate to use in order to make it truly Croatian and cleanse it of Serbs, who have for centuries endangered us and who will endanger us again if they are given the opportunity.
The Ustaše became obsessed with creating an ethnically pure state.[65] As outlined by Ustaše ministers Mile Budak, Mirko Puk and Milovan Žanić, the strategy to achieve an ethnically pure Croatia was that:[66][67]
The Ustaše movement received limited support from ordinary Croats.[69][70] In May 1941, the Ustaše had about 100,000 members who took the oath.[71][72][73] Since Vladko Maček reluctantly called on the supporters of the Croatian Peasant Party to respect and co-operate with the new regime of Ante Pavelić, he was able to use the apparatus of the party and most of the officials from the former Croatian Banovina.[74][75] Initially, Croatian soldiers who had previously served in the Austro-Hungarian army held the highest positions in the NDH armed forces.[76]
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