i just bought dungeon siege for the pc. clonyxxl claims its sd1. now how protection scanners always have worked in the past is that they detect the files that the protection uses, not the actual embedded protection. so when clony xxl detects the presence of sd1 files, could it also mean that there are sd2 sectors on the cd itself but the protection is only looking for the sd1 compatible bad sectors. so lets say you make a copy of the cd with standard sd1 settings, and it works fine. when you goto update the game itself, it updates the copy protection files also to detect the weak sectors correctly. why would a company do this? let's say that you borrow a game from someone and copy it, you play it for months, and love it. then you goto update it because of some new addon (yuri's revenge was notorious for this). it updates the copy protection detection files in the game to recognize sd2 (for example). now the game you have is useless and it forces you to go out and buy a legit copy of it yourself.

so anyway, my question is, for any sd1 game that i see nowadays, should it be treated like a sd2 game right off the bat, with weak sectors and all?

Ofcourse you should have to go out and buy a legit copy of the game!
It´s ILLEGAL to borrow a friends game and make a copy for yourself!

Buy the original and make a copy, if it proves not to work because of the things you mentioned above you can always throw the useless copy away and make a new copy with the right settings.

But, Ofcourse you should buy the game and not make illegal copys of a friends!

If the copy would stop working after update just copy it again from your friend with settings that work.

I do not believe CD Freaks condones illegal copying....becareful

I think you answered your own question, they want you to buy a legit copy!

besides the people that do own the game and update aren`t going to notice anything wrong/different. it only affects people with poor quality copies.