In July 2008, Ubisoft released the 1.02 version update patch. In addition to adding new weapons and maps, the update also secretly installed a disc check anti-piracy countermeasure. This would check whether or not a legally purchased disc copy of the game was inserted in the PC's disc drive and prevent the game from loading if it detected no disc. While this was not an issue for players who purchased a physical copy, the anti-piracy update inadvertently also carried over to the digital copies sold through IGN's Direct2Drive service, locking them out of the game. These problems were rectified with update version 1.03, where it was discovered that Ubisoft's patch solving the problem was a No-CD crack taken from Reloaded, a pirated games group, and re-released as an official patch.
:chefs-kiss:
The silly part is that somehow Nintendo retains copyright over 30 year old games, even though they had 0 expectations of these games yielding profit 30 years in the future, and thus why they didn't even bother archiving them. It's insane that the only way you can tell you have the most accurate copy of an old Nintendo game, is to check the hash of your ROM against the No-Intro hashset, clearly Nintendo has no authority over the file integrity of their own games, a literal ROM dump group that used to host a tiny pirated rom site in the 2000s is the final voice over which copy is legit, and somehow Nintendo still gets to profit.