Creative Computers/Creative Computers CD-ROM, Volume 1 (Legendary Design Technologies, Inc.)(1994).iso/text/misc/piracy.pp/piracy

Text File | 1994-11-17 | 8KB | 148 lines

                                  Piracy

        By: Chris Kawchuk                       Tuesday, February 13, 1990


                     "What can be cheaper than free?"
                        - Eric Mcgillicuddy

    It is a world of ships and swords, with one legged captains at the
 helm. Attacking at night in force, taking all they see, while feirce
 fighting rages on the ships. They board without mercy, ravaging anything
 they can get their hands on. It is a world of skull and crossbones, of
 cannons, of death, and of great riches.

    It is a world of tapes and magnets, with two legged teens at the
 controls. Copying all day in force, copying all they see, while fierce
 corporate battles rage on the courtrooms. They copy without mercy, taking
 anything they can get their hands on. It is a world of video and audio, of
 VCR's, of lawsuits, and of great riches.

    It is a desolate world of hackers and phreakers, with two handed
 typists at the keyboard. Cracking all day in force, copying all they see,
 while fierce debates and Police rage around them. They steal without
 mercy, taking anything they can get their hands on. It is a world of disks
 and computers, of illegal operations, of underground systems, and of great
 riches.

    It is the world of Piracy.

    68000 assembly, source code debuggers and disassemblers have taken
 the place of swords, shields and battle axes. No more does one have to
 venture far into the open waters to find treasure. In fact the farthest
 one has to go is to a computer with a modem and the hatches are wide open.

    Many people have tried to combat piracy in many ways, but none more
 than the creators of the treasures themselves. They are the programmers,
 the ones who labor their minds to the limits, using logic, not brute
 strength to mine the riches of the software markets. The profits are
 minimal for the ammount of work that these brave intellectuals must
 proceed with. Most of their precious time is wasted, combatting the forces
 of piracy and of evil.

    Many concepts came up over the last few years; ways of copy
 protection, inhibiting the use of the software without hardware, and code
 wheels.

    Copy protection is simply encoding the disk in such a way that the
 current technology of disk mechanics can only read the media, but not
 write it. Subtle changes in the makeup of the disk, of laser holes bored
 in the correct sections of the disk, will prevent these disks from being
 allowed to be copied.

    A hardware (eg: a physical object, such as a keyboard) is a
 different approach to allowing the software to run. Many people think that
 "the best way to stop piracy is to incorporate most of the protection in a
 small hardware adaptation, which would fit on the end on a joystick/mouse
 plug end.  Have it so that something has been incripted into the adaptor,
 where as if there is no adaptor, the program will still work. The joystick
 and mouse just will not respond when the person tries to use them."

    "By making it small and available with the package, it will be almost
 impossible for anyone to make a copy version of the hardware.  This will stop
 almost all forms of piracy, not many people are that up on jury rigging their
 joystick/mouse -- to risk their computer for the software... End of problem,
 if it can be done."

    "You make the hardware adaptation, on an varying electrical field
 rather than software controlled.  In other words, the pirate has to get the
 right electrical code going through this adaptor to his joystick or mouse,
 with it being so small, he'll probably give up trying.. If the electrical
 fields not right,  NO KABLOOEY of his machine, the software just won't work
 with your joystick/mouse.  NO DESTRUCTION of anything and you keep the normal
 user happy, because all he knows is that this is just an intricate part of
 the program... Nobody ever will call it copy protection, only those who have
 reason to depise it..."

    John Wong is a computer graphics artist from Toronto. He loves the
 graphic cabapilities of his computer. He sais the protection method already
 described "has already been implemented, and is commonly referred to as a
 'Dongle'. They aren't usually found on games, but on productivity software.
 Other similar methods use a dongle that attaches on the serial port.
 Personally, I think these are highly offensive to use, especially in
 productivity software. The possibility of losing these little dongles
 always exist, and what happens when you purchase several packages that
 all use dongles? They're not very practical..."

 "Pirates have also bypassed dongle protection in the past. They don't seem
 to be very difficult to 'crack'..."

    A code wheel is a simple piece of paper, which has result codes on
 it, wheras the program periodically will ask you something along the lines
 of "Number #1 - A860. Number #2 - 6FFE. What is shown when you match
 these two numbers up?" By turning 2 wheels over each other, a code will be
 revealed on the second piece of paper, which is the right response to the
 question. If they answer the question wrong 3 times in a row, the program
 will simply refuse to run. This has been the most effective way to combat
 the piracy of software. The user who actually buys the software will, of
 course, have a code wheel inserted into the manual of the program, which
 accompanies the package. It is impossible to photocopy, and is difficult
 to 'crack'.

    The day of innocence is past. Programmers putting their life's work
 into a program, only to have it copied. The senseless slaughter of young,
 bright minds, as in Yellowbeard's day, seems almost pointless. A pirate
 feeds off his battles and his treasures, but very few of today's pirates
 actually do any work. They simply reap the harvests of others work, like
 vultures circling a kill after a lion has made a kill. Unfortunately,
 the food lasts forever, and an infinate ammount of vultures can feed off
 the booty of one.

    What can be done? Police have started cracking down hard on
 underground systems, which are set up for nothing more than the
 exploitation of one piece of work which some would-be genius has managed
 to copy and put in a state to be transferred.

    A simple solution is to lower prices. "I do think software prices are
 extremely inflated, which some manufacturers are saying is because of piracy,
 and some are saying causes piracy. I know if the majority of softare was
 priced between $20 and $50, a lot of pirating would stop. Most of us don't
 think an awful lot of forking over $20 bucks, but $400 or $500 is another
 matter."

 "Imagine how much it costs to mass produce a program package, and you can see
 how much profit someone has to be making on anything that sells for $500 or
 more. If they kept a more reasonable profit margin, say 30%, then their sales
 would see a dramatic increase, and most piracy would crumble."

 When asked of Kevin Morwood, he believes that "piracy is a direct product of
 the general attitudes of people today. It doesn't stop at software or records
 or tax evasion or .... the list goes on. The point is that people are greedy
 and lazy. I remember seeing some new report about a fellow who was a
 middle-management executive who got caught ripping off pop and choclate bars
 from a 7-11! His salary was in excess of $50 000 / year. There is something
 that our capitalist society entrenches in our morals that say "...if you can
 get it for free then you've done OK"! This is BULLSH*T but it's true. If you
 think of the true moralistic consequences of copying anything (software,
 music, etc) or skipping on your taxes or whatever it's always for one
 reason....you (or whoever) don't want to part with your bucks. If you can
 figure out how to do it then you're ahead of the next guy. This is how our
 society teaches us from the time we're old enough to be able to take action to
 fulfill our desires."

 The final way of prevention is rather simple, as Raymond Cheng puts it:

   "The only way to stop piracy is to change people's attitudes. There is
    absolutely nothing you can do in software to prevent piracy."