NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #30/NN_1992_30.iso/spool/comp/sys/next/programm/7827

Text File | 1992-12-21 | 1.9 KB | 39 lines

Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.programmer
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From: [e-mail] (J.B. Nicholson-Owens)
Subject: Re: Using the serial # in ROM as a copy protection mechanism...?
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Reply-To: [e-mail] (J.B. Nicholson-Owens)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 22:33:24 GMT
Lines: 26

I agree that Mathematica's protection is ridiculous.  It's a lot of
hassle just to run Mma once, very distrustful of the user and
ultimately a big problem when you change hardware to like hardware
(something that most people would not consider affecting their
purchased software at all).  However, I don't think that any approach
is successful in tying a single user to a copy of a program.

Louis A. Mamakos writes
> The approach that I like is to give the user some piece of
> information that needs to be supplied to enable the application.

But what if one user gives a copy of that information to another user
and that other user changes their hardware to make the key work (for
example, what people do when using the already publicized small program
to change their ROM-encoded serial number to make someone else's Mma
work)?  Or if the information is an answer to a question, what if
someone gives those answers to someone else who gets a copy of the
software?  Or what if someone sells their computer and copy of your
program to someone else but doesn't tell you about the sale (perhaps
they forgot, perhaps the warranty expired and they figured it wasn't
worth the trouble to call you)?  In these cases, do you (the software
developer) really have a clear idea who is pirating your software?
When do you really know who is pirating software you wrote?
--
-- Jeff ([e-mail])
-- NeXTmail welcome