1. Software copy Protection and installation
- Posted by cp May 07, 2014
- 1135 views
I would like to distribute a piece of software but want to provide some protection that is does not get copied and pirated. Looking for some tips on ways to do this. I recognize that there are some products such as Crypkey out there but since my code will run as a service those do not seem to work. I know some of the installers out there have some form of registration system but it would be good if there was some form of protection post install as well. Looking for suggestions. Thanks
-casey
2. Re: Software copy Protection and installation
- Posted by DerekParnell (admin) May 07, 2014
- 1113 views
I would like to distribute a piece of software but want to provide some protection that is does not get copied and pirated. Looking for some tips on ways to do this.
There are two ways to make sure its never pirated...
- Don't write it in the first place.
- Make the software so bad that no one wants it ... and even that's not a sure bet.
Any other method is costly and doomed to fail.
3. Re: Software copy Protection and installation
- Posted by cp May 08, 2014
- 1091 views
I would like to distribute a piece of software but want to provide some protection that is does not get copied and pirated. Looking for some tips on ways to do this.
There are two ways to make sure its never pirated...
- Don't write it in the first place.
- Make the software so bad that no one wants it ... and even that's not a sure bet.
Any other method is costly and doomed to fail.
Yes. I recognize that a "professional" cracker will eventually be able to get at a piece of software given enough time, effort and resource. I'm also guessing that such professional would only spend such time on a widely popular or very valuable piece of software. My piece would be neither of those. However I am interested in stopping the casual and possibly accidental sharing of the software. Surely there is a balance here.. Some simple things which can be done which hinders the casual copying by non-professionals?
-cp
4. Re: Software copy Protection and installation
- Posted by jaygade May 08, 2014
- 1099 views
I think that Euphoric -- or someone -- had a library which checked the drive serial number and compared it to a license file.
5. Re: Software copy Protection and installation
- Posted by fizzpopsoft May 08, 2014
- 1109 views
Checking the drive serial is the way I do it too.
While I am there, I also use the same functions to enforce an expiry date, so that end users are encouraged to move on to the latest version - and that is so I don't have to debug known errors again.
You may want to think about how many users you will have so that you can decide the best way to gather hdd serials and distribute the passwords.
Eg, have your app display the users' HDD serial and possibly send that to you via the net directly or an email.
Your app could also have an edittext popup to accept the password/expiry change or again via a net connection.
Speaking of debugging, I have found it good practice to create a logfile that records mouse clicks, data entries etc - where each logfile line has the date, time.
I replicate the customer configuration file with version and passwords in the logfile too.
If you want, I'll post my code for the HDD to password generator. Since I always add some fixed chars to the HDD serial input, I am not giving away my actual password generator completely. Just add your own fixed chars.
HTH!
