OpenEuphoria

RE: Copy Protection

• Posted by freeplay at mailandnews.com Nov 19, 2001
• 551 views

Hello Euman,

One copy protection method I've seen in the past is where the software is also 
distributed with a printed manual.  When the software is run it asks for a 
word from the manual to be entered.  For example:

  "To activate type the 3rd word in the second paragraph on page 32 of the 
manual".

If you don't get it right then the software doesn't run - you have to try 
again and when you do your asked for a word from a different part of the 
manual.

The idea is that while it is easy and very cheap to copy the content of a 
floppy it's a bit more hassle to copy a manual.  I guess you could photo copy 
the manual but if the manual is 100 pages or so this might be a bit pricey.  
Also I guess the manual could be scanned in and converted to a word document 
(or PDF or whatever) and also copied to a second diskette but even scanning a 
100 plus pages is a bit of a pain.

However, the general idea is to make the process more cumbersome.

Regards,

FP.

>===== Original Message From euman at bellsouth.net =====
>
>Hello all,
>
>I am in need of some advice. I would like to make a diskette that contains
>private data
>non-transferable to another diskette. What I mean is writting bits to the
>boot sector or
>a set of bits at a certain sector that would if copied, be transfered to
>another location on
>the copy to diskette making it inoperable. Is there a way to protect serial
>numbers on
>diskettes that anyone knows about? What sectors or hidden sectors would not
>transfer
>if a copy was made? There must be a way!
>
>I agree that some of the virus code out there might help in this situation.
>I would rather stay away from this type of copy protection...
>
>I thought about using a scatter scheme "broken files" that could only be put
>back together,
>if I could find out how to protect the disk first..
>
>Any GREAT ideas.... very much appreciated!
>
>Euman
>euman at bellsouth.net
>
>
>