OpenEuphoria

Re: Copy Protection

• Posted by rforno at tutopia.com Nov 20, 2001
• 711 views

Well, I was told many years ago that this protection scheme was used then by
some, so it should work.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rod Jackson" <rodjackson_x at hotmail.com>
To: "EUforum" <EUforum at topica.com>
Subject: RE: Copy Protection


>
> Euman,
>
> Here's a thought that may take a bit of effort, but may work reasonably
> well:
>
> Locate one (or more) sector(s) physically on the disk. I.e., be able to
> point with a needle to the magnetic tape or reflective coating of the
> disk, and be able to say "Sector X is here."
>
> Punch a hole through the disk at the appropriate sector(s).
>
> Have the data on the disk be scattered about, and encrypted. The only
> clue to where the bad sectors are is contained, in a program that is
> also stored on the disk. Also, the only record of how the data is
> scattered, and of what the encryption key is, is stored in the program.
> You could even have these two data records (where the bad sectors are
> and how to render the data readable) be 'scrambled', to prevent a simple
> look at the program code from reading it. The program knows how to
> unscramble the records.
>
> The only way to access the information now (without considerable effort)
> is via the on-disk program. When run, this program 'unscrambles' the
> bad-sector info if necessary, and checks to see that the punched-out
> sectors can be neither read from or written to. If the program finds
> that the sectors are indeed bad, 'unscramble' the data info if
> necessary, then reconstruct and decrypt the data. Finally, the data is
> presented to the user/desktop program.
>
> Should the program find that the physical sectors ARE indeed there, it
> demands that the original disk be used and aborts. The program won't run
> unless from the original disk, and the "visible" data is useless without
> the program restructuring/decrypting it. Voila, an uncopyable disk (at
> least to the casual--and possibly experienced--user.)
>
> Note that this is all theoretical though; I'm not a hardware guy. 
>
> Rod Jackson
>
>
> euman at bellsouth.net wrote:
> > 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
> >
> >
>
>
>