Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!instr.okanagan.bc.ca!rdlanctot From: rdlanctot@instr.okanagan.bc.ca (Ryan Lanctot) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Copy protection Message-ID: <345*rdlanctot@instr.okanagan.bc.ca> Date: 4 Jul 89 20:47:00 GMT Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 21 One way to get people to stop pirating your software is to provide help to them. What I mean is, somebody wants to take out what they percieve as an irritating feature (ie a noise, title screen, etc.). So what do they do? They turn to a magazine like Computist for help. In the process of getting rid of the noise/title/whatever, they break your copy protection. Not good for you. So what you do is, if someone phones you, whatever, say to them ok, go to track ... and this byte and NOP it. Chances are that if you do this, the casual copiers won't bother breaking your protection. That just leaves you with the Hardcore Pirating group to deal with and you can take care of them by joining the S.P.A. I don't know, it seems to make sense to me. Most people won't bother to mess with your program it the protection doesn't detract from the speed of loading, etc. Besides, it doesn't makes sense to copy a great program at any time because you don't get the stuff that comes along with it loke maps, etc. Later. Ryan Lanctot or try