Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!rpi.edu!kudla From: kudla@pawl.rpi.edu (Robert J. Kudla) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Idea for software protection... software producers, take note! Message-ID: <6901@rpi.edu> Date: 23 Aug 89 21:28:42 GMT References: <567@eagle.wesleyan.edu> <286@bilver.UUCP> Sender: usenet@rpi.edu Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY Lines: 34 In-reply-to: alj@bilver.UUCP's message of 23 Aug 89 03:06:52 GMT In article <286@bilver.UUCP> alj@bilver.UUCP (alj) writes: ...but wouldn't the people who make the copying programs find/distribute a way to copy the program anyway? Some of their customers might just want it anyway... Sad but true. Yes, and for strictly informational, politically correct purposes, this is how: Get two unscrupulous, nasty people to buy the program and get the unprotected version. Write a program to mark all the differences between the two unprotected disks. Render the ID useless. This could be circumvented by a number of means: encode the ID in such a way that if it's not up to some mathematical spec, it still won't function. Or be intelligent and creative and put a slightly different title screen, music (if appropriate) or whatever, or just fill all unused sectors with random information. That would make it a bitch to crack, but not impossible. politically correct disclaimer: I haven't cracked a piece of software since my early c64 days, and have never done so on the Amiga. So before you scream bloody murder, remember "Steal this Book". -- Robert Jude Kudla Pi-Rho America \\ /// Blah 2346 15th St. \\ /// Troy, NY 12180 /X\ \\\/// keywords: mike oldfield yes u2 r.e.m. new order (518)271-8624 // \\ \XX/ steely dan f.g.t.h. kate bush .....and even Rush