Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.csd.uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!pasteur!cory.Berkeley.EDU!fadden
From: fadden@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Andy McFadden)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Xenocide deprotect
Summary: Right buddy
Message-ID: <16636@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 29 Aug 89 03:08:01 GMT
References: <8908281946.AA23515@trout.nosc.mil> <1876@garcon.cso.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: fadden@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Andy McFadden)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 52

In article <1876@garcon.cso.uiuc.edu> jb10320@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Jawaid Bazyar) writes:
>In article <8908281946.AA23515@trout.nosc.mil> orcus@pro-lep.cts.com (Brian Greenstone) writes:
[chop]
>>DO NOT TRY THE XENOCIDE DEPROTECT THAT WAS UPLOADED HERE!!!!
>[stuff about different versions]
>> v2.1 and 2.2 are also not compatible with each other.  There are going to be
>>new versions released every few weeks in an effort to prevent any cracks or
>>cheats to work well. 
>>
>>-Brian Greenstone
>
> Jolly, so not only will there be ten zillion billion 'versions' of Genocide
>floating about. Great.

Do you plan to allow users to upgrade to the latest version?  I suppose you
will charge them money... makes a lot more than freeware, I see.

>			 You forget that all it takes is one crack, and unless
>you change the actual game significantly, who's gonna bother cracking version
>2.2,2.3,2.104394389348954, or whatever?

Actually, I will, just to prove that copy protection is a stupid idea.  The guy
who distributed the cracks and cheats just doubled the value of your software;
why are you calling him a jerk?  One might say the same about somebody who
insists on annoying people by fighting a battle he can never win.  Or about
somebody who has had several people on a nation-wide network advise strongly
against a particular course of action, but insists on doing it anyway.

It has been my experience that initial versions of software appear on BBSs very
quickly, while improved versions take a little longer (many pirates aren't very
discriminating; they'll see another copy of Xenocide and say, "I already have
that; why bother getting another?").  Creating newer, mutilated versions is
silly.

>                                     WHY BOTHER! We told you this would
>happen, but you didn't listen.

You want a nice form of copy protection?  Create one of those books with ten
zillion different numbers in it, and ask the user to enter one.  It's difficult
to send such a book over BBSs (although you could be in trouble if you use a
mathematical formula; somebody had the latest Wizardry book down to a table of
20-30 numbers).  This allows legitimate users to put the program on a hard
drive, and gives pirates the fun of blasting your number-check routine out of
existence (as they surely will).

>jawaid bazyar    jb10320@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu  Junior/Computer Engineering UIUC

-- 
fadden@cory.berkeley.edu (Andy McFadden)
...!ucbvax!cory!fadden
"Down with copy protection, down with piracy.  One does *not* imply the other,
 but the order of operations is significant."