Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!cbmvax!cbmehq!cbmger!peterk
From: peterk@cbmger.UUCP (Peter Kittel GERMANY)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Dongles to defeat piracy
Message-ID: <654@cbmger.UUCP>
Date: 20 Dec 90 09:44:03 GMT
References: <910@macuni.mqcc.mq.oz> <9Baeu1w163w@kennels.actrix.gen.nz> <49025@sequent.UUCP>
Reply-To: peterk@cbmger.UUCP (Peter Kittel GERMANY)
Organization: Commodore Bueromaschinen GmbH, West Germany
Lines: 32

In article <49025@sequent.UUCP> cseaman@sequent.UUCP (Chris "The Bartman" Seaman) writes:
>sbeagle@kennels.actrix.gen.nz (Sleeping Beagle) writes:
>> Again, one of the best anti-pirate devices I saw was on Shadow of the
>> Unicorn for the Spectrum. It was a dongle with additional RAM and a
>> joystick port. Basically you had to have the dongle before you COULD play
>> the game! (It's a pity that the game was a flop... :-)
>
>An interactively used dongle may well defeat most pirates, but it will
>also (I suspect) defeat quite a number of sales.

I agree. Look, if you only have ONE dongle protected software, then
it might be ok. But what if you have, say, five? The dongle companies
state "our dongles are totally transparent" (I speak about those
going onto the parallel port, NOT joystick port 2). So, in theory,
you stack those 5 dongles in one row to your port. Mechanically
a horrible load. And software-wise? Well, the German magazine c't
made a test with PC dongles for exactly this issue. And they found
big differences. They actually were able to use (I think I remember
correctly) up to 4 dongles, but until that worked, they had to try
nearly every permutation of the order of these dongles. So, and this
was on a singletasking system where you were sure that only one
software at a time tries to read its very own dongle. Now imagine
this on a multitasking Amiga. Pure horror!
It also wouldn't be any solution to put only the dongle of the
respective, just to be invoked program on. Normal port connectors
are not layed out to get changed a dozen times a day.

So, software companies, PLEASE avoid dongles!

-- 
Best regards, Dr. Peter Kittel  // E-Mail to  \\  Only my personal opinions... 
Commodore Frankfurt, Germany  \X/ {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!cbmger!peterk