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From: cpenrose@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Christopher Penrose)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Copy Protection Mechanisms
Summary: you want it for nothing?
Keywords: copy-protection, utility, confining software
Message-ID: <15188@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Date: 3 Jan 91 22:41:50 GMT
References: <2983@pensoft.UUCP>
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In article <2983@pensoft.UUCP> dany@pensoft.uucp (Dany Guindi) writes:
>
>We, Pencom Software, are in the process of putting the finishing touches on
>our first product and are now looking for ways of protecting our software
>against indiscriminate copying... 

Don't use it.

>but it would also be potentially easy to break that mechanism. I have been
>looking for a survey paper that describes different copy protection mechanisms
>but have found nothing. I would appreciate any references or input.

People despise copy protection.  I administer a large network that has
several Frame users.  If the Framemaker host goes down, we have to get 
them on the phone and reinstall the software with a new serial number.
Delta microsystems recently sent us an optical disk device driver with
a hostid serial number.  We immediately called them and told them that
we would buy drives from another vendor if they restricted the portability
of their hardware with copy-protection.  They sent us an untainted driver.

>Also, if something like this already exists on one of the archive servers
>that would be even BETTER! What are other people using????

You want FREE, PUBLIC DOMAIN copy-protection software?  You are avaricious.
Copy protection impedes productivity and technological growth.  Vendors
should be releasing source code, not confining their users.  

And to think, you expect someone to tell you how to do it for free.

All of my software (UNIX computer music software) is free and in the public 
domain.  All of its source code is available also. 

Christopher Penrose
jesus!penrose