Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!portal!sv!moose
From: moose@svc.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Copy Protection Mechanisms
Message-ID: <1991Jan4.170234.3909@svc.portal.com>
Date: 4 Jan 91 17:02:34 GMT
References: <2983@pensoft.UUCP>
Organization: Software Ventures
Lines: 32

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... It would be easy to simply use crypt and
>the hostid to "brand" the sold copy to the machine in which it is installed,
>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.
>
>Also, if something like this already exists on one of the archive servers
>that would be even BETTER! What are other people using????

You would probably be better off site licensing the product.  That way, everyone
at one site can use the machine.  Remember, NeXT is a multi-user machine and
with NXHost, limiting it to one machine is not going to keep it from being
used across the whole network.

Another thought is to force personalization.  It deters piracy because the 
owners name is on the program.  You can also register serial numbers and such.
Most legitimate companies do not pirate.  Some even require all software to
be personalized so if there is piracy, they can trace it down and stop it.

Before you say I am naive or anything, Microphone, the program I am writing
for the NeXT, has never had any copy protection on any of the machines we
run on.  We have never had a problem with widespread piracy because our
program is tailored for business users.  Home users that pirate our program
would most likely never have purchased the program anyway.  
-- 
Michael Rutman				|	moose@svc.portal.com
Cubist					|	makes me a NeXT programmer
Software Ventures			|	For Your Eyes Only Public Key