Newsgroups: comp.misc Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!news.iastate.edu!exnet.iastate.edu!z1dan From: z1dan@exnet.iastate.edu (Dan Sorenson -- Seed Testing Labortory) Subject: Re: Any piracy statistics in the US ?? Message-ID: <1991Jun25.173337.5578@news.iastate.edu> Sender: news@news.iastate.edu (USENET News System) Reply-To: z1dan@exnet.iastate.edu (Dan Sorenson) Organization: Iowa State University Extension References: <292@rins.ryukoku.ac.jp> Date: Tue, 25 Jun 1991 17:33:37 GMT Lines: 40 In article mathew@mantis.co.uk (Giving C News a *HUG*) writes: >will@rins.ryukoku.ac.jp (will) writes: >> Getting in on this a little late. But isn't it possible to program >> your software to read the serial numbers on the say (CPU and/or FPU) >> before the software will function. Then all you need to do is require >> the purchaser to do is give his/her serial numbers when purchasing the >> software and everyones happy. >[stuff deleted and I feel good about it] It appears that somebody has forgotten that, no matter how wonderful the copy protection scheme, somebody is going to find a way around it. It also tends to make using the software inconvenient for the user, which will tend to disrupt sales. If it were me, I'd be quite upset to find that I could only use the software on machine "X" and not machine "Y," when software licensing agreements generally let me use it on any number of machines, though not all at the same time. How would I fix this problem? Make good copies of the original disks, of course, and then use a sector editor to search for my serial numbers. These get changed, and away I go. If this proves ineffective, I'll disassemble the program code and look for where it reads my serial number. Then I'll bypass this code and get on with _using_ the software I legitimatley bought. I'm not advocating software piracy, of course, nor am I advocating the reverse-engineering of code to bypass certain "features" that may exist. I am merely stating a reason for why this form of copy protection has not become widely used in the software industry. Flames to /dev/null, please. Conversations can go here or e-mail. __________________________________________________________________________ "What's that thing?" "Well, it's a highly technical, sensitive instrument we use in computer repair. Being a layman, you probably can't grasp exactly what it does. We call it a two-by-four." -- Jeff MacNelly, "Shoe" Dan Sorenson, z1dan@exnet.iastate.edu It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word. -- Andrew Jackson ___________________________________________________________________________