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From: lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Christopher Lishka)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm
Subject: Re: Copy protection; How do I do it
Message-ID: <286@uwslh.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Nov-87 16:07:31 EST
Article-I.D.: uwslh.286
Posted: Tue Nov 24 16:07:31 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Nov-87 07:44:22 EST
References: <1235@edison.GE.COM>
Reply-To: lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Christopher Lishka)
Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison, State Hygiene Lab
Lines: 48

In article <1235@edison.GE.COM> mfs@edison.GE.COM (Martin Sant) writes:
>
>I am planning to release a music software program for the C-64 soon
>and was wondering if there was a reasonable way to guard against
>rippoffs.  From conversations with previous customers, some are
>rather blatant about the fact that they have every piece of music
>software that will run on the C-64.

Some other suggestions you might want to consider:

1) "Look it up in the manual" type of protection.  Personally, I
consider this a minor nuisance, but it is far better than disk based
copy protection.

2) Provide a well written manual that is indispensable.  This is not
to say that you should make the program impossible to use without the
manual, but rather that the program should have enough interesting
features that the manual could explain in more detail, so that to
*really* get anything out of the program you need to own the manual as
well.

These may or may not be possible options, but I thought I would bring
them up anyways.

>Yeah, I know, most of youse guys don't like copy protection; I don't
>either.  But programmers have to eat too.  Anybody got any suggestions ?

Don't mind copy protection all that much myself until it starts
grinding my disk drive heads and preventing me from making a backup.
I am really P.O.'d that some programs cannot be backed up and then
insist on writing to the disk...one of these days the disk will end up
trached.  And when I payy $40 for a game that does this, I get annoyed
(Microprose, are you LISTENING?)

But other forms of copy protection are not that offensive to me, like
the ones I listed above.  I suppose a dongle is a reasonable solution
too, but that always needs to unplugged when something else needs the
spot the dongle occupies.

>Mar Tan          
>GE Fanuc         
>Charlottesville, VA

					-Chris
-- 
Chris Lishka                    /lishka@uwslh.uucp
Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene <-lishka%uwslh.uucp@rsch.wisc.edu
"What, me, serious? Get real!"  \{seismo, harvard,topaz,...}!uwvax!uwslh!lishka