Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac:11552 comp.misc:1757
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!quintus!ok
From: ok@quintus.UUCP (Richard A. O'Keefe)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.misc
Subject: Re: Copy protection and the consumer
Message-ID: <565@cresswell.quintus.UUCP>
Date: 23 Jan 88 04:01:07 GMT
References: <4663@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <3823@husc6.harvard.edu> <4676@ihlpg.ATT.COM>
Organization: Quintus Computer Systems, Mountain View, CA
Lines: 16
Summary: wrong

In article <4676@ihlpg.ATT.COM>, tainter@ihlpg.ATT.COM (Tainter) writes:
> In article <1319@looking.UUCP>, brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes:
> Copy protection based on use of a serial number unique to a machine is
> NO COPY PROTECTION AT ALL and is expensive for the seller since he has to
> customize each copy he sells!  The serial number has to be imbedded in the code
> somewhere and tested.  To break this one runs the program under a debugger
Wrong.  We have such a scheme.  The serial number doesn't need to be
anywhere in the code.  We ship *one* copy of the code.  The customer
tells us the serial numbers of the machines he wants it to run on (any
number that he has paid for).  New machines can be added to this list
at any time.  (Think "trapdoor functions".)  The customer can make any
number of copies of the code, and run any copy on any of the machines
he is licensed for.  If he tries to run the product on another machine,
it just prints a polite message saying how to get a licence and quits.
Everybody wins.  (Yes, a really determined pirate can still steal the
program.  We're stopping only dumb crooks, but that's most of them.)