Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!decvax!ucbvax!hplabs!hpcea!hpbbn!hpbbrd!gary
From: gary@hpbbrd.HP.COM (Gary Tuosto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: F-15 Strike Eagle
Message-ID: <1930003@hpbbrd.HP.COM>
Date: 17 Feb 88 07:23:42 GMT
References: <3037@cup.portal.com>
Organization: HP Boeblingen Engineering Operation
Lines: 16

A friend of mine recently told me about a copy protection
technique that sounds just like what you've described, Don.

It seems that some software makers use a laser to put a hole
in their diskettes in a specific place. When the executable
file is run it attempts to write on that spot and immediately
after that attempts to read what it just wrote. Since the 
original disk is damaged it will give an '00000000' back no
matter what. Any copied disk however will not be damaged there
and the program can read the information it put there which
proves that the disc had been copied.

This might be what you're experiencing or some variation of the
technique. I wish you luck and may the force be with you.

					 Gary