Path: utzoo!hoptoad!uunet!tektronix!tekcrl!tekgvs!jans
From: jans@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM (Jan Steinman)
Newsgroups: alt.next
Subject: Re: NeXT Software Developers
Message-ID: <4148@tekgvs.GVS.TEK.COM>
Date: 26 Oct 88 17:57:34 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.
Lines: 35

<2) Cripple-ware.  NeXT would like to be a clearing house for software that 
runs in a limited mode, but requires a magic password to make it work at full 
capacity...  He claims that Frame is distributed this way now.  (Personally 
speaking, this one sounds a little strange).>

No, that's how it works.  Frame uses your machine's ethernet address as a 
password, along with a key, conceivably an encryption of that address.  This is 
primarily for protection on a network, since all one has to do is to change 
one's ethernet address to match that of the machine for which Frame is 
licensed, and get the key from the original copy.  (Of course, if you share a 
net with the machine you ripped off and you dup that address, the net crashes!)

Upon running, Frame conceivably obtains the ethernet address of the machine, 
encrypts it, and looks in it's password file for the same address/key 
association.  This is neat for production -- no factory customization of the 
software is needed, and the user can put any number of address/key pairs in the 
file, so that properly licensed machines can run it over a network.  Without a 
valid password, you can do anything but save your work!

The down side of such a scheme (especially in a student environment) would be 
the deterioration of networks, as people dup addresses in an effort to steal 
software.  Ethernet addresses are *supposed* to be unique in the universe, and 
any duplication increases the chance that duped addresses will someday end up 
on the same net.  Fortunately, the process of changing an ethernet address is 
not generally easy nor documented.

(Most of this is empirical conjecture -- I don't have any connection with 
Frame, and discovered this through curiosity, not through a desire to steal a 
copy of Frame.  This message should not be construed as advice for defeating 
copy protection, nor as encouragement to do so, but is presented in the 
interest of fostering discussion on the relative merits of such schemes.)

:::::: Software Productivity Technologies -- Experiment Manager Project ::::::
:::::: Jan Steinman N7JDB	Box 500, MS 50-383	(w)503/627-5881 ::::::
:::::: jans@tekcrl.TEK.COM	Beaverton, OR 97077	(h)503/657-7703 ::::::