getting paid

[Rob Cozens]

>I'm still trying to figure out how to protect my time investment.

Hi Doug,

FWIW, here are a few random foolesh thoughts on the subject from 
someone who has never published shareware:

* Computer software is basically as vulnerable to unauthorized 
duplication as are music, video, and virtually anything that can be 
digitalized.  The time one spends designing & programming protection 
against piracy may be greater than the original time investment in 
the product if one attempts to design a 100% foolproof method.

* One needs to accept the fact that "piracy happens" and determine a) 
how much is really at stake, and b) how much time one realistically 
can put into prevention efforts.  Do you just need to discourage the 
casual snooper, or are you trying to defeat a motivated hacker?

* I think the best anti-piracy approach is to key the software to a 
specific computer; however there is no universal way to approach this 
on all models & platforms.  For example, my commercial application is 
presently designed to run only on Apple iBooks.  This allows me 
encrypt the serial # of the user's iBook in the copy of the app I 
download or mail to them on CD.  The app gets the serial # from Apple 
System Profiler when it opens and refuses to run if it doesn't match 
the encrypted #.  I think this is about as secure as I can get; 
however this technique is better applied to limited production 
commercial software than to shareware.  I would like to see RunRev 
support some built-in function that would return a unique identifier 
for every cpu supported.

* I would suggest that one approach shareware as serendipitous 
revenue one receives as a supplement to the enjoyment & creative 
outlet one experiences designing & programming.  If one approaches 
programming as time invested for potential return, one might as well 
do it on a commercial basis.   :{`)

-- 
Rob Cozens, CCW

"Where but America can the person who lost the popular vote become 
President without a coup?"