getting paid
Rob Cozens
rcozens at pon.net
Wed Apr 10 12:09:10 EDT 2002
>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?"
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