Copy protection

[kee nethery]

On Saturday, March 22, 2003, at 11:56 PM, mazzapaolo at liber wrote:

> How can I add to my application a copy protection?
> I wuold like to distribute my application freely, but I'd like users 
> to ask me for a code when thay need to save their files.
> Ciao, Paolo Mazza

Protection against copying a file or application is probably 
impossible. Putting an IF statement in your "Save As" menu item is 
probably trivial. If the user has entered a valid code, then enable 
"Save As" menu.

There are tons of articles on protecting software so I'll give you my 
two cents. Concentrate on marketing (getting people to use your 
software) rather than focusing on preventing people from using your 
software (software locking).

Some of the more successful software products we have sold have had the 
lamest software registration code systems. One was unlocked by a 
combination of key strokes when a specific window was open (which means 
that anyone who knew that could unlock their software). Another gave 
everyone the exact same "secret" code, again, piracy was trivial. But 
both ended up with a huge marketshare and made their authors a ton of 
money. Depends upon your market.

Kee Nethery
kagi