Daft idea for commercial software ???

[Neal Campbell]

While I adhere to the private key generated from Customer data model, I have
seen a different paradigm in my market space which is password protecting
the download directory of the fully-enabled version. If the end-user posts
the installer someplace, the software becomes free but oddly enough it
doesn't happen. If it accidentally does (and its usually a novice computer
user that does this) its strongly responded to by the user community, sort
of self-patrolling by the customers. I would never guess it would work but
it does. And, from what I can tell, the password is the same for everyone,
so the amount of work by the developer is close to nil.

Best wishes


Neal Campbell
Abroham Neal Software
www.abrohamnealsoftware.com
(540) 645 5394 NEW PHONE NUMBER

Amateur Radio: K3NC
Blog: http://www.abrohamnealsoftware.com/blog/
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Abroham Neal forums: http:/www.abrohamnealsoftware.com/community/





2010/3/30 Björnke von Gierke <bvg at mac.com>

> Actually most Reg-Key schemes work exactly like that. The Name or email of
> the person buying is encoded in some way within the key, or via a reference
> in a database. Therefore the ID is tied uniquely to that customer. Of course
> you could mail around the program, but that won't help at all against being
> pirated, and might alienate some customers. Depending on tech-knowledge
> they'll either react confused or annoyed ;)
>
> Note that there are some indy game sellers that work like that. If a
> registration scheme works that way, I expect it to also offer me a link to
> re-download at any time, even months or years later. Not all of the game
> portals do give more then one chance to download, a reason I do not buy from
> those anymore.
>
> Be aware that changing a single occuring string in your app to "hacked by
> l33t dude" is actually simpler then reverse engineering the registration
> code. That fact is also why Richard Gaskin is such a fan of putting
> registration code into several places that use various approaches to recheck
> for validity often. It's easy to change or remove one function that checks
> at startup, even when considering the work of decompiling. But it's much
> harder to go trough all the code and look wether it checks various stored
> registration keys or not.
>
> Random thoughts by
> Bjoernke
>
>
> On 29 Mar 2010, at 20:57, Richmond Mathewson wrote:
>
> > I have been thinking about all the cafuffle about registration numbers
> and so
> > forth; and wonder, given the fact that some level of pirating will go on
> if a piece
> > of software is worth anything, if it is really worth all the mucking
> around.
> >
> > So:
> >
> > I should like to float this idea and welcome all reactions and
> criticisms:
> >
> > I release a crippled demo which contains a page that lists my Paypal
> place
> > and informs would-be buyers that within 48 hours of my receiving via
> > Paypal I will either e-mail them as an attachment or direct them to an
> ftp folder
> > where a full version of the program is with a banner of some sort
> plastered
> > across the front page / opening screen saying something like:
> >
> > "This version of ZZZZZ is the property of QQQQ and as such may only be
> used by
> > him/her/it."
> >
> > No doubt some folks will share their personalised versions with their
> friends,
> > relations and so on; but that will probably happen anyway unless I go
> down
> > the painful route of tying programs to mac addresses.
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