AW: security code number generation

[J. Landman Gay]

On 7/18/11 2:43 AM, Tiemo Hollmann TB wrote:

> As I understand Zygodact, or Peters or Shaos approach the user can pass on
> his "name, etc." and the generated code to everyone else to unlock the
> software.
> How do you handle this issue? Is it just something "as is", is this scenario
> so negligible in your customer base that you just can ignore it, or do you
> count on the good in the people that they won't do it?
> Would be of interest on how you handle this.

I agree with everyone who said there is a limit to how much effort you 
should put into piracy protection. However, Zygodact includes a CGI 
script that can generate serial keys from the server. The script can be 
altered to check a database on the server. If there are too many 
registrations for a particular name and serial key, the script could 
return a message to the app that the user needs to contact you, or do 
something else to notify you.

This technique isn't perfect either, because it requires that the end 
user has internet access when registering (or at some point anyway) and 
some users get very upset when an app "calls home". So again, the 
trade-off is something to consider. If the app is one that works only 
with the internet, then it's probably okay because access will be 
expected. But if the app is a self-contained game, for example, users 
may lose trust, and sometimes they broadcast that in comments or ratings.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com