User Preferences

[Peter Bogdanoff]

Hi,

My project is a OSX/Windows program that is sold to college students via a (Kagi.com) shopping cart with a serial key generator linked to it. I want to strengthen the copy protection by limiting the user to one installation (things can't be passed on to other students).

I've tried using the machine name (gotten by the address function) and saving it in a custom property of the main stack. So when the stack is opened, the custom property is compared to the machine name. This works most of the time, but sometimes fails for a reason I've not been able to figure out. The two don't match when they should. So I'm needing another method.

I've never tried writing a preferences file. I see that I could use specialFolderPath and write a file. Can this file be made invisible?

Is this, in general, a good method to use for copy protection?

We plan ultimately to sell this kind of thing in China where file copying is rampant and want to prevent that somehow.

I purchased Zygodact but it doesn't seem to work for us as it generates its own keys...

Peter Bogdanoff
ArtsInteractive.org