serial numbers on standalones

[Dr. Hawkins]

On Sat, Mar 16, 2013 at 6:42 AM, Björnke von Gierke <bvg at mac.com> wrote:
>
> Make standalone with a custom property that contains dummy string, for example 16 chars
>long. Now use a stack, script or other means to find that dummy string in the standalone, and
>replace it with a "proper" license string that is also 16 chars long. Finally, your code in the
>standalone checks for the license string cprop, whenever the user enters his credentials. The
>standalone is now custom-coded for your customer, and no second one exists. Pretty easy to
>workaround

Thank you (and everyone else!).

And this really gets to the crux of it:  anything that comes out of
the compiler is either in the clear, or encrypted.  If I can edit it
like that, so can anyone else.  If it's encrypted, neither can I.

So I'm asking the wrong question . . .

I suppose I have to look at how compilation actually works.  Perhaps
if I go under the hood, I can look at the order in which things are
compiled, set a button or two so that they come at the end (or at
least on the last card, save the state before that card is hit, and
then cycle through load, change button script, finish; load . . .

The more I think about it, not hard-coding may not be as disastrous as
I had first thought (there were discussions some months ago; attorneys
are particularly adept at rationalizing stealing software).

It looks like I'm going to have public/private keys for each user
anyway (wonderfully built in to livecode!)

One of the messages that decrypts at runtime will have the attorney
name, bar (law license) number, address, and program serial number,
all of which appear in the output--with the name, and serial number
actually appearing on the copyright notice on each page of output.

Using someone else's key will also put their name and address on the
output, which is only useful for filing with the court . . .

-- 
Dr. Richard E. Hawkins, Esq.
(702) 508-8462