Hackintosh

Wed Aug 2 18:13:52 EDT 2017

Frankly I don't agree with "protection" that causes problems to the
legitimate user.

In all my years of writng bespoke software I ALWAYS placed a copy of the
source on the CEO machine and told them (for no extra) . If I got run over
by a bus then the company wouldn't be at a loss - there are many
Foxpro/Delphi programmers around.

The system that I have written with Livecode - A POS if you must know I
have put in  the simplest of protections.

Each copy has the name and address of the company in a few columns in
table. I have a separate program to setup the name and address - I save ALL
but the name in the clear. The Name is saved with 128/256 bit encryption.
When the program starts it  reads the fields and decrypts the name, and  if
it is not a valid name the system can do what it wants. Personally it says
Unregistered copy and my Phone number on the Customer display and on
receipts and takings.

The only reason I put this in was that one of my customers said a cash
Register person was asking questions.

I have split up the test in to  two different areas because I know from
experience how you crack programs (it was better than playing games on an
Apple ][ - well except for Choplifter, Threshhold and Pacman).

You just find the code where the test is and jump over it - except that in
this case the name will not be correct so they will have to patch the byte
code as well - and that is protected as well.

There is another sneaky way if and when I can be bothered. Allow them to
enter name and address within the program save it. When the program starts
up let them think it's ok - but check every time and count down for a month
or 2 - Then tell them they are rumbled not overtly but with a "Program
Error " that needs your support.
There is a lot of fun using this very simple method that can still take
ages to crack. In fact with Livecodes send <zzzz> to command you can split
up the checks and make it random as well.

Frankly all protections can be removed I gave up one night when after going
through 3 levels of protection from the boot sector to other sectors then a
routine in memory that said for "$149.95 you can go to sleep tonight" - It
was 3 in the morning and I went to bed after having a good laugh - never
did any more cracking after that.

Oh and that was a protected LISA assembler disk I had purchased so it
wasn't about saving money. - I had already made a backup using a bit copier
but I wanted a non copyprotected version and some "fun" deprotecting it.

The people who copy your stuff are your free advertising. Case in point I
was given a Clipper Summer 85  Disk by a programmer friend - I hated DBase
it had no validation and was too Basic. I tried Clipper for a Week. I then
Purchased Same for £695.00 in 1985 - when that was lot of money - they got
a sale because there was absolutely no protection.

Finally to round this off. In the early days Microsoft managed to dethrone
lotus by just having a license number instead of a protected disk so all
the students and companies could copy word/excel. Once you learn something
and go into the workplace you take your skills with you.

After a year or two they allowed you to become "legal" for an upgrade price
of  under £100  I think it was - when Lotus was still selling 123 for
Nearly £500 and all the upgrade did was check that word/excel/office was
installed on your machine - didn't matter if it was legit or not.

Then Microsoft slowly increased prices ......

On 2 August 2017 at 22:24, Richmond Mathewson via use-livecode <
use-livecode at lists.runrev.com> wrote:

>
>
> On 8/3/17 12:03 am, Richard Gaskin via use-livecode wrote:
>
>> Richmond Mathewson wrote:
>>
>> > No, I don't think we have to respect Apple's policy at all.
>>
>> A similar view might ask whether the DevaWriter license terms need to be
>> respected, or LiveCode Ltd.'s, or Stephen King's, or the protections
>> afforded any creator of an original work.
>>
>> <snip>
>
> LOL.
>
> I have just changed my Devawriter licensing system so that each
> instantiation of it that I sell is tied to the MAC address of
> an individual computer. Therefore there is nothing to respect, a chain is
> a chain, and if someone manages to spoof Mac Addresses
> on a large scale to use my program the fact that they would go to that
> trouble proves it's a program worth having!
>
> I have made my "licensing" system as hard as I can: I'm sure it can be
> broken: whether it is worth going to that bother remains to be seen;
> after all you can have a site licence for 10 machines at $200.
>
> If I really wanted to make "my fortune" programming computers I wouldn't
> be tinkering around in our spare bedroom at 55 anyway . . .
>
> The reason I have changed it is because I know of someone who purchased my
> Devawriter 3 years ago and now has copies all over the place:
> my bad, I should have taken a bit more trouble: at least some people are
> finally getting their heads around "Sanskrit As it Should Be":
>
> http://andregarzia.on-rev.com/richmond/home.html
>
> Apple's policy is "just" Apple trying something on. A EULA is NOT a
> legally binding agreement: if you choose to abide by it you
> can feel "awfully" moral, much in the same sort of way I haven't fathered
> 27 children with 27 mothers simultaneously (which, oddly
> enough, is not illegal) makes me fell that I'm slightly more moral in some
> respects.
>
> I bought a 10 year-old Intel iMac about 8 months ago. I had the system
> install disks from a Mac laptop of my wife's that went bang about 3 years
> ago.
> Now I was probably breaking some sort of agreement by using those disks to
> get my iMac going - possibly not "meant" to install on another Mac other
> than the one they were bought with. Morally, as the one the disks came
> with a dead computer I could see nothing wrong with using them to get
> another, similar computer running; especially as I could find no way to
> purchase Mac OS Lion disks from Apple.
>
> LiveCode give away the Open Source version of their product. . .
>
> Stephen King . . . well, if you really have to read his books you can
> borrow them from the library . . . I read 3 of them in about 1984.
>
> Love, Richmond.
>
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