really difficult

[afesheir]

hi people ...
I have some difficult problem ... I want to make an Application and support it my protection system so that nobody can make a copy of it, only the original CD can work properly ...

NOTE: I am using VB6

thx

[randem]

DIFFICULT!!!! Yeah, making a topic that make sense would be...

Also a better explanation wouldn't hurt either...

[afesheir]

thanks randem ... just I thought it is difficult, but if u see another thing, please inform me, how can I perform this task ...?

[randem]

You haven't explained anything...

It seems you have a protection system and you want to make an application that supports it?

[afesheir]

ok ... Mr. Randem ... I want to make an application and keep my copyrights so that nobody can use it without paying its price ... i.e., how to prevent illegal copying ... I think it is clear now ... help plz ...

[Hack]

Moved to General Developer

[randem]

If one could do that then Microsoft wouldn't have such piracy problems... All you can do is make it more difficult.

[afesheir]

that is good, but some companies in my country did that really ... their software cannot be run except from their original CD, but some people can break this security system ... I want such a system, to provide a minimum security to my products ... and thanks

[randem]

Basically all that does is check the serial number of the CD before it is allowed to run. I would bet that if someone copied the CD they could still run the software.

[superbovine]

Basically all that does is check the serial number of the CD before it is allowed to run. I would bet that if someone copied the CD they could still run the software.

OK, let me explain this.

There was a company a few years ago that created software similar to what you are talking about. What it did was autorun then the software that ran only allowed you to do what it wanted you to do. Someone got around this by using a Mac which is a variant of BSD UNIX which means any linux/UNIX could do the same thing. After the software was copied off it could be looked and figured out how it worked.

The creator sued the poor mac user who posted easy work around online. Later the creator withdrew because no one would research his project to make it better, much less want to use it.

The moral of the store is, if you create a cd in standard ISO format means that any cd-rom and operating system can the read the data. All data is in 0 and 1. There is even software and hardware out there to make a "bit for bit" copy of the cd which means all the hardware/software does it look at the 0 or 1 and copy it over, no execution of software on the cd happens. This can run a PC or as standalone hardware.

The other moral of the story is: Get a lawyer to protect your software.

To specifically address your serial number, someone will eventually get around any software protection scheme you use.

Software can be decomplied and reversed engineered to extract out how the scheme works and a patch will be written. Have you ever meet someoe who can read straight hex machine code? Probably not, but I am pretty sure they would get around software protectio you had as well.

Even the biggest companies cannot stop this.

Some software companies sell hardware dongles that attach to usb or serial ports that run let you run Autocad or some type of similar program. The key is actually contained on the hardware. That too can be circumvented with enough time, and someoe unwilling to pay for the software.

[randem]

superbovine,

So why are you quoting me????

Have you ever meet someoe who can read straight hex machine code?

Well Yes, I can... And so can many others... The new school students never learned this.

[superbovine]

superbovine,

So why are you quoting me????



Well Yes, I can... And so can many others... The new school students never learned this.

I missed

[Al42]

An old protection scheme on the old Apple II was to make the encoding of every track on the floppy different. (The encoding was actually carried in a table on the floppy, and read by the computer.) If the encoding scheme was different on each floppy produced (a simple program took care of randomizing the scheme on each track, so every floppy was different), it would take more time than it was worth to defeat.

Of course this can only work in a computer in which the "disk controller" is software - it won't work on PCs, and it probably won't work on Macs. The best you can do is come up with a dozen different protection schemes and incorporate them all. Some people will give up after solving a few problems and finding that they're still no closer to being able to use your program without paying. (They have no idea how many more things they're going to have to defeat.)