Copy protection?
I prefer no protection, or an option to, with the registration, send in a
signed non-disclosure statement and additional money ($25-$35) for a
non-copy protected version that will only install on top of a protected
version that contains a specific key, (say the protected version's serial
number). The NDA asdvises that should that keyed version or the copy
protected version ever show up in wide distribution, the original owner
will be prosecuted for software piracy.
I think the real solution is for machines to have some readable key (like
maker, model serial number) and the software to have privat key that gets
matched to the machine it is intsalled during installation. The disk is
modified during the install, and cannot be used with any other machine. I
think this public/private key scheme is a successful form of protection
that congress could mandate all machines sold in the U.S. must support.
I hate dongles as much as I hate pirates. I have been dongled to death.
Now in the case of the Toaster, PSFC, SuperGen and DCTV, etc the dongles
do something for the user as well as the writer. However, for Amilink,
Real-3D, Brilliance, they instead detract from the usabiulity of the
machine. This is doubley try in a multi-tasking environment. FOr example,
AmiLink's dongle is not transparent to a printer, or other par port
dongles. So you get cascaded swtichboxes to handle all the dongles. Then
you need to switch away from it to print something, AMiLInk takes down the
entire machine instead of hust killing itself.
Dongles are fussy. They don't work on multiport cards so I can't take
that route out. You can't switch them without truning off the machine. So
what I do is avoid buying dongled software if the manufacuter is honest
enought to tell me its there to start with. (RGB and Digital Creations are
not). If I get software that is dongled because it didn't say it was on
the box, I take it back.
My order of preference is
1) no protection
2) code wheel/manual look-up
Another way to protect the program is to make it so rich and sophisticated
that it cannot be used without the manual, and make the manual voluminous
and very difficult to copy.
Another thought- don't protect it, but have screens pop up randomly with a
variety of things like,"would you like someone to be forging checks drawn
on your bank account? Software pirates are no less sleazy than such a
forger would be." Or pop a picture of a really pathetic homeless person
on the screen, "he thought he would make a good living from his
programming ability. Software pirates stole his wares and his livelihood.
Only selfish ignorant fools steal software." Then maybe a screen with
piracy statistics that show how you could seel the product for half the
cost if it were not for pirates. Then offer a reward, say life time free
upgrades or 2 free upgrades if they turn in anyone known to have pirated
your software adn be willing to testify in court to that effect.
Barring the requirement of some hardware feature that allows a softwar
package to be "stuck" to a certain machine, the only solution to the
piracy thing is to be creative in locating pirates and agressive in
prosecuting them to the maximum extent of the law.
I also think that a lot of software that is stolen is done so by people
who would not buy it at any price. What is important to me, is do I get
what I pay for in the program (and that includes tech support). I have no
problem being "validated" when I call in for support. And the support
aspect, as well as manual posession are prime factors that prevent
professional and serious amatures from stealing software. So in a certain
respect, the dollars lost to pirates in this country is a figure that is
suspect since there is no indication of what percentage of the people with
the stolen software would have acutally bought it had there been software
protection on it. (I'd wager less than 15%). Then you have to look at
how many sales you will loose because of the protection.
wmc – via Autopilot!