#Copy protection?
37 messages in this thread
I've started a thread in the Syndesis section of the AmigaVendor Forum
regarding copy protection. We're getting close to the release of InterChange
for Windows, and we're considering adding a dongle to protect against piracy.
If you'd like to join the fray, please visit the Vendor forum and read starting
at message 81740…
Rather than jump into the fray over there…..
If it's for Windows, put two or three dongles on it.
As for software I buy…. I do not buy DongleWare. I seldom buy software that
requires a key disk. I do not EVER pirate copies of software. (Which might be
how I came to be a Beta Tester, and Alpha Tester on more than one major
software project.)
I tolerate manual based copy protection, and under extreme duress will buy code
wheel protected software.
I do not play many games, and find such annoyances out of place in serious
productivity software.
My personal favorite protection, when protection is used, is the type that
requires the manual at installation, and does not bother you again, as long as
you don't move/rename the directory.
I travel quite a bit, and hauling around/keeping track of dongles, leaves me
absolutely cold. If the dongle dissapears, the software is useless. Also if
every program went to a dongle, imagine the chain of dongles stretching across
the desk.
My sentiments exactly.
Stephen Bailey
Sawyer & Bailey Film & Video CIS # 72773,2451
You've spoken quite eloquently.
John can count me in the same category….
"Just say 'NO' to dongles." :^)
Erik Flom
I agree–I refuse to buy dongled software. Regards, Phil Combs
Alex:
My local Amiga/multimedia dealer has a PC in his store with over 15
dongles attached to it. He just got in a package that is an add-on to 3D
Studio (a dongle protected program) and it came with it's own dongle as
well, imagine that, 2 dongles to use 1 program!
// -Mike Schiller
\X/ AMIGA! On AutoPilot in sunny Fort Lauderdale
>> My local Amiga/multimedia dealer has a PC in his store with over 15
>> dongles attached to it. He just got in a package that is an add-on to 3D
>> Studio (a dongle protected program) and it came with it's own dongle as
>> well, imagine that, 2 dongles to use 1 program!
While we in the Amiga community were never blessed with a portable, try
imagining hauling a portable around, and plugging/unlpugging those 15 dongles
into your portable on the airliner to try to get some work done, while in
transit.
-Alex… I don't do Windoze or Dongles.
Alex,
except for games, you can record a 100% agreement. I do play games,
and I would LOVE to have the look up once, so long as it isn't moved,
protection on each.
If it has a dongle, I'll never, ever, buy it. Period. (Sorry, John.)
The Four Seasons of Southern California:
Fire, Flood, Earthquake, and Riot.
Never, for ANY reason, will I EVER buy a dongleed program.
-larry
Lightwave is dongled, and I'd be only too happy to buy it. *B^)
-= Vance =- Image Master
Flying high on Imagine and Imagemaster R/t!
Well, I don't have any use for Lightwave, but I can assure you that it would
never be on my machine, regardless of how good it is. The dongle ensures that.
-larry
I've lost so many things in my life, I can imagine that a dongle would
last about two weeks before it got buried on my desk, or swallowed by my
child!
Chris – Fast and Low on my '020!
Clap On! <clap clap> Clap Off! <Clap Cla{{*&NO CARRIER
Hmmm, that's interesting. If a child were to swallow a dongle, I guess
you could sue the software company for no warning label on the dongle 🙂
ROFL!!! I'm gonna do that first thing tomorrow!!!!!
Paul
Paul,
I would think force-feeding a dongle to your child constitutes child
abuse… as does starving him or her until they eat it on their own!
Chris – Fast and Low on my '020!
Clap On! <clap clap> Clap Off! <Clap Cla{{*&NO CARRIER
Just put a warning label on it to not play with your dongle. *B^)
-= Vance =- Image Master
Flying high on Imagine and Imagemaster R/t!
I DO agree with you, overall, about dongles for software. The Toaster is
the only exception for me, however, since one of my areas of interest
involves video and I could really utilize every corner of the Toaster.
Apart from the Toaster, I sympathize completely. *B^)
-= Vance =- Image Master
Flying high on Imagine and Imagemaster R/t!
Being a non-video type… I am lost on this thread. Doesn't Lightwave
need a toaster card to operate? Therefore, why a dongle?
(Insert explaination here… because there is obviously more here than it
seems! <g>)
Chris – Fast and Low on my '020!
Clap On! <clap clap> Clap Off! <Clap Cla{{*&NO CARRIER
Well, some people call the Toaster card the dongle for Lightwave. They
sort of have a point, but then again they don't, because the card is
actually part of the package.
Personally, I think they'd make some bucks by releasing Lightwave as a
seperate package – on more than one platform even.
Paul
I know that LightRave requires LW… but that is a fairly recent product.
Chris – Fast and Low on my '020!
Clap On! <clap clap> Clap Off! <Clap Cla{{*&NO CARRIER
If the new decoupled LightWave is cheap enough, Warm and Fuzzy Logic will
probably go under. Unless they use dongles.. <g>
Paul
Hi Paul,
I have a dongle on the parallel port on the PC side for a very expensive
piece of software…. I refuse to buy yet another software dongle.
O.K…. what I really want to know is why don't more people (aside from Jack
Radigan) use the license key approach? Is it that easy to crack this approach??
I mean, if the license key is tied to the serialized number of the software my
guess is that most people won't bother trying to pirate the software (because
it could be tracked).
The license key approach is what is usually used on mainframes and UNIX
systems (more often than not)… Just wondering what the objections are on a
personal computer.
– Dave
Dave-
I have no idea what the problem with liscense keys is. And I'm sick to
death of dongles – I have Real3D and Brilliance, and both use a
non-pass-thru dongle in the second joyport, so I can't use them both at
once. And furthermore the Brilliance dongle at least requires that the
computer be TURNED OFF to plug in or remove it!!!! It's HORRIBLE!
Frankly, I'm not sure that I'm going to upgrade to Brilliance II because
of that, except that I'd like it and the Amiga market sure needs support
right now.
Paul
Paul,
There you go, I was trying to stay off this thread, but you said
'mainframe'.
I hate dongles. I don't do dongles at home, and I won't (well if I was
into video, the Toaster may be a different story).
A dongle is a dongle. A license key, to me, is a dongle. In a disaster
recovery scenario, when you are trying to get a data center back up and
on-line within 24 hours (I'm not talking a few SPARCs here, I'm talking
terabytes of data and mulitple mainframes at a location 1000+ miles away)
and there a several programs, from several different vendors (IBM doesn't
do it, for mainframe stuff, why should anyone else?), all requiring thier
seperate license keys (read dongles), keying off the mainframe CPU serial
number, and, of course you are running on a different processor in that
situation, so all the programs blow with 'licensing' problems (we try to
anticipate it in tests, but in a 'real' disaster, you couldn't). You have
to call each vendor and hope that you can find someone who is authorized
to give you a 'key' over the phone…It can make for one hell of a lot of
fun trying to make everything work.
Albeit, a license key is far preferable to a hardware dongle, but a dongle
is a dongle.
Robb
Paul, you keep gettin' me in the gut! LOL!
Stephen Bailey
Sawyer & Bailey Film & Video CIS # 72773,2451
Well, I don't consider a piece of hardware a dongle, unless its only function
is to allow a piece of software to run. In other words, I do not consider a
hard drive to be a dongle for a filesystem.
-larry
>>I do not consider a hard drive to be a dongle for a filesystem.<<
Then you're obviously not using two IDE hard drives on an A4000, now are
you? <g,d&r>
> obviously not using two IDE hard drives on an A4000, …
Heehee! I consider IDE drives to be 'dingles', not dongles.
-larry
Lightwave needs a Toaster card to run on. However, once you buy the
Toaster card and software, you can buy another program called LightRave to
allow you to run the Lightwave program and modeler on any Amiga, including
the A500/600/1200.
I wouldn't recommend LightRave though, as it is not endorsed by NewTek as
it would encourage pirating of the Toaster software. NewTek also changes
each update to make it incompatible with LR, anyhow.
In simpler words, the Toaster IS the hardware dongle.
-= Vance =- Image Master
Flying high on Imagine and Imagemaster R/t!
Wow… that explains why LR at the local CommCollege doesn't work! The
instructor was also complaining about how bad the user manual sucked. It
was only 8 pages, and assumed you would have *NO* problems with
installation.
Kind of like the GPFax book! Great little manual, but if you have
problems… your out there… with no hope of help at all. (Gee, it
almost looks like I'm beginning to VENT! <g>)
Chris – Fast and Low on my '020!
Clap On! <clap clap> Clap Off! <Clap Cla{{*&NO CARRIER
I agree with you. Dongles are a waste, and won't stop the damn pirates
anyway. It's just another annoying thing for paying customers to deal with.
Yup… I don't mind paying for a software solution that deters the casual
copeir without inconveniencing me too much, but I'll be darned if I'll pay a
single penny for a hardware solution that only provides the exact same thing,
but provides a good feeling for the vendor.
-larry
'Lightwave is dongled' – Sadly, true, but it's such as _cool_ dongle! :^)
Erik Flom
Not only a cool dongle, but a useful dongle, as well! *B^)
-= Vance =- Image Master
Flying high on Imagine and Imagemaster R/t!
Count me as a anti dongle vote. Will never buy it.