Re: Commercial copy protection?

I don't think you can do that, because of DHCP. You can assume
it won't change, but you know what assuming does to you.

Robin S.
------------------------------------------
"Paul Bromley" <flyfisher@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23U8Wd3HHHHA.4904@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Forgot to say, but backtracking a little, if I could just find a
foolproof way of determing the ACTIVE IP address of the PC on the
network in XP, Win2K and Vista, then this would solve my problem.
Unfortunately even on my test site, I have not been able to achieve
this.

Best wishes

Paul Bromley



"Paul Bromley" <flyfisher@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eI$POtHHHHA.1468@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ok Robin and Cor,

I understand where you are coming from with this one now. They will
be fully informed. Better still I will be more than happy to give
them a new serial if this is the case - I have no intention of taking
their money and then stitching them up. Just the opposite as for the
last 3-4 years the users have been using my software for nothing. I
am selling to sites that are likely to install on 10 - 20 machines
and do not want them buying one copy when they should be buying more
or a site licence. Until now I have been producing time-limited
software free of charge requiring the users to use a new exe file
every 6 months or so. This was to allow them to try it out and for me
to sort out the problems in the beta stage. These users are now
saying that they are more than happy to pay rather than keep messing
about with new exe files.

Paul Bromley


"RobinS" <RobinS@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6_ednTrX8NsRqOHYnZ2dnUVZ_sWdnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I think he means that if you base the licensing on something in
the hardware, and they change the hardware, and your program
no longer works, you could be liable for damages, unless you
tell them about it up front.

Kind of like Microsoft's program disabled Windows on lots of
machines after they pushed out that program to check for
validity.

iTunes does this, too -- their DRM is based on something in
the hardware. When my drive crashed and I had to replace it,
the next time I tried to play some of my purchased music,
I had to register the computer as a new computer.

Cor, do I have that right?

Robin S.
-----------------------------------
"Paul Bromley" <flyfisher@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ujpzHYHHHHA.420@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Cor,

I am not sure what you mean by this. I am not doing anything
malevolent that would cause any damage. Can you clarify this? I
assume from your first paragraph that there is no unique
identifier, although the hard disk serial number is sufficient for
me if it is available from XP, Win2K and Vista.

Paul



"Cor Ligthert [MVP]" <notmyfirstname@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%239jvyrFHHHA.1252@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Paul,

If what you ask was in the PC, would you think that Microsoft had
used the expensive to handle and not so customer friendly
authentication system.

I warn hundred times in this newsgroup that the route you are
going can lead to very high claim damages if you don't explicitly
and very clear tell in advance to the user that a damage on a part
of the hardware can mean that the program you are selling is
completely not function anymore, even despite your program has
nothing to do with that hardware to function.

Just my thought,

Cor


"Paul Bromley" <flyfisher@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> schreef in bericht
news:%235C2oRFHHHA.3540@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Blake and all,

I have gone a long way to 'rolling my own' solution that would be
adequate for me. My main problem at the moment is trying to find
a unique identifier for a PC running XP, Win2K and shortly vista.
All PCs are connected to the internet generally with one NIC
card, and most PCs will be 'stable' - i.e. I do not need to worry
about drives being re-formatted. I would like to implement
protection so that my program be licensed in 2 ways - i.e. on a
site basis, or as an individual PC. On a site basis, I can easily
obtain and check the IP address of the server, as I can obtain
this IP address from a piece of software that I know all sites
will be running. My main problem is the other option of allowing
licensing per PC - I need some unique identifier for any PC - but
this must cover Win2K, XP and shortly Vista.

I have looked at the commercial offerings and I think they will
not cover the licensing schemes that I need. Also I need
implementation to be very simple - by way of my generating a
serial dependant on information they send to me relating to
either the standalone PCs or the server. I think most will go for
the server option, but I also need the standalone option. I have
done all the work on the encryption and checking side etc, and as
I say I am not worried about someone cracking what I am doing as
it will not really hapen in the vertical market where these
products will go. I had looked at the commercial options to save
my time, but if I can quickly sort out a unique PC identifier,
then I have sorted what I wnated to do.

Last night I came across the Machine GUID in the registry - is
this present in XP and Win2K, and will this be resent in vista. I
was looking at the IP address, but on my development machine with
a fixed and wireless NIC, I have 3 IP addresses showing. Hard
disk serial number would be fine, but is this present on every PC
that I am targeting.

Any solutions to the unique PC identifier would be gratefully
received. I never thought that this would be so difficult. Note -
I need to pick this unique idnetifier up without my client base
having to install anything apart form my programs.

Many thanks,


Paul Bromley


"Blake" <blake.ackland@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1165745061.593072.168020@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Yes.

Implementing a 'Real' protection system is very very hard, if
not
impossible.

He specifically stated that his intention is not to stop skilled
crackers, but rather stopping users passing around copies freely
within
his industry or org.

This should be fairly trivial.

A serial based on username and/or some hardware metric. (mac
address?)
would be enough to stop this type of piracy. No expensive 3rd
party sw
is needed for this type of protection.

Just enough incentive to make these users spend more of their
bosses
money on a key rather than just moving an exe file to another
pc.


Rad [Visual C# MVP] wrote:
On 9 Dec 2006 19:06:20 -0800, Blake wrote:

If you are not worried about skillful crackers breaking your
protection
system, why don't you roll your own? It should be fairly
trivial to
write a routine to validate a serial or key.

The hard part is keeping that routine away from prying eyes,
but as
you've stated it is not likely that 'real' crackers will have
a go at
your apps, so simply obfuscating your assemblies and
including a key
validating routine should be enough right?



Implementing your own protection system is much trickier than
it sounds. I
would not recommend going along that route. You need some
professionally
done system like xheo licensing
http://xheo.com/products/enterprise/licensing/default.aspx

If cost is an issue you can also check out OpenLicense
http://openlicense.tigris.org/, which is free
--
Bits.Bytes
http://bytes.thinkersroom.com















.

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