David Honig <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Just a historical anecdote. Back in the old days, software
> could be linked to the unique ID on Sun motherboards. To move
> software to a new machine, you called and maybe faxed something
> signed (with a pen) to the effect that you weren't ripping them off.
>
> This was before the software-based floating licenses became
> popular.
At a large firm I worked at, we wrote a kernel mod for SunOS that lied
to the executables about what the system ID was. We did not steal
licenses, mind you -- we did this because we would often have systems
crash in the middle of the night and need to move the executables to
another system, and the folks at the software company would not be in
their office to give us license keys until morning.
Getting around the license stuff will always be trivial, however, in
spite of the pipe dreams of fools. If the software can be read by the
user's computer, it can be copied. If it can be copied, automated
tools will be developed to permit it.
Fake "cryptography", hardware "keys", hardware modifications and all
the other garbage people try are at best ways to slow down duplication
and to annoy legitimate users. None of it works in the end. The sick
thing is, all of it has been tried before, over and over, and yet new
companies constantly appear promising new holy grails for the copy
protection crowd.
Perry
