lotto@talcott.UUCP (Jerry Lotto) (12/09/85)
I "nth" the vote for copy protection through support and documentation.
After many problems with various methods breaking down under hostile
conditions i.e.:
1) second source hard disks
2) alternate speed crystals
3) disk rearranging programs ie: norton dirsort or sector grouping
routines
4) memory resident utilities
5) hardware additions (mice, etc.)
6) clones (or even other family members)
7) backup efforts for hard disks
8) error recovery from disk problems
So copy protection really stifles the efforts of companies that offer
creative and useful enhancements/alternatives to "Big Blue Boxes".
How many variations can you anticipate in advance when designing such
a scheme? Since smaller companies are usually the ones that feel that
they need to use it, the net result (no pun intended) is that the big
get bigger and the small get smaller.
Fine, so what alternatives are there? Many good suggestions have been
made in the past but I would like to add one more. The installation of a
program is a one time deal (hopefully). Lots of "smoke" can be put
up through the use of an installation program that sets up many hard-
ware specific options. The setup routine can be documented in a manual,
with little or no on-line help. It may be run as many times as the
user would like for different configurations, but requires new
information. This would require that copies be accompanied by:
a) a manual
b) a tutor
c) a lot of effort
Improper installation would result in a half working program. The little
problems that occasionally crop up would not prevent the program from being
used. The idea here is to remove the motivation for continued hacking
by a few qualified individuals, "It's working now and I do not have the
time to fix every last bug". It is not perfect by any means, but if the
program is desirable enough
(and here is another issue, if the program is not particularly good,
few people would buy it. Do the illegal copies establish a user base
that otherwise would not exist?)
even pirates will eventually buy the thing to avoid the hassles associated
with a half installed copy.
Flame retardant: This is obviously incomplete, I am not suggesting it as
a complete solution to the problems of copy protection.
--
Gerald Lotto - Harvard Chemistry Dept.
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