jac@allegra.UUCP (11/05/83)
subject:software piracy-coupons and other methods.
Jonathan A. Chandross (BTL MH)
As a software pirate I was bemused to read of the new
methods which you people seem to think will stop software piracy.
SOUNDS LIKE THE METHODS CURRENTLY IN EXISTANCE (ALMOST).
The methods currently in existance are:
1) Non-standard DOS (disk operating system)
This means that the disk is written in such a way that only
the companies load routines can access it.
2) Nibble-count
The number of bytes on a given track (or tracks) is known.
When a copy is made, the number is different, and the progran
senses this and refuses to boot, erases itself,.....
3) Serial numbers
Removing serial numbers is so trivial that it doesn't even
bear mentioning.
I have little or no trouble removing the protection on these
disks. There are other methods, but they get complicated to explain,
and I don't think that this is the time or the place to explain them.
What my friends and I do is allow the program to load, and put it on
a normal disk after removing nibble count checks, DOS checks .....
In other cases (ie non-total load) we merely transfer all of the files,
or copy the disk preserving the nibble count.
Any time that someone comes out with a new method of protection,
it is usually out on the streets stripped of its protection inside of a
few months. I happen to think that these guys (meaning the proponents
of the system ) don't know what the Heck they are talking about.
Putting on "bad" sections on the disk is no problem to remove.
I know of one game which uses them. It took about 20 minutes to strip
the protection off of it.
Jonathan A. Chandross
Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
Allegra!jac
NOTE: THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ABOVE ARE NOT NECCESSARILY THE OPINIONS
OF MY EMPLOYER. NOR ARE THEY NECESSARILY CONDONED OR ENCOURAGED.