wayne@cs.odu.edu (C Wayne Huling) (06/11/90)
I have been working on a program for my parents and want to copyright it and put it out to the world as shareware. First, could some one point me in the correct direction for copyrighting software. Next, to protect my software from piracy, I was curious if anyone had any practical expiernce with making coping diffucult (I know I can't acheive impossible) for people? Wayne ---> Sometimes I have evil thoughts...... ---> GC.
lukrw@vax1.cc.lehigh.edu (06/11/90)
In article <12759@xanth.cs.odu.edu>, wayne@cs.odu.edu (C Wayne Huling) writes: > I have been working on a program for my parents and want to copyright it > and put it out to the world as shareware. First, could some one point me in > the correct direction for copyrighting software. > Next, to protect my software from piracy, I was curious if anyone had any > practical expiernce with making coping diffucult (I know I can't acheive > impossible) for people? It's not shareware if you can't copy it.... ----- Most successful shareware authors make sure that use of the program is not hindered in any way. If it's good software, it will develop a following and you will receive paid registrations. You may want to include gentle "reminders" in the unregistered versions. Copyrighting simply requires that you include the statement: Copyright <year> by <your name> displayed at program startup. Include the phrase "All rights reserved" for a valid international copyright. Your copyright can be registered, but for most individuals that isn't necessary.
qseclrb@prism.gatech.EDU (BOB BAGGERMAN) (06/11/90)
In article <12759@xanth.cs.odu.edu>, wayne@cs.odu.edu (C Wayne Huling) writes: > I have been working on a program for my parents and want to copyright it > and put it out to the world as shareware. First, could some one point me in > the correct direction for copyrighting software. > Next, to protect my software from piracy, I was curious if anyone had any > practical expiernce with making coping diffucult (I know I can't acheive > impossible) for people? > As for copyrights, it is sufficient to claim copyright as your program loads (on an opening screen, for example). The copyright claim must have three things. 1) It must either say "Copyright" or use the "C in a circle" symbol. Since the PC doesn't have "C in a circle" as a character, you MUST say "Copyright". Note that "(C)" is not good enough. 2) You must give the year, i.e. 1990. 3) Finally, you must spell out the name of the person or company claiming the copyright. It is interesting that no formal filling of copyright with the government is require. It is to your advantage, though, to have registered in case of future claims. It can strengthen you position considerably. The copyright office has several brochures specifically addressing copyrighting of software. You ought to be able to look them up in your library (that's what I did). I don't have the info here at work, but if you need more info let me know and I will bring it from home. As far as copy protection goes, the scheme is use is to "customize" the software the first time it is run. By that I mean that the first time my programs are run I prompt for the user name and then have the program go in and mod the .EXE so that the user name always shows up whenever the program is run. IMHO, this is a reasonable thing to do to deter wide spread piracy. If you need a code fragment showing how to go in and mod the .EXE file let me know and I will send it to you. Hope this helps. Regards, Bob Baggerman rwb@csdvax "GTRI - Designing tomorrow the night before" -- Bob Baggerman ! rwb@csdvax.gatech.edu Communications Systems Division ! qseclrb@hydra.gatech.edu Georgia Tech Research Institute ! bbaggerm@gtri01.gatech.edu Atlanta, GA 30332 ! 404-894-3525
ccastje@prism.gatech.EDU (John Adair) (06/12/90)
I think 4DOS is the program that uses this, but I've never seen it.
Until the program is registered, it beeps annoyingly at random intervals.
I imagine I'd get pretty sick of it if it was a long beep and pretty often.
The software isn't crippled by this, unlike other schemes I've seen.
The only problem is the registration process. I know some programs use
passwords and license numbers, which could be pretty easily to the .ZIP file
by some "hacker", but it seems the best way to go, unless you actually want to
mail out a customized copy to each person that registers.
A "copy protection" scheme that I used for one piece of software was to alter
the seconds field of the file's time. As the software was shipped, the seconds
field was set to a multiple of four. Every time the software was run, it
changed the field to a new multiple of four. When the field equaled, say, 36,
the software wouldn't run until the field changed. A password could be entered
on the command line that would change the field to a multiple of 2, but not 4.
Whenever the program saw a non-multiple of four, it knew it was registered.
A rough kludge, but it worked for my purpose. (Note that I would have used
even/odd, but MS-DOS chopped off the last bit of the second field, allowing
only even numbers. This kept me busy for a few hours, beating the keyboard
into a pulp, until I gave up and used multiples of 4. A couple weeks later,
I saw the missing bit mentioned somewhere. It went on my List of Obscure
and Frustrating Things You Find Out About With Turbo Pascal.)
John Adair : ccastje%prism@gatech.edu : ccastje%prism.gatech.edu.BITNET
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Georgia Tech Box 30812, Atlanta, GA 30332 Disclaimer:
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opinions of my employer (The Office of Computing Services, Georgia Tech).