bl@infovax.UUCP (Bj|rn Larsson) (10/17/89)
Hello network,
is there anyone who knows how to circiumvent the Everlock protection
system? Today I bought Voytera Sequencer Plus MKI (MIDI sequencer),
only to find it is copy-protected, something I thought most reasonable
software houses abandoned years ago. One can either run it from the
release diskettes, or install it (twice) on the hard disk. However
if after installing on the hard disk one uses a disk optimizer, or
'certain DOS utilities' as the manual says, the program may become
unrunnable.
I also don't like that the protection scheme puts hidden files
(called EV11.SYS and EV22.SYS, I think) in secret places on my disk,
and that the sequencer puts overlay files etc. in a directory that
I cannot specify (i.e., it is a fixed name). I have tried to trace
the code to find the protection code, but the code before that is
clever enough to overwrite the trace interrupt vector, so both
TurboDebug and Codeview hang when they don't get their interrupt...
so I would have to patch that away, and hope that some other code
doesn't checksum that section... Before I pusue that, I'd like to
ask this distinguished forum for assistance.
Granted, Voyetra offers to sell a 'keyed' disk, plus a hardware key
to stick in one of the printer port, or in a free bus slot (I have no
free ones). And if you lose you 2 installations, 'you can still run
from the distribution floppy'. And they can send you a new disk for a
'modest fee'. But for me who live in Sweden, it wlll be a tedious hassle.
I want to be able to make backups - don't they always say 'first thing
is to make a backup!'?...
I would like to know if someone knows how to make backups, and how
the Everlock system works? Copying with COPYWRIT or COPYIIPC does not
work. There is one bad disk sector ('short data' as reported by
COPYWRIT). The manual talks about problems with misaligned disk
drives - have they intentionally misaligned tracks or sectors for
protection? A strings(1) check finds copyright strings talking about
Everlock version 2.10 in the executable.
Note as I said that I legally bought this software and want to make
legal backups. If you don't want to spread the solution to everybody,
mail me directly.
-- Bjorn
--
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Bjorn Larsson, INFOVOX AB : ...seismo!mcvax!kth!sunic!infovax!bl
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S-171 02 Solna, Sweden : Phone (+46) 8 735 80 90jjw@igloo.Scum.COM (John Welch) (10/17/89)
In article <301@infovax.UUCP> bl@infovax.UUCP (Bj|rn Larsson) writes: > is there anyone who knows how to circiumvent the Everlock protection >system? Today I bought Voytera Sequencer Plus MKI (MIDI sequencer), >only to find it is copy-protected, something I thought most reasonable >software houses abandoned years ago. One can either run it from the >release diskettes, or install it (twice) on the hard disk. However >if after installing on the hard disk one uses a disk optimizer, or >'certain DOS utilities' as the manual says, the program may become >unrunnable. > > Note as I said that I legally bought this software and want to make >legal backups. If you don't want to spread the solution to everybody, >mail me directly. I've made a serious stab at dis-assembling this stuff, as I am rather annoyed by this same thing. The software is downright clever! (most certainly a 3-pipe problem, Watson ;-). The best I've done to date is to install it, then *image* back up my hard drive to a tape (handy little gadget! :-), un-install it and image recover my hard drive. This leaves all the installs intact, while allowing me to run my program [btw - my hardware is in a constant state of flux, and almost weekly I swap in/out 10 new things, frequently trashing the drives in the process. I cannot take time to un-install *everything* every day.] As for un-fragmenting programs, I use VOPT by Golden Bow and it has enough sense not to move those files. As long as they are not touched, you'll be fine. Had I known this software was copy-protected, I would NOT!!! have bought it, period. It is useless without the MIDI hardware, which to me is more than enough copy protection. If they had invested half as Path: igloo!attctc!texbell!rutgers!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!wrgate!midas!jeffw From: jeffw@midas.WR.TEK.COM (Jeff Winslow) Newsgroups: rec.music.classical Subject: Re: "Symphony," "Sonata," etc.: another