jmt@legend.cma.fr (Jean-Marc Tanzi) (01/04/91)
Let me state first that I know nothing of AmigaDos (hope that should
not last long), only a bit of OS and real time principles.
So I have a question for the gurus: do you think that a program
that is "OS-friendly" can be seriously protected against piracy?
Isn't such a program an easy prey for the crackers?
For example, allowing multitasking means (at least) saving the process
state quite often, so it should be easy to trace/look/dump it (almost) any
time. Let's say when the copy-protection comes up.
--
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Jean-Marc Tanzi | Millions of years to make oil and forests,
jmt@cma.cma.fr | a century to burn them. Mankind versus Nature: 100000 to 1.
| Will Mankind find a tougher planetary opponent?sbeagle@kennels.actrix.gen.nz (Sleeping Beagle) (01/05/91)
jmt@legend.cma.fr (Jean-Marc Tanzi) writes: > > Let me state first that I know nothing of AmigaDos (hope that should > not last long), only a bit of OS and real time principles. > > So I have a question for the gurus: do you think that a program > that is "OS-friendly" can be seriously protected against piracy? > Isn't such a program an easy prey for the crackers? > > For example, allowing multitasking means (at least) saving the process > state quite often, so it should be easy to trace/look/dump it (almost) any > time. Let's say when the copy-protection comes up. Let's just say that the collections of software that some pirates I know 'own' has exactly the same ratio of non-protected and OS friendly stuff to the highly protected, only-run-on-an-A500-with-512k-chip products. That is one of the worst things about the non-OS friendly stuff - it would appear to be unnecessary in some cases at least - and it doesn't stop piracy. Even worse than this - pirated games are often better than the original because of the lack of annoying protection schemes. Worse again, some of my friend's pirated games work on the Amiga 3000 while my legals ones won't. Protection stinks! -- ** Official Signature for Sleeping Beagle (aka Thomas Farmer)! ** sbeagle@kennels.actrix.gen.nz || Disclaimers are for sick societies ** Thomas.Farmer@bbs.actrix.gen.nz || with too many lawyers.
farren@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Farren) (01/05/91)
jmt@legend.cma.fr (Jean-Marc Tanzi) writes: >So I have a question for the gurus: do you think that a program >that is "OS-friendly" can be seriously protected against piracy? >Isn't such a program an easy prey for the crackers? No. It can't. But then, neither can any other kind of program. Crackers will crack anything you come up with, whether it's OS friendly or not. Might as well make it as convenient as possible for all of us folks who put ourselves on the line by paying actual money. -- Mike Farren farren@well.sf.ca.us
bill@dmntor.UUCP (Bill Kyle) (01/07/91)
Yes protection stinks. Even though I only have an enhanced 500 I alway feel insecure about games I can't do back-up copies with. My point is why can't S/W houses get into the habit sound off-disc protection? The best example of this is Falcon. They use a code wheel. Not only that, but the code-wheel is colored in suble blue to make it very hard to copy on your average photo-copier PLUS they use complex icons instead of numbers to dissuade attempts to copy down the combinations. This is the best form of non-disk protection I have seen yet. AND I get to back up my Falcon disks. Three cheers for all the S/W houses that go through the effort to devise effective non-disk copy protection, like Spectrum Holobyte. ps: All those who think F-18 is better than Falcon......please, get a life!
cmcmanis@stpeter.Eng.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) (01/14/91)
In article <9519@mirsa.inria.fr> jmt@legend.cma.fr (Jean-Marc Tanzi) writes: >So I have a question for the gurus: do you think that a program >that is "OS-friendly" can be seriously protected against piracy? >Isn't such a program an easy prey for the crackers? No more or less so if you aren't OS friendly. The "crackers" don't need to use the OS to run a state analyzer. The only serious cracking stuff for the Amiga I've seen was this guy who had a disk the booted into an analyzer and then watched your program run and checked for various things. >For example, allowing multitasking means (at least) saving the process >state quite often, so it should be easy to trace/look/dump it (almost) any >time. Let's say when the copy-protection comes up. The "process state" you mention is pretty trivial relative to the application. You last statement is the correct one "it should be easy to trace ..." And this holds true with or without the OS. -- --Chuck McManis Sun Microsystems uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: <none> Internet: cmcmanis@Eng.Sun.COM These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. "I tell you this parrot is bleeding deceased!"