Cd duplicating protection softwares
Yeah really if you can't trust your "publisher" then its not a real one. Would you enlighten us about your publisher of choice and maybe about your finished and polished product?
We're programmers. Programmers are, in their hearts, architects, and the first thing they want to do when they get to a site is to bulldoze the place flat and build something grand. We're not excited by renovation:tinkering,improving,planting flower beds.
When I give out versions before the official release I do mark them in some way. That won't protect you from copying, but then you know at least the origin of the copy (and can avoid that person next time for example or even blame him publicly).
There's many ways to mark it - I usually use a combination of a self-made key-solution and sometimes compiling certain stuff into the .exe itself. Unless you have to give out many versions the easy solution is to add some custom string (nothing obvious - just a series of characters for which you can search in the exe or in some data file) + a number as a static string. Then just change that number for every version you give out (either by recompiling or by using search&replace in the exe directly) and write down which one it was somewhere.
I use additionally personal key-files which are again checked somewhere in the program when I can't work with different binaries. Those would be easy to crack I guess, but then again - the danger is usually not that high anyway. A publisher who steals from developers in such a direct way won't stay in business for long. Usually they have way more advanced ways to rip you off (called contracts) ;-)
There's many ways to mark it - I usually use a combination of a self-made key-solution and sometimes compiling certain stuff into the .exe itself. Unless you have to give out many versions the easy solution is to add some custom string (nothing obvious - just a series of characters for which you can search in the exe or in some data file) + a number as a static string. Then just change that number for every version you give out (either by recompiling or by using search&replace in the exe directly) and write down which one it was somewhere.
I use additionally personal key-files which are again checked somewhere in the program when I can't work with different binaries. Those would be easy to crack I guess, but then again - the danger is usually not that high anyway. A publisher who steals from developers in such a direct way won't stay in business for long. Usually they have way more advanced ways to rip you off (called contracts) ;-)
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Lil Margin
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- Location: Netherlands Antilles, Curacao
A friend of mine is the publisher...sounds funny huh?Would you enlighten us about your publisher of choice
Let me explain the case :
The game i made is a trainings program for kids that goes to elementary school but it did not meet its expectations when it was reviewed by some people.so since it got a bad review i did not bother to look for serious publishers at all...the game is in 2 versions(dutch and english) and i got a friend in the netherlands and hes going to sell it for me there and i am going to sell it here on my island to tourist's and civilians here.
But you see if i send him 50 copies he can make 500 more copies and get money from the 500 and that means that i have been robbed and i dont want that.
Thats the situation at the moment.
Oh and here you can find info on the game
PS : the website is not professional at the moment but ones i get enough funding i will buy a domain and a better server.
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randomMesh
- Posts: 1186
- Joined: Fri Dec 29, 2006 12:04 am
LOL, exactly what I had in mind. 
Btw, you seriously think someone will spend money on that kind of application? Honestly, I bet almost everyone on this forum could code it in less than an hour -- let's say a day if you want all the fancy looks.
Btw, you seriously think someone will spend money on that kind of application? Honestly, I bet almost everyone on this forum could code it in less than an hour -- let's say a day if you want all the fancy looks.
Never take advice from someone who likes to give advice, so take my advice and don't take it.
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Lil Margin
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- Location: Netherlands Antilles, Curacao
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randomMesh
- Posts: 1186
- Joined: Fri Dec 29, 2006 12:04 am
Well, this kind of software is being sold indeed.
http://www.mathmedia.com/arsernew.html
But honestly, this one looks much more advanced.
http://www.mathmedia.com/arsernew.html
But honestly, this one looks much more advanced.
"Whoops..."
Yeah you are trying to reach kids. you have to work with colors and funny pictures. I always loved those mini comics on my tests^^
We're programmers. Programmers are, in their hearts, architects, and the first thing they want to do when they get to a site is to bulldoze the place flat and build something grand. We're not excited by renovation:tinkering,improving,planting flower beds.
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Lil Margin
- Posts: 212
- Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 4:24 am
- Location: Netherlands Antilles, Curacao
In short - if you burn the CD's yourself then there is basically no way to add a protection that prevents the copying of the CD's. I think those protections work by using specific features which you get only from pressed CD's (and pressing CD's is expensive).
You could probably use some server-solution where users have to register their hardware and then can only install your software 2-3 times on different hardware like seen in some sucky non-free operating systems. But then you either need a server running all the time, or you have to find a service which does offer that already (I suppose the latter might exist, but will certainly also not be free).
But if your friend sells that in a professional way then he has to keep books anyway. Otherwise he is cheating the tax-office and risking a lot more than a friendship going bad. For that reason a typical publisher contract allows you to check the books of your publisher once per year (on your costs) if you are suspicious.
But really - I usually worry a lot more about reaching customers than about getting ripped of by publishers that way (not to say that publishers don't rip of developers, that happens occasionally, they are just more clever usually).
You could probably use some server-solution where users have to register their hardware and then can only install your software 2-3 times on different hardware like seen in some sucky non-free operating systems. But then you either need a server running all the time, or you have to find a service which does offer that already (I suppose the latter might exist, but will certainly also not be free).
But if your friend sells that in a professional way then he has to keep books anyway. Otherwise he is cheating the tax-office and risking a lot more than a friendship going bad. For that reason a typical publisher contract allows you to check the books of your publisher once per year (on your costs) if you are suspicious.
But really - I usually worry a lot more about reaching customers than about getting ripped of by publishers that way (not to say that publishers don't rip of developers, that happens occasionally, they are just more clever usually).
IRC: #irrlicht on irc.libera.chat
Code snippet repository: https://github.com/mzeilfelder/irr-playground-micha
Free racer made with Irrlicht: http://www.irrgheist.com/hcraftsource.htm
Code snippet repository: https://github.com/mzeilfelder/irr-playground-micha
Free racer made with Irrlicht: http://www.irrgheist.com/hcraftsource.htm
Blizzard does press CD's and not burn them and I think the differences caused by that can be checked in some way. Although I certainly don't know if they do that (my last Blizzard game was D2... and that can be played without CD by now).
IRC: #irrlicht on irc.libera.chat
Code snippet repository: https://github.com/mzeilfelder/irr-playground-micha
Free racer made with Irrlicht: http://www.irrgheist.com/hcraftsource.htm
Code snippet repository: https://github.com/mzeilfelder/irr-playground-micha
Free racer made with Irrlicht: http://www.irrgheist.com/hcraftsource.htm
i had a short look at the answers here and have to say they are mostly correct. i do have a pretty good understanding of commercial copy protection schemes, i used to crack those back in the days.
while commercial systems often defeat the user trying to burn the program, someone using internet access can find a cracked executable nearly always, if the program is popular enough. even though, these systems are pretty expensive.
when looking for a system which is pretty cost-effective, easily programmed and working without many false positives, having just the catch that the customer requires an internet connection, i propose this:
have one very important file of the progam hosted on a web server. when activating and entering a serial number, the game downloads this file and stores it in the appdata folder (thus not requiring admin rights). the game must not work without this file. in addition, you can watermark this file and lock it to the used serial number, maybe also lock it to the specific machine (e.g. by CPU-id). that way nobody can share their file.
this system is defeatable by providing the file and hacking the lock-checks in the executable, but doing that requires skill. also you can improve and advance this system by outsourcing different files for different stages, outsourcing executable/script code and not storing it locally. that would, however, require the user to be permanently connected to the internet.
while commercial systems often defeat the user trying to burn the program, someone using internet access can find a cracked executable nearly always, if the program is popular enough. even though, these systems are pretty expensive.
when looking for a system which is pretty cost-effective, easily programmed and working without many false positives, having just the catch that the customer requires an internet connection, i propose this:
have one very important file of the progam hosted on a web server. when activating and entering a serial number, the game downloads this file and stores it in the appdata folder (thus not requiring admin rights). the game must not work without this file. in addition, you can watermark this file and lock it to the used serial number, maybe also lock it to the specific machine (e.g. by CPU-id). that way nobody can share their file.
this system is defeatable by providing the file and hacking the lock-checks in the executable, but doing that requires skill. also you can improve and advance this system by outsourcing different files for different stages, outsourcing executable/script code and not storing it locally. that would, however, require the user to be permanently connected to the internet.