Irrlicht Engine

Hey guys,
Do you guys know or have used any softwares that protects a cd against duplicating of a software?
I heard of cryptkey but i dont know if they are just another software claiming to protect the cd's or if they actually do...
Thanks in advanced,

I'm afraid it'll be pretty hard to find a freely available encryption which hasn't been cracked yet

Protection of digital media is a very difficult problem, and I think that in most of the cases the crackers will win..

i dont need a free software i just need one that i am sure someone has good experience with.and i dont care if i lose atleast if i can keep the average hackers out there is no problem.

i assume you have no publisher.
therefor the general hacker out there will probably not bother hacking your game until its really known around the scene. and when that happens you can still add that later with a patch. until then i won't bother. i bet a simple key code will do it as well. Since if someone wants to play your game he either buys it then or not. since there is no 100% protection even big titles like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 are cracked.

Well i am just doing a research on such programs/techniques and if you guys have any suggestions//experience in the field.

No offense, but I think you will probably never be able to finish a game that would be considered "worth cracking".

Anyway, since you're talking about protecting a CD from being copied, the answer is simple: It's impossible. You can always read raw data (at binary level) from a disc and create those well-known clone images. The only way to make sure that nobody is able to burn or emulate your CD, is to add physical characteristics to the original disc in a CD pressing plant. That's how most professional protections work; e.g. SecuROM, StarForce etc. However, even then there are ways around it (aside from "simply" cracking the verification routine).

No offense, but I think you will probably never be able to finish a game that would be considered "worth cracking".

When i make it there ill show you that you was wrong,

Anyways do you know any home softwares that are able to do this?

I agree with Sudi - don't care about it until you have a distributor. If you find one they can tell you which software to use.

Lil Margin wrote:

No offense, but I think you will probably never be able to finish a game that would be considered "worth cracking".

When i make it there ill show you that you was wrong,

Have you ever made a game before?
I wouldn't bother on protecting my cd's instead I would make some kind of protection that includes getting decryption key for data from from internet checking buyers info, CD keys etc. But everything is crackable, theres no way to protect your data 100%.

As for software, google it..
Heres one link that I found on the first page of my search
http://www.cd-writer.com/cd_dvd_copy_protection.html

I like the way Dungeon Master did it back in the days. Fuzzy bits.

But well,

It took several months after the first release of Dungeon Master before the copy protection was correctly defeated, while most copy protections are defeated in a matter of hours or days by experimented hackers.

Lil Margin wrote:Anyways do you know any home softwares that are able to do this?

I think you already got your answers, but to sum it up:
1) There ain`t such a thing as a 100% protected software, at least ATM. Of course you can put it into a solid box, lock it and put it on place noone will find/access it. What`s the point?

2) You can try some tool, which may prevent the dumbest users from classic copy-paste, but they won`t be that dumb not to download it already cracked if they want to.

3) When you are ready with some ready product (I assume you`re not- my apologies if I`m wrong) you will hire a publisher, and all those copyright, trademarks, protections and on will be his responsibility and he`d have the right contacts to minimize your problem.

4) As far as I see what you want is a (desireably free) program, where you select "load-my-precious-file" and press one huge button "Make it safe" and the magic will happen. I want such too but nah. I`m working on a project for more than 2 years, and I`m not even close to releasing sth ready, so I don`t have to bother with such dilemmas yet. I prefer to think about developing the actual product. To me it sounds like you`re looking for the most secure padlock for a house you plan to build.

5) Your best bet is to create a very-very-awesomely-great game, put some lamer protection if you insist and hope most of the potential users will be that good to do the right thing and show some respect to your undertaking, all the efforts and 16-hour-with-some-pee-and-coffee-pause working day and motivate you for further work, spending their precious 5-10 cigarette and alcochol bucks for your game. See, there are some games that are really worth the money, since they`re not a hot-dog which you simply consume - they`re many things like technology toys, art, they put you in another reality and make you another person, affect you and can even change your life (to good or bad). I personally feel proud when I take a look at my small, but valuable collection of breakfast-money-bought-cds, from which covers my favourite characters look at me, reminding me of the great time we spend together, the adventures we experienced together etc. I realize I was entertained and such an entertainment costs money. I doubt I`ll either live a second life or need money in the dark coffin, I`m not a smoker, or driking-stuff-guy that`s why I can easily afford spending money for such things. Bah, turned too long but I cannot explain it in shorter way. As a whole, you earn from popularity, from wide spreading your product. If your game becomes popular, let 30-40% of the users use cracked versions, the other 60-70% are enough for the most commercial studios, they more-or-less expect it and accept it. But you insist on your 100% earnings. On the other side if it doesn`t become popular, then who cares?

PS: Probably non hard-protecting your work or hiring a publisher cannot fit in your letme-become-a-millionaire-in-a-year-or-so plan, but unfortunately that`s not the way things happen.

Ok let me explain the case,

I have a finished product but i need to give it to a publisher so he can examin it to start selling it but they an also take the copy and start selling it so i am looking for a way to protect it against those people incase they try to backstab me.

Real publishers won't tell you to bring a cd so they can publish it...
If you're actually publishing something there'll probably be different meetings, contracts to be signed, and all that official stuff
And besides, you have the complete source code and I suspect, since you have a polished and completely debugged and tested product ready for publishing, a complete repository with a versioning history and update logs you can use to prove you are the original author

You are right but what if they sell secret copies behind my back?, like for example huge amounts

As I said, if you actually have a polished product with a complete log of development you could easily show that you are the original developer and that they are stealing from you

What kind of project do you want to publish? And do you actually think that publishers will like it that much that they'll want to steal it from you? Do you actually believe that they'll make such huge profits with it that they'll want to take the risk of a lawsuit?

If that's the case then you must have made the next big blockbuster game...