Software licensing/copy protection

airforcematt

airforcematt

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Dec 22, 2006
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What do ya'll use for software licensing/copy protection?
About to launch a PC based software and I need a good solution to keep folks from cracking & sharing my app and figure some of you might be able to point me at the best solution.

Looking for something that "dials home" on every start like Scrapebox/Xrumer
 


If you're writing an app you'd probably be best to have some sort of serial number in there. Then onload get it to ping http://youramazingsite.com/license.php?serial=123456789 That script can then display 1 for a valid license or 0 for an invalid license (perhaps do some extra checks within the script to minimize sharing of the serial aswell). Then handle the response from the script in the application.
 
Use a serial and an online check but don't count on it mattering much. If your software is popular enough to be purchased it will be popular enough to be cracked, and no protection is going to matter. I know this from experience as a software author. Serial numbers are extremely weak as protection and I can get around your online check with a simple edit of my hosts file. Or your executable can just be byte patched so that the check doesn't happen.

I used to detect illegitimate serial numbers with an online check and then send the users to a page that shows them all of the info I collected from them (usually to include their name, from their Windows username or PC name), with the warning that I had their IP and all of the other data and would turn it over to the FBI's Internet Crime division etc, and that didn't help the slightest bit lol. I collected tens of thousands of those and had just a handful of purchases of that particular program (who probably weren't one of those who tried to use an illegal serial).

If you can, release two completely different versions of your program. A demo version with some functionality completely missing the code for certain features, and then a full version that you provide only to people who purchase. I've done this with another program and it has sold well yet I've never had a full version leak.
 
Agree with the above post. Do use to say though that scrapebox never had a leaked version?
 
airforcematt said:
What do ya'll use for software licensing/copy protection?
About to launch a PC based software and I need a good solution to keep folks from cracking & sharing my app and figure some of you might be able to point me at the best solution.

Looking for something that "dials home" on every start like Scrapebox/Xrumer
Click to expand...

This guy's blog is a good read for this kind of stuff Greatest Hits | Kalzumeus Software

Depends if you want to roll-your-own or is you want a straight out of the box solution.

Here are a few places that sell an out of the box solution (this is not a recommendation, I have never used them).

CrypKey - Leading Global Provider Of Software Copy Protection And Secure Licensing
Yummy Interactive / SoftwareShield Digital Rights Management

I rolled my own for Scrapebox API because I wanted to limit the exposure of the "security", meaning, if I buy an out of the box solution, there are already hundreds of people working on cracking it, because it's already being used by other software. Where as using my own solution they have to crack my "protection".

Does it make it safer, no, does it stop people cracking it, nope.

It's a trade off, and for me, time used to develop and maintain the software and provide a solid product is far more important than people stealing my shit.

It's also a trade off for the cracker, is there motivation financial or is it challenge based. If they have a financial motivation, they intend to sell the cracked software, then making it more expensive to crack the software then they will get as a return is effective. If on the other hand its challenged based, they are doing it for fun, then nothing will stop them.

All in all it comes down to how much time and money both parties are willing to spend to gain a benefit.

On a side note, the way The Best Spinner works is interesting. You can technically crack the software by MITM the server responses, but because it pulls the spinned data from a server, and that has to be authenticated, the software is useless when cracked.

Which comes back the the golden rule, if you want 100% protection against being cracked, put all the key data on a server that has to authenticate the request. Of course this isn't going to help if you can't off load parts or all of the program to a server and it's not going to stop people stealing accounts, using stolen CC's, etc. But meh.

acidie
 
flaw3d said:
Agree with the above post. Do use to say though that scrapebox never had a leaked version?
Click to expand...

The only cracked version of ScrapeBox I've seen (but I admit I haven't look to hard) is a 1.2GB ISO that had to be run as a vitual machine.

If I was sweetfunny I would consider that a win, simply because if some one is willing to download a 1.2GB ISO and run it as a VM (as well as all the other patching and shit the crack required) instead of paying $59 then their time is worthless and they will never pay anyway.
 
<- former cracker

How much money and time are you willing to spend on this? Because i can recommend all sorts of stuff. If you're looking for a fairly simple solution you can implement in a few hours, and are using C++/some native language, you will want to use themida (from oreans). Simply place all sensitive code in VM macros and use the highest level RISC vm. However, be aware that experienced crackers will break it within a day. If you want something more secure... Be prepared to spend a shitton of time on it, or money buying some of the more expensive protections out there.
 
Yeah people that pirate generally aren't going to pay unless they absolutely have to and can't find an alternative program that they can pirate... So I used to have a bit of fun with it. I'd update my program often to blacklist serial numbers but when it's a keygen that doesn't help much, so I would detect the various keygen programs by window title, filename, or text within the window, then use some API calls to modify those programs' windows. I'd change the text of it to say that it's infecting you with a virus, and hide or change the serial number output. You usually can't win but you can find creative ways to screw with them.
 
Your stuff will be cracked. How about a second call that loads arbritary code into the process. Disclaimer: I don't do this.
 
I don't have any technical advice but it's definitely worth your while to have some kind of copy protection. You hear people saying 'ohhh rely on the honour code, people will pay if they like your software'

No they won't! I'll be straight out, If I want something, I'll spend some time looking for a cracked or pirated version and if it's too much bother and the software passes my cost/benefit analysis I'll just buy it because I couldn't be arsed wasting time.

Here's a good StackOverflow thread on the subject.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/...re-as-cracked-download-on-internet-what-to-do
 
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