BlitzLockIT is now PC dependant.
Community Forums/Showcase/BlitzLockIT is now PC dependant.
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| hi just a quick post with the latest from BlitzLockIT, the harddrive serial is returned and then combined with the generated serial number makein BlitzLockIT PC dependant. heres my generated serial. KPoole 5328-EE-9916-1929-EB HDD serial: 3FB23WER http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pamela.poole/BlitzLockITExample.zip report any problems here. thanks kev |
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| If that is the DOS serial then you could have a problem later if someone does a 'reformat' :). Otherwise its a good idea, I personally would have a file as the key this would make it perfect as you could have a file of any size as the key and it would make it 99.9% foolproof ;) |
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| PC dependency is annoying. If I pay for a peice of software it dan well better continue working when I upgrade my system every year or so. You may say that you can just issue them a new key, but you may decide to discontinue support for the product at some point, or lose the keygen, or otherwise become unavailable. And it's annoying anyway to have to re-register every time I install a new drive. I would never use this sort of protection on my software. |
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| Not only that rev engineers could also create/replicate you're keygen..... |
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| PC dependency is annoying. And ineffective. Anyhow does this mean I have to break the encryption again? |
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| For God's sake, he's just trying to do something to protect his software to some degree. Why must you bash everyone into the ground for actually making an effort?? If you don't want to use any form of copy protection in your games, then don't. Just stop having a go at the people that do. We're all very aware that we can't STOP piracy. But if Kev's done something to REDUCE it (and this *WILL* stop so-called 'schoolyard piracy'), good luck to him. Of course the only way you could stop people from nicking your software completely, is for you not to actually write anything in the first place - a method which notably several people in this thread seem to have adopted. |
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| I have thought about a copy protection scheme.. When a user wants to buy your software, you write his/her name into the source code.. then compile it.. Then you generate a CRC32 key of the executeable and store this for later.. On your website, you explain that if you detect a pirated copy on the web somewhere, its a simple matter to uncover who spread it in the first place, thus scaring people from distributing it.. ('schoolyard pirates') ;) I know its just a matter of changing a few bytes in the original file to make a totally different CRC32 key, but not many people know that :) so, what do you people think? |
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| so, what do you people think? I used to use such a system when I was making Amiga games years ago. It worked very well, to the point that I actually caught a pirate with it.ELSPA refused to help because I wasn't a member (membership cost about £1,500/year back then). Trading Standards dealt with it to a point and the police were involved, but because a friend of mine had found the file on a BBS (complete with an encrypted name and address of the person who bought that particular copy) and refused to get involved and give evidence, it was never brought to court. This was before the internet was as it now is, so if I caught someone in this way it'd be a hell of a lot easier (for me at least) to get justice served. What annoyed me most, was that I later found out that the same guy had been boasting about an earlier brush with the law in an article in 'The Word' diskzine, where he was bundled into a police van and all his computer equipment confiscated. |
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| Of course the only way you could stop people from nicking your software completely, is for you not to actually write anything in the first place - a method which notably several people in this thread seem to have adopted. LOL Kev, cool dude, nice job! Tracer |
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| @EdzUp the HDD serial is unique, it does stay the same even after a format. ive tryed. although it would change if the c: drive was changed. @sswift ok it is annoying, blitz3d download had this from of protection. didit? but this option can be enabled or disabled through the serial admin pannel. @FlameDuck yes please :) @darklordz, we seem to keep going down this road all the time, yes rev engineers can easly create a keygen. its going to happen with any serial gen software, that's compiled into any good software there nothing i or anyone else can do about this. thanks kev |
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| "If you don't want to use any form of copy protection in your games, then don't. Just stop having a go at the people that do." This is not about what I put in my software. It is about what people put in the software I purchase. And I will not knowingly purchase software which is locked to a specific hard drive or PC, and I will demand a refund if I find that I paid for a peice of software and I can no longer use it after I upgrade. I hope you don't mind givng out refunds every time a user discovers this little feature. And you'd better be damn sure you inform the user that the software will be locked to a specific PC configuration or may open yourself to lawsuits. Also, do you really expect someone to pay for three copies of the game so they can play it at home, on their laptop, and at work? "sswift ok it is annoying, blitz3d download had this from of protection. didit?" Not that I'm aware of. But they changed the protection methods at some point so maybe they implemented something like that. I recall people complaining about this. The lock though is only on the installer, not on the software. So if you copy the directory to your other work PC's, then you'll be fine. No professional would dare use a programming language that they might be locked out of using at some point in the future when they upgrade and the product support has disspeared. "When a user wants to buy your software, you write his/her name into the source code.. then compile it.." And what stops someone from registering with the name Heywood Jablome? Are you only going to accept credit cards for payment? You'll lose a few customers that way. Even if you do use credit cards, stolen credit cards are widely used. What if you sue someone only to find out that their credit card was stolen, and they countersue you? "I used to use such a system when I was making Amiga games years ago. It worked very well, to the point that I actually caught a pirate with it." Are you positive? How do you know the credit card wasn't stolen, or that the person didn't simpyl install the game on their work PC, and some coworker copied it? Or that they loaned the disk to a freind, and that freind copied it without their knowledge? It is not illegal to loan music CD's and software to your freinds. It is also not illegal to SELL software. So you may be prosecuting Bob, who actually sold the software to Bill, and deleted it from his system, and Bill is the guy that actually pirated it. Whereupon you again open yourself up to a counter-suit if you sue. Of course you can go for criminal charges, but let's face it. You're poor. You're a nobody. You are not some big rich coperoration. The police don't care if someone pirates a copy of your software and distributes it even if it means you're out a few thousand. They're not going to bother. Only the rich and big coporations get FBI investigations into software piracy. Heck, I don't think even those software groups out there would bother with a small time shareware developer. And the fact that the internet is worldwide throws a whole other curve into the equation. Good luck trying to sue someone in Australia. I'm sure it would be quite expensive. The best things to do to prevent piracy are: 1. Do NOT use a key to activate the software, because those are really easy to distribute. Have a shareware version and a full version of your game. Problem: If your game is too big it may discourage people from registering if they have to download a large file all over again. 2. Distribute the software on CD, and do a CD check when installing. Problem: People like instant gratification. Downloads provide that. CD's do not. It is extremely rare for me to buy something online which has to be shipped to me. Because of that keys are better than downloads cause I can get the key faster than I cown download, but as long as the download isn't over 10 megs then the download is still a good option. Don't do a cd check every time the sotware runs. People hate that. 3. After the software is installed, write a key to the registry that will prevent the software from running if copied from the directory. Problem: This is annoying becuase people like me make backups of stuff selectively. I don't back up my windows directory, but I do back up my Blitz directory. If Blitz didn't run when I tried to put it back on my PC after a format that would be really annoying if I didn't still have the installer. There's also a hundred other legitimate use siituations where this particular protection method is bad. All of these methods provide annoyances to your customers. You will lose customers with every peice of copy protection you implemnet. You need to ask yourself if the people that are pirating your software would have bought it at all. If more people are turned off by the copy protection measures than you gain in sales with them, then it doesn't make sense to implement any. I will not be implementing any copy protection in my games. I beleive that if I sell the game for a reasonable price, and someone is prepared to pay for the product, that it will be easier for them to simply pay by credit card and download the full version than it would be for them to go looking for it on Kazaa, especially because my software will be fairly obscure, being a shareware game, it will not be pirated as much and may be a lot harder to find. So if the game is $15, then it's much easier for a person to just register on the website when they find the game than to put out the extra effort to find it for free. So it all comes down to a matter of convenience. Oh btw, I happen to know a well known shareware developer who reads these forums and makes quite a bit of money off his shareware, and he doesn't use any copy protection. So there's your proof right there that no copy protection and reasonable prices work. Of course when you have a commercial game it makes a little more sense to have copy protection, but I would limit that to a CD check or a net-based key check for multiplayer play like Half Life uses. |
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| @EdzUp the HDD serial is unique, it does stay the same even after a format. ive tryed. although it would change if the c: drive was changed. If C: was formatted it may change depending on the format mode you use for example in 98SE format just doing a quick format doesnt change it but doing a /c/u format does. |
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| EdzUp it appear's its possable to change the hdd serial in dos 4 or higher and only if the drive's extended BPB, now this is a problem, and need to think more about this. sswift ive also been thinking about what you had to say, i came up with this. PC (1) ; first install of software. generate a new serial from the hd serial number from 'PC (2)'. PC (2) ; other pc to have software installed on. get the hd serial number, then enter this on 'PC (1)'. the code generated on 'PC (1)' is checked against 'PC (2)' hd serial number. this would work, without having to make contact for another activation code. kev |
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| But if Kev's done something to REDUCE it (and this *WILL* stop so-called 'schoolyard piracy'), good luck to him. I don't know what kind of schoolyard you're from, but in my schoolyard all the cool kids trade *cracked* "warez" type software, not some copy of the original. You know why? Because they're software pirates! Ho hum. They don't buy software. Any software. They steal it. Otherwise they wouldn't be pirates. Do you understand it yet? Kev's copy protection scheme (although clever, I'll give him that much), and thousands like it doesn't prevent piracy in the slighest, because pirates trade software that is already cracked. They don't trade original software, because they don't buy original software in the first place. @FlameDuck yes please :) Okay, I'll look into it. Can't promise anything tho' because I'm pretty busy ATM. |
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| <snip> can't be bothered with you any more. |
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