Dongles and program security
[1/3] from: atruter:labyrinth:au at: 14-Nov-2002 10:14
Anyone played with Dongles and / or programattic ways of securing their code to prevent
unauthorised use and / or distribution? Resources like
http://linux20368.dn.net/crackz/Tutorials/Protect.htm make it clear that implementing
something effective in a high-level language like REBOL is not easy.
Regards,
Ashley
P.S. Off-list responses for non-REBOL comments most welcome.
[2/3] from: chris:starforge:demon at: 14-Nov-2002 10:22
On Thu, 14 Nov 2002 10:14:30 +1100
Ashley Truter <[atruter--labyrinth--net--au]> wrote:
> Anyone played with Dongles and / or programattic ways of securing
> their code to prevent unauthorised use and / or distribution?
> Resources like http://linux20368.dn.net/crackz/Tutorials/Protect.htm
> make it clear that implementing something effective in a high-level
> language like REBOL is not easy.
Dongles don't work. Ever. No, I don't care what the marketroids claim,
they don't. Even the really whiz-bang jobs with hardware keys and
even routines in the dongle are as effective as an umberalla in an
avalance. There are always ways around them - ranging from simply
nop-ing out checks in the easy cases right through to reimplementing
the routine that was in the dongle and redirecting the calls in the
code. And once one cracker has removed your dongle code, *that*
cracked version is the one that is used anyway. They are a waste of
time, effort and money in addition to being insulting your customers
("you're all filthy pirates so you need to use this dongle"). IMO the
money, time and effort is far better spent on making a product people
are actually willing to pay for.
Chris
[3/3] from: al:bri:xtra at: 15-Nov-2002 12:02
Chris wrote:
> They are a waste of time, effort and money in addition to being insulting
your customers ("you're all filthy pirates so you need to use this dongle").
IMO the money, time and effort is far better spent on making a product
people are actually willing to pay for.
They also penalise customers who have the dongle accidentally destroyed by
static discharge, which happened to a friend of mine's keycutting software
dongle. My friend had to buy another copy of the software and another
dongle!
Andrew Martin
ICQ: 26227169 http://valley.150m.com/