Re: Protecting Software w/ Software License -- a modest proposal.
Re: Protecting Software w/ Software License -- a modest proposal.
- Subject: Re: Protecting Software w/ Software License -- a modest proposal.
- From: Kirk Kerekes <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 00:37:47 -0500
Just my two bits in the discussion -- how about a strategy of "poisoning
the well" for serial# thieves --
We use the anonymity and zero-cost distribution that the
serial-number-thieves count on _against_ them.
Create a serial number scheme which can contain three distinct sets of
serial numbers:
1. legit -- these unlock the application
2. innocently erroneous -- these just fail to unlock the application, and
suggest that the user retry.
3. pirated -- these stamp "PIRATED" over every application
window,
or trash the app or whatever.
Set 3 can be reasonably small, no more than a thousand possible values. As
any decent serial number scheme has many billions of possible values, the
odds of an innocent typo yielding a "pirate" value are adequately slim.
Then, shortly after you release your software, you put instances of your
set of "pirate" numbers on every file-sharing and warez system that you can
find. They are then dutifully collected and distributed by the folks that
do that sort of thing. (Filesharing systems like Gnutella are great for
this, because they are designed to propagate files to multiple servers
automatically and anonymously.)
The odds of a _real_ serial number for your product being selected out of
this poisoned well drop dramatically.
If enough companies adopted this strategy, illicit serial-number
distribution would likely be damaged severely -- because finding a working
serial number would now be more difficult than just buying the product.
(read that last paragraph again).
An enterprising company that automated this process as a commercial service
to software developers might even make some money at it.
Or, perhaps someone could crank out a distributed.net style app that let
all of us participate in the distribution of "poisoned" serial numbers via
the various file-sharing services.
I note that the gnutella protocol provides for "private" networks -- these
differ only in terms of an identifier from the "public" gnutella nets. One
could distribute archives of poisoned serial numbers via a "private"
network, and then kindly make them available to the "public" network.
I also note that gnutella is open-source and freely available -- and that
an app for this purpose could live down at the unix-daemon level and not
need much of a UI at all.
Note that the same technique can be used with "Kracker" apps -- and even
"Kracked" versions of apps.
If you downloaded "SuperWidget 2.0(kracked)" via LimeWire, and when you ran
it all the windows had PIRATED stamped on them, what would you tend to
assume? Would you assume that the software vendor had intentionally
uploaded pre-pirated software?
I think not.
And even if you did... would it matter?
I think not.
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