Re: [Slightly OT] Copy protecting an AU
Re: [Slightly OT] Copy protecting an AU
- Subject: Re: [Slightly OT] Copy protecting an AU
- From: "Ross Bencina" <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 8 May 2010 22:23:26 +1000
tahome izwah wrote:
I am currently looking at improving the copy protection of our Cocoa
based AU plug ins and I'd like to hear what strategy (or maybe
commercial solution) has proven to work best for your products so I
can make an informed decision.
I do have experience with this (not with AU, but with audio soft). Sorry
some of this might fall into the what you already know category...
I have always preferred single ended activation keys to challenge response
because C/R seems to annoy a lot of people. Plus if you use C/R you're going
to have to implement an automated system to support it (and make sure that's
secure) or commit resources to manually supporting it -- but some developers
swear by it.
I think there are a few things you might like to avoid:
1. your keys turning up in search engines
2. someone writing a keygen (which leads to (1) more than legitimate keys
leaking out, although there are famous exceptions)
3. someone cracking your software
(1) can be avoided with C/R or with a key blacklist in your app
(2) might be avoided with the right key system
(3) probably won't be avoided but perhaps you can issue DMCA takedown
notices to keep the cracks off the easy download sites.
Based on that you can work out where to put your resources. So far, **I
think** my latest system has avoided (1) and (2) and my sales are better
than when (1) and (2) existed -- but it's hard to say whether there's a
strong correlation since a lot of other stuff has changed.
My theory is that casual sharing is more likely for licence keys than for
cracks from dubious sources, so worrying about cracks isn't going to get you
very far. Is someone who downloads cracks using Bittorrent likely to buy
your products? I doubt it. Is someone who finds your AU on rapidshare likely
to buy your product? maybe, if they didn't find the crack first.
One hint: make sure the licence key is installed crypted with the machine id
otherwise it will be easy to copy from an authorised machine to an
unauthorised one.
Another thing: cracks, keygens and illicit generated keys tend to be made
around the time you make a release. If you're vigilant you can probably
blitz a lot of these once the crackers have moved on using the techniques
mentioned above -- this will at least stop new prospects getting hold of a
crack or key.
HTH
Ross.
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