Delphi-Box Discussions

Hello all,

this continues the long discussion on my Anti-Cracking FAQ page - feel free to add your points here:

- why are you trying to protect your apps from being cracked ('hacked')?
- do you think it makes sense to apply protection schemes in software?
- if not, how else can software developers make a living from their apps?

kind regards
richey

I am struggling with a decision on protection right now. We are about to release a program that runs from a USB device. The program must assume that it has no rights to write to the registry or any other drive than the USB drive. We can not assume they have internet rights either. The data must be available if it is a legitimate license - period. (The device holds medical information that EMT's may need to access).

I have come up with several schemes, but each one has drawbacks. The concern is casual copying - it would be easy to purchase/get/be given a USB stick, then simply copy the program from another and have it work. We hope to license the software rather than sell individual units, but either way we might have to try and protect our software. I can tie it to the physical device serial number of the USB stick, but I would have to have some type of 'run once' to tie the software to the USB key....

In the end, I struggle with how much work I should do to try and protect the software that can be distributed easily. We need to try and protect our revenue stream.

Thanks for reading...
John Rendell

You need to re-think your whole idea of "revenue stream" if you're under the impression that it will somehow depend on whether or not your software can be copied.

There is nothing you can do to stop someone from copying your software.
That's the first thing you need to get used to.
Then once you're comfortable with that notion, you then remind yourself that if companies as large (and rich) as Microsoft, Adobe, AutoDesk, etc., cannot protect their software, then you shouldn't even waste your time trying.
You then remind yourself that these companies are the #1 in their field, even though their software can be copied.
They're still making many millions (and even billions, in the case of Microsoft) of dollars every year even though their software can be copied.

Software cracking has been with us since the very first software was "protected". It didn't work 25 years ago, and it still doesn't work today.

Just accept reality - if your software is good, people will buy it. And yes, no matter what you do, there will always be a small percentage of the population who will never pay for your software, no matter what. It doesn't matter what their reasons are. Just accept it as a fact of life.