Software protection

  • Thread starter Thread starter John
  • Start date Start date
J

John

Hi,

I would like to protect my software from copying. What are best tools for it
(hardware protection is not an option), do you have some reccomendation for
protection or third party software that works?

Thanks very much
John
 
Obfuscation is the only way. I like Xenocode (although they've recently
jumped on the obfuscator price-hike bandwagon)

--
Bob Powell [MVP]
Visual C#, System.Drawing

Ramuseco Limited .NET consulting
http://www.ramuseco.com

Find great Windows Forms articles in Windows Forms Tips and Tricks
http://www.bobpowell.net/tipstricks.htm

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Hi,

Bob Powell said:
Obfuscation is the only way. I like Xenocode (although they've recently
jumped on the obfuscator price-hike bandwagon)
Click to expand...

How obfuscation protect the copying of a software?

I was under the impression it only protected the code itself
 
John,
I believe we all got onto the obfuscation bandwagon as your question wasn't
as clear as it could have been.
If your objective is to prevent people from copying your software to another
computer without paying for another copy, you will need to look into some
sort of registry-entry / license key arrangement that uses things specific
to the machine it was installed on.
Usually this involves querying network card MAC address, CPU serial number,
etc. and the software will send these to a webservice which generates a
license key that would only work on that machine.
Peter
 
Not really a suggestion on a particular way of locking software but at least
a list of things to consider before going with any one in particular. Most
people seem to think that licensing is just a "payment = key" type of thing
when in reality it is not. There are a lot of things to consider when going
the route of license keys (hardware or software).

- Do you want to manually generate keys or have something automatic?
- What about web site integration for key generation?
- How quick do you need to get the keys to your customers?
- Is the software for the "general" public? Will they know what a dongle
(hardware key) even is?
- How will you handle lost/forgotten software keys?
- How will you handle lost hardware keys?
- What about the customer that needs a new key at 3AM on Saturday or on XMas
day? How will that work?
- Will you need to offer temp or time limited keys? Full function but time
limited.
- Will you need to offer trial or demo keys? Partial function and time
limited.
- Will the key need to be locked to a specific computer (MAC address or
other unique identifier)?
- Will the software be reinstalled on different machines all the time? If so
then maybe some sort of license-server should be used?
- Will you need to license different options in your software? Maybe a
multi-level license is needed then.
- How will you get the information from your client in order to generate a
key?

This is by no means an exaustive list but it should give you an idea of some
things to consider.

Hope it helps!
 
I do to. I think they may still give MVPs comp copies (I got one last
year).

--
William Stacey [MVP]

| Obfuscation is the only way. I like Xenocode (although they've recently
| jumped on the obfuscator price-hike bandwagon)
|
| --
| Bob Powell [MVP]
| Visual C#, System.Drawing
|
| Ramuseco Limited .NET consulting
| http://www.ramuseco.com
|
| Find great Windows Forms articles in Windows Forms Tips and Tricks
| http://www.bobpowell.net/tipstricks.htm
|
| Answer those GDI+ questions with the GDI+ FAQ
| http://www.bobpowell.net/faqmain.htm
|
| All new articles provide code in C# and VB.NET.
| Subscribe to the RSS feeds provided and never miss a new article.
|
|
|
| | > Hi,
| >
| > I would like to protect my software from copying. What are best tools
for
| > it (hardware protection is not an option), do you have some
reccomendation
| > for protection or third party software that works?
| >
| > Thanks very much
| > John
| >
|
|
 
Obfuscation is the only way. I like Xenocode (although they've recently
jumped on the obfuscator price-hike bandwagon)
Click to expand...

Thanks for reply. I didn't know that it is possible to get code of compiled
program. I was thinking about protection of copy program to another
computer, but your information is appreciated.

Thanks
 
Thanks,

Is third party software for protection of copying good, and if it is are
there some problem issues with installation.
For example, that my program can't run under some administrator restrictions
(user rights set only to read).

Does anyone have experience in this?
 
There are about 2 ways: obfuscation and assembly protection. The former
is renaming symbol names to confuse people. The later is try to
protect code by encryption or converting to other format.

Our product line offers serious protection, http://www.remotesoft.com

For other types of protection, that encrypts the whole assembly, you
may want to take a look of our sample deprotector here:

http://www.remotesoft.com/deprotector

It can undo whole file encryption very easily by dumping out memories
from the CLR runtime process.

Huihong
 
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