Author: enrico carrisco
Date: 15:21:00 09/26/05
Go up one level in this thread
On September 26, 2005 at 17:18:35, Roger D Davis wrote: >On September 26, 2005 at 16:33:53, Joachim Rang wrote: > >>Hi, >> >>I would like to explain a little bit how we have come to the decision to require >>a hardware-based activation of Fruit: >> >>As the commercial idea became more concrete we realized with fear that we have >>to bother about protection. Fabien is totally unaware of windows-functionality >>and I am totally unaware of any real programming (beside html) so we didn't know >>how to protect that thing. However with Fruit being the strongest engine we >>expected some piracy-attraction. With an engine being only a few hundred KBs we >>feared that a distribution by simply emailing the engine with a valid serial is >>very easy and might hurt sales. This imagination together with the sale >>expectation of well-informed sources led to this (perhaps desperate) attempt to >>prevent pirating Fruit and to increase the sales of Fruit. Whether this is a >>wise decision or not I don't know. As someone wrote below you are probably going >>to loose customers in both cases. >> >>I don't like activation either and can understand that people will abstain from >>buying Fruit because of this. I just can explain that it is not an attempt to >>make maximum profit and get rich quickly but an attempt to increase the chances >>that Fabien can hope in future to live on developing Fruit. Perhaps there are >>some illusions about the profitability of selling a chess engine today. In the >>90ies a new title could sell very well but today it isn't enough to make your >>living out of that. >> >>There are some serious drawbacks of hardware activation but ideally you will >>install it on your computer and don't be bothered anymore. Only if you buy >>another computer you need to contact us. I know that there is uncertainty for >>the user especially since we are not a well-established company but a business >>which can disappear any time. I can only promise you that in case we dicontinue >>distribution of Fruit there will be a free update with a non-hardware-based >>lifetime key. I promise also that we will handle key requests generous without a >>n arbitrary hardlimit and only reject if we have substantiated believe of key >>trading. In the end it is your decision of trust in us which should determine >>your decision. >> >>I hope you understand. >> >>kind regards >> >>Joachim > >I did considerable research on copy protection, and the Armadillo software >system was the best going. It integrates with a number of software vendors to >automatically generate hardware based keys, too, with very flexible rules about >how much the system hardware can change before the Armadillo rejects the key. I >think it the key can even be generated based on the serial number of the CPU. > >Shouldn't slow down the engine, and it's beyond the abilities of most crackers. > >Roger I don't know where you get the idea that it is beyond the ability of most "crackers." Regardless of copy protection or information being seeked/verified or even multiple/series of CRC checks for original code integrity, they normally just knock out the verification routine in total -- not attempt to return any kind of spoofed validation information. The real battle is hiding & protecting the copy protection itself. -elc.
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