On 5/8/2012 4:52 PM, Doug Gordon wrote:
What I'm wondering is if there is any sort of "copy protection" for
apps that are sold through the Google Play store.
You can use the licensing service [1] to verify that your app has been
purchased by the user running it.
BUT:
1. It's a pain to get it working, even with the example code given
dropped in verbatim.
2. They tell you NOT to use the sample code given, and instead to create
your own custom version (and enable Proguard obfuscation) to prevent it
from being trivially hacked.
3. Even if you DO change it, there's a large chance that a script
floating around in the wild can crack the licensing without even
requiring the "hacker" to know anything at all about Java or programming
or anything above a 3rd grade level.
4. If people like it enough, it will be hacked and released regardless
of the level of protection you add to it.
I did something...creative...that so far has prevented #4 from actually
happening (at least I haven't been able to find a completely cracked
version anywhere online), but it was a crazy amount of extra
anti-hacking work. And...no, I don't want to broadcast the tricks far
and wide, since I plan to use it on all of my Android games moving
forward, and there is a bit of security in obscurity.
The point of #4 is that NOTHING is hack-PROOF. Frankly I've been unlucky
in that not enough people consider my game compelling enough to spend
the time to REALLY crack it (though the latest version is released on
more of a "freemium" model, and I don't know if anyone bothers to hack
freemium games).
So you have to decide whether the extra effort is worth the potentially
minimal hit that a pirated release will cause. In retrospect I'm not
sure that the effort was worth it. I do have the technology sitting
around ready to protect NDK+Lua apps on Android (it wouldn't really work
for Java-only apps); if anyone's interested, please contact me off-list
to talk terms.
Tim
[1] http://developer.android.com/guide/market/licensing/index.html
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