Vault Corporation produced "Prolok" with a physical defect. To make it
On Tue, 2 Nov 2021, Ali wrote:
Which could be defeated w/ the Copy II Plus Enhanced Option board:
http://retro.icequake.net/dob/img/eob/
There were many ways around it.
Because Vault didn't write a new software package for each client, it was
fairly easy, after some [not always easy] disassembly to make a patch that
cracked it. Those patches were widely distributed, and the end user only
knew that it was a small patch.
I find it important to note that the Vault VS Quaid lawsuit was before
DMCA. Afterwards, Vault might have prevailed! At the time, disassembly
and bypassing copy-protection was not illegaal.
But, Vault tried to claim that Quaid's software infringed on Vault's
copyright! The courts ruled that Quaid's software was in no way a copy of
Vault's. There was no sftware by Vault included inside the Quaid
software.
The announcement of Prolok-PLUS was insane, and destroyed Vault.
There were many other protection schemes.
Early on, I noticed that the software with the Central Point Option
Board could not work if it didn't see the index hole. As a proof of
concept, I showed that one could write a disk disk without an index hole
(indexing on spindle, or covering the hole (moving cookie to a flipped
jacket)) that couldn't be copied by the Option Board, but could be copied
by DISKCOPY.
