Cosmund: We use the Software Passport system (aka Armadillo) from http://www.SiliconRealms.com (a digital river company), and have been very happy with it.
I started out with my own protection scheme, however, it got confused when some of my customers would add or remove usb hard drives. I also hid my protection information in the registry, which resulted in several problems that caused aggravation for my customers. Our software serves a vertical market, and our customer base is not very sophisticated. We did not set out to create a bullet proof protection scheme..... as has been said here many times, if a hacker really wants to crack it, they will..... but instead, we just wanted something that would make it hard for our regular (unsophisticated) users from copying it. Here is what the Software passport system offers us. 1. Allows us to lock to software to a particular machine using a hardware fingerprint. 2. The items that make up the hardware fingerprinter a controlled by you, the programmer. 3. You can set it up to allow changes to the hardware without it invalidating the users installation, for instance, we have ours set to allow up to three hardware items to change at a time before invalidating the protection, so the user can add a hard drive and memory and the protection scheme quietly updated itself to the new hardware configuration. 4. You can set protection to expire after so many days, after a certain date, or after the software has been run so many times. 5. You can embed your own codes (bits) in the activation code that you give your users. This allows you to enable or disable features in your software by simply issuing an activation code. 6. We only use the 16-bit key method that they provide, but you can have very long keys, that are much harder to break. 7. The software also provides anti hacking options, for instance, you can turn on an option that will cause your program to check to see if "Soft-ice" is running, and abort if so. It also offers other options such as a checksum feature, and the ability to randomly move where your activation info is hidden (they don't tell you where this is by the way). 8. It does not have any problems with USB hard drives, nor does it have any problems with requiring users to have Administrator rights to run your software. 9. You can use their own built-in dialog boxes, or access the protection status through an api and use your own (which we did as their dialogs are kind of stark). 10. If desired, they will also provide free of charge your own unique build of the protection engine, so that your software will have its own binary signature. The idea here is that if the regular "Software Passport" protection scheme is cracked, yours won't be readily identifiable as such and should still remain solid. And, it isn't all that expensive. I've rambled on too long here, if you want to find out more, just check out their web-site, (and support forums). Dale > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:delphi-talk- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael Grimard > Sent: Monday, April 03, 2006 10:56 AM > To: 'Delphi-Talk Discussion List' > Subject: RE: What VCL do you use for protecting your application? > > Did you check Protection PLUS from softwareKEY? They also have Trial > Creator > that is really easy to use, but have more limited features. > > http://www.softwarekey.com/swk_products/software_solutions/licensing/licen > si > ng.asp > > > Michael > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:delphi-talk- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > On Behalf Of Sean Cross - CRM > Sent: April 2, 2006 6:47 PM > To: Delphi-Talk Discussion List > Subject: RE: What VCL do you use for protecting your application? > > I use Software Passport which is $149US to $299US. > > http://siliconrealms.com/index.shtml > > Regards > > Sean > ----------------------------- > Sean Cross > Systems Development > > CRM > PO Box 230 > Napier > Phone: 06 835 5868 > Mobile: 027 276 6439 > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Disclaimer: > "The information contained in this document is confidential to the > addressee(s) and may be legally privileged. Any view or opinions expressed > are those of the author and may not be those of CRM. No guarantee or > representation is made that this communication is free of errors, viruses > or > interference. If you have received this e-mail message in error please > delete it and notify me. Thank you." > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Human > > Sent: Monday, 3 April 2006 4:05 a.m. > > To: Delphi-Talk Discussion List > > Subject: What VCL do you use for protecting your application? > > > > Hello. > > I want to implement a protection for one of my programs to > > make it trialware. > > I used until now my own component but now I want to use a > > professional solution that allow me to generate unique keys > > based on hardware ID. > > > > I've tried TmxProtect but it is unstable and has almost no > > documentation (but is free). > > With a little improvement it will be the best VCL around. But > > until then I need something else. > > > > I also tried other VCLs but I've found only bad jokes. For > > example a VCL at 199$ which was weak then mine and had no > > hardware ID options. > > > > > > Any idea? > > > > > > If I choose Christianity then the Islamic will say I'm a pagan. > > If I choose Islamic then the Buddhism will say I'm a pagan. > > If I chose Buddhism then the Jewish will say I'm pagan. > > If I choose no God then everybody will say I'm pagan. > > Please, can I be free? Can you NOT tell me how I should live MY life? > > > > __________________________________________________ > > Do You Yahoo!? > > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection > > around http://mail.yahoo.com > > __________________________________________________ > > Delphi-Talk mailing list -> Delphi-Talk@elists.org > > http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi-talk > > > > > __________________________________________________ > Delphi-Talk mailing list -> Delphi-Talk@elists.org > http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi-talk > __________________________________________________ > Delphi-Talk mailing list -> Delphi-Talk@elists.org > http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi-talk __________________________________________________ Delphi-Talk mailing list -> Delphi-Talk@elists.org http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi-talk
