> David Brennan asked about what is essentially copy protection:
>
> > Has anyone considered this issue before? Is there a way of
> > encrypting the keys in the executable so that they are harder
> > to obtain or does Delphi make it hard enough as it is? Or is
> > there a better tool than OnGuard out there?
>
> We have hashed this over on the list before and there are a bunch of
> issues that alwats get raised I'll summarise for you now:
I figured it would be one of those topics which rises periodically.
Unfortunately I did check before I posted and it doesn't seem to have been
discussed in the last six months since I joined DUG nor can I find any
information in the archive at
http://www.mail-archive.com/delphi@delphi.org.nz/
> So as you can see this is an area fraught with issues. Ultimately you have
> to ask your self are you selling the product, or are you selling the
> product PLUS your support services. Any reputable business is not going to
> copy your product willy nilly because they are going to find themselves
> FUBARed for support when you find out. And any sufficiently complicated
> product will require support during its lifetime.
Our situation is a little unusual in that we are in effect loaning the
software to sites (for free) so long as they agree to continue purchasing
other products (non computer related) from our primary customer (who funded
the project). So if they stop buying the other products then we want access
to the software to stop.
In the majority of cases this will be easy because most sites will probably
access the software on our server through terminal services. A small but
important minority will have their own copy at their own site, probably in
Australia and these are the sites I need to protect us against.
Unfortunately we already have one case of a company in Australia who is
using a much earlier version of our software without permission and due to a
combination of poor contract wording, poor software copy protection and our
past blind optimism we can't do a thing about it. With-holding support
doesn't seem to be enough to stop them (despite our nightly praying that the
data devils will strike and corrupt their database ;-).
Perhaps I should be more precise in my questions:
1. Does anyone know of a good reason why I shouldn't use Turbopowers
OnGuard? eg because it is a poor tool; or because there is a better tool?
2. Has anyone gone down this path before and decided to encrypt the keys in
the .exe as part of copy protection? If so how?!
Thanks again,
David Brennan.
DB Solutions Ltd.
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