> So maybe you don't put faulty software out there. Maybe you do. Maybe it
> only happens occasionally. Or never. All that's really required is that
> people THINK that there's a possibility of getting screwed if they don't
> come to the source.... regardless of who's software they're patronizing.
> Could be my software, could be yours. But they know that "Betty" got
> screwed by getting a faulty copy of "John Smith's" software from some weird
> 3rd world site... So when they go looking for my software they'll think
> twice about who they get it from.
You can't actually consider this a serious form of copy protection, can you? It
doesn't solve anything. The threat of faulty software wouldn't stop anyone who
wants a pirated copy.
Say you find a pirate site that claims to have the "good" version of the
software. You download it, and you try it in a controlled environment where it
can do no harm. For example, you test Palm software in the Palm OS Emulator.
This is what any serious downloader does to protect themselves against viruses
anyway.
More importantly, if one of your valued customers accidentally gets a "bad"
copy, you're screwed. And it does happen... users lose their "good" copy in a
hard drive crash, decide to download a copy off the Internet, and ignore the
warnings. They paid for the software, so they would probably brush over a
piracy warning.
Craig Schofield
SONIC innovations
