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Tom Zerucha wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 23, 2000 at 09:51:38AM +0200, Aaron Ardiri wrote:
> > actually, the purpose of the paper is not to encourage people to
> > write "crippleware". have you ever thought that maybe, the purpose
> > of the paper is to educate developers?
> >
> > how many developers think:
> >
> > - what type of licensing should i use?
> > - my software is easialy cracked
> > - how can, if i want, add some protection to deter some of them?
> > - and finally, is it REALLY worth it?
> >
> > the bottom line is that regardless what you do, it is not worth it.
> >
> > also, you may be too much into focusing on your hardware and miss a
> > future possibility with this type of research. how open minded are
> > you? what do you think this type of research can be applied to?
[...]
> Unless you have something completely different then you have been
> describing so far, it sounds like you will be presenting Basic
> Software Protection Technology 1986.
The fact still remains, people creating Palm programs have these
questions. I, for one, think we would all benefit from a paper about how
to solve these issues, as they relate to the Palm platform.
Many of us do not have the wonderful and long software career in these
specific areas that you seem to have had. Just because you know about
many of these issues doesn't mean that the rest of us do. Some of us were
11 and still playing with Transformers back in 1986.
[...]
> The only future possibility I can see is the movement to OpenSource
> (Maybe I should write a paper on why you should NOT protect your
> software, but Palm should be able to get Eric Raymond who can do a
> much better job, which is exactly the point of the OS movement). Have
> you read his papers on the OpenSource movement? His arguments are
> mainly ones of economic efficiency. Is this form of licensing going
> to get an overview (if not it is incomplete).
And here is where I think the real problem lies. You believe in
OpenSource. OpenSource, however, does not put food on the table. It's a
very good idea, but you seem to be condemning (much like Mr. Raymond)
anyone else who does not subscribe to your idea. That doesn't sound like
freedom to me.
The fact is that people need to sell and protect thier software. This
will never change. OSS and PayForPlay software will always exist. The
relative merits of each scheme is beyond the scope of this thread.
However, I do think it's inappropriate to bring up OSS in the context of
"How to protect your PayForPlay" app. This isn't a debate over which to
use, Aaron's paper addresses the concerns of those who have already made
that choice.
[...]
> > if you want to criticise, lets be constructive about it. i knew
> > there would be a lot of critcism behind this paper - but heck, the
> > community must be informed of what is going on.
>
> I assume they know, or have a good idea, at least if they are a
> commercial outfit, and PalmSource is not a hobby programmer
> convention.
Where do the pros come from? They must come from somewhere. Maybe these
issues are all that's keeping a hobby programmer from becoming a pro?
> The issue of licensing might be more sticky than you know - it isn't
> merely assigning a label - the law varies by country and even by
> state, and if you do things wrong you might end up with liability.
> Proper licensing by itself should be more than one paper or session.
> And there are legal implications of some protection schemes. If you
> are not presenting correct information in this area you will be doing
> more harm than good.
Rasing any issues in this area will at least get people thinking about
them.
> And the history of software protection is interesting, but that book
> is on a much later chapter. It would be tragic if Palm programmers
> learned from their own mistakes instead of the mistakes of others.
OK, where can we look for documentation on the "mistakes of others"?
- --
Brian Mathis
Direct Edge
http://www.directedge.com
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