Software Protection Lover
Protection of programs against piracy becomes a topic that can no longer be left out. Let's figure out why.First of all, a rival's program - if running under virtual execution-based systems such as Sun's Java or Microsoft's.NET platform - is very effortless to decompile whilst possibly generating an advantage over the competitor.
However, such software is as well very effortless to pirate. What is more: software cracking is not a local event, on the contrary, it occurs on an intercontinental scale. Following are a couple harsh figures concerning piracy.Pirated copies form about 40 percent of all software programs.
Because of the 'safe-at-home' idea of the offense and the impossibility of preventing data copying, software piracy is an illegal process that laws as well as technical handling, fail to prevent.
Recent reports have computed the losses from the computer industry to all sorts of plagiarism at $1.4 till $1.8 billion monthly. Obviously, such figures are cataclysmal for the industry. Can something be done at all?
Naturally, there exist means that can be practiced by the program's creator to discourage software piracy.Learning everything concerning protection techniques is a tremendous job for coders, but protection can not be left out though.
Since it exists software as well as hardware related applications that do an excellent job, many coders rely on these for program protection. To start with, developers must make software registration routines as nasty to plagiarise as possible.
The protection package proposing a registration function to the protected program is named a 'total protection solution'. The disadvantage of total protection packages is that if the license algorithm - that this parcel adds - is cracked, then all software protected by this total package is in risk.
Battling piracy is frequently sought by usage of a combined protection method. Some people say though that coders should better determine and implement their own certification outline, and have it secured by a commercial protector for the strongest protection.
Aid for developers who have no experience with protective programming, is assured in protectors whose developers have certainly learned the securest guarding strategies. But first, there are a few simple matters to help to fight piracy:
* Online Activation Services: means applications accessing a centralised permission server by internet, the online program activation is meant to prevent software piracy. The disadvantage here is the fear for incorrect or not at all operating online servers, clients without 24/24 internet accessibility as well as software consuming internet time.
* Programming of a demo program. The coder has not included a few cardinal features in a demo edition, this returns piracy useless. Customers are sent a separate download link for the full software, frequently it is required to uninstall the demo or trial edition before installing the full edition.
The disadvantage here is that crackers can acquire the full edition which makes all useless, by the way, this theft is often realised by stealing someone's credit card number for the 'purchase'.
In addition to what developers themselves should do to beat piracy, there is also a choice in third party applications to aid combat cracking.
* Protectors are software based programs that are appended to or wrapped around a program with the intent to shield against cracking, in the case of games oftentimes as well adding ecommerce features. It exists very inadequate as well as very capable protectors: select wisely! Protectors are common in the shareware as well as in the gaming business.
* The software based hardware lock is a protector that locks the application to a unique computer only. Observe that hardware locking makes sure that a particular certification can not be used on multiple computers but is linked only to the particular computer it was bought for.
Hardware locking is accomplished by means of a hardware defined number like on a sound card, processor, hard disk, graphics card etc. Priced reasonably, hardware lock protectors sometimes add strong defensive capabilities against cracking but the negative point is they require a new certification for the coder who switches computers.
* The most general hardware based locks are USB Drive Locks and Dongle locks. For pricey software or software that only sells a couple copies per annum, it is an advisable solution. The secured software expects the presence of an outside set up of hardware to activate the application, e.g. via the connection to a USB port or a parallel port.
The two schemes have had some commercial success initially because of higher shelter facilities but have suffered since because of many substantial disadvantages: losing accessibility of a port, cost and loss of the hardware have lead to many problems.
This summarises the most used protection techniques and applications that coders can implement to aid in income protection. The choice of outside made products is long but maybe this summary could bring some clarity in the subject!
Posts
