28 Jan
2012
28 Jan
'12
4:33 a.m.
On Fri, 27 Jan 2012, Chuck Guzis wrote:
It reminds me of an 80's software publishers
gambit--go and clobber
the hard disk if a pirate copy is discovered on floppy.
Can't remember who it was or the details, but I remember that things
turned out badly for them.
Vault Corporation.
They had a successful copy-protection system called "Prolock".
Their suite of copy-protection products included ones with physical damage
to the disk - if the running program did not find that physical damage, it
would declare the copy bogus. Since it would not impress investors to see
a room full of people with paper clips scratching diskettes, they used a
"laser fingerprint" to scratch the disk.
They ANNOUNCED a NEW AND IMPROVED "PROLOCK PLUS"? with the retaliation
"feature".
Imagine the liability issues if it ever false triggered!
Imagine the liability issues of even a VALID trigger damaging ANYTHING
other than THEIR files! (detecting a pirated copy of your program does
NOT legally entitle you to damage property of the pirate)
(Taking the guys over to visit the pitate and knee-capping him would not
have worse press)
Imagine the PR issues for any company whose product used that protection!
IMMEDIATELY, just about every customer that they had for Prolock dropped
it, and publicly stated that they hadn't and wouldn't use the new product.
Tactical Nuclear Foot Shooting!
They were GONE overnight.
The NEW product never reached market, NOBODY ever got it. Yet, for
years, clueless Q&A column writers would blame "rogue copy-protection"
when they couldn't figure out what actually crashed somebody's machine.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com