Program and CD copy protection

[droberson]

I want to write a MMF2 program that display some information to a user. I want to distribute it on CD.

Requirements:
1. Program cannot be copied to hard drive.
2. Program will on run from CD and computer memory.
3. CD cannot be copied and given to another user.
4. If protection is bypassed and copy for program or cd does
occur then program will not run on another computer.

Any suggestion or solutions other have found?

[Zenoff64]

Your question is confusing. From the first sentence, you say you want to display that information to the user.

Is that all you want to do? If so that would be easy.
But if you want to do all the things you have in the numbered list, its just not going to be practical without crippling the program or cd.

There have been many, many copy protection schemes over the years, most of which caused hardware issues (Cds unable to be ejected) or general incompatibilities that render your program useless to legitamate users.

It would be in your best interest to just go another way with it all together, eg; Serial numbers.

Good luck.

[maVado]

1. Program cannot be copied to hard drive.
2. Program will on run from CD and computer memory.
3. CD cannot be copied and given to another user.
4. If protection is bypassed and copy for program or cd does
occur then program will not run on another computer.

1. is nearly impossible, as every drive can read a CD and if you can read you can also write that data to a harddrive.

2. possible by just starting it from the CD

3. You need to look into Starforce, SECURom or other Industry Copy Protections.

4. Needs some sort of Online Validation as you cannot write data to the CD back on a usage.

[Sphax]

I think you can check if a file can be writed where the application is. If so, close the program (it's on an harddrive), if not the program is probably on a CD (but maybe a copied one).

[Yves]

I think you can check if a file can be writed where the application is. If so, close the program (it's on an harddrive), if not the program is probably on a CD (but maybe a copied one).

I wouldn't do that. Because on Vista you can't write to the install directory if the program has been installed in the Program Files directory.

[Ravenius]

Can't you just check if it's on a CD drive? Or could that be emulated?

[DJFuego]

You can make it dificult to copy the cd by making multiple data and audio tracks on the cd. Bleem (a playstation emulator) did this.
The only way to make the application secure is by having it delivered from a secure web page. Have you thought about this?
There are lots of applications around that can quite easily circumvent todays cd copy protection.

Oh and DAEMON Tool is really useful if you want to test an ISO before you burn it to CD. Saves wasting discs.

Now, lets think about something not impossible in fact quote possible... If someone where to make a CD reading/burning extension for MMF then we could all make our own copy protection.

[neat_Kliker2]

there is an object that can get the hard drive letters, just check if appdrive$ is one of them

[Dynasoft]

Effective copy protection ALWAYS involves making a non-standard cd. e.g. a cd with two sectors with the same sector number. These can't be copied without specialist equipment (a cd-r/cd-rw has the sector numbers already written, and they can't be changed), but they also sometimes can't be read correctly in a normal cd drive.

However, even if the disk can't be copied exactly, the program you're trying to protect can be modified to skip the "is this a copy" check.

It's not worth the effort.

[stAtrill]

I may know nothing about what i im talking about, but (from my knowledge) every computer has some kind of identifier (serial number maybe?) that is unique to that computer. You could just check for that computers serial to ensure it hasnt switched computers or such.

And i think you could easily detect what type of drive the program is running from, i just dont think there is an extesion that lets you do it in MMF yet.

Honestly, its more effort than its worth, because as security gets better it only gets harder to break. (It all gets broken eventually) Deamon tools, for instance, can emulate all the bigger copy protection schemes out there.