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This seems like a fast track towards building a really bad reputation for your software. In many markets the pirates will be the most vocal users, and this coul

This seems like a fast track towards building a really bad reputation for your software. In many markets the pirates will be the most vocal users, and this could paint your software in a horrible light. How do users know if the crash is caused by your copy protection, or by just plain bad software? And that's not even getting started on the people-try-before-they-buy-with-piracy argument, which is controversial enough that I don't want to go there.

scotty79 17y ago
I second that. You want to cripple pirated version of your software in specific, obvious, maybe even fun way. The Sims had such protection. If game was incompetently pirated then player could not kill cockroaches in the game. It was specific enough so when people googled for some info about cockroaches they were finding out that the cause is badly pirated version. Some of them might have bought legal version. Others just looked around for more thoroughly pirated version. But every one knew game is good and solid.
shin_lao 17y ago
The thing is that people quickly realize your "bugs" come from the pirate version, a famous example is CDRWin which toasted CDs with invalid serials. Everybody knew the original version didn't have the problem. You need to be clever about it. Another example is video games that are impossible to finish when they are pirated. The Operation Flashpoint game displayed a message "Original versions don't fade" on pirated versions and ceased to work.
potatolicious 17y ago
In the old Command & Conquer games you'd get about 5 minutes of gameplay, and then all of your buildings will spontaneously self destruct. Googling for the problem would inform you of your guilt :) That's a pretty decent way of doing it.
NateLawson 17y ago
Counterexample: Skype. No one complains about its obfuscation and software tamper resistance. It has been effective in preventing workalike clone clients. I haven't heard any complaints that it crashes, blaming the copy protection.

scotty79 17y ago

I second that. You want to cripple pirated version of your software in specific, obvious, maybe even fun way. The Sims had such protection. If game was incompetently pirated then player could not kill cockroaches in the game. It was specific enough so when people googled for some info about cockroaches they were finding out that the cause is badly pirated version. Some of them might have bought legal version. Others just looked around for more thoroughly pirated version. But every one knew game is good and solid.

shin_lao 17y ago

The thing is that people quickly realize your "bugs" come from the pirate version, a famous example is CDRWin which toasted CDs with invalid serials. Everybody knew the original version didn't have the problem. You need to be clever about it. Another example is video games that are impossible to finish when they are pirated. The Operation Flashpoint game displayed a message "Original versions don't fade" on pirated versions and ceased to work.

potatolicious 17y ago

In the old Command & Conquer games you'd get about 5 minutes of gameplay, and then all of your buildings will spontaneously self destruct. Googling for the problem would inform you of your guilt :) That's a pretty decent way of doing it.

NateLawson 17y ago

Counterexample: Skype. No one complains about its obfuscation and software tamper resistance. It has been effective in preventing workalike clone clients. I haven't heard any complaints that it crashes, blaming the copy protection.