How do you protect your software from illegal dist

Question

I am curious about how do you protect your software against cracking, hacking etc.

Do you employ some kind of serial number check? Hardware keys?

Do you use any third-party solutions?

How do you go about solving licensing issues? (e.g. managing floating licenses)

EDIT: I'm not talking any open source, but strictly commercial software distribution...

Answer 1

The Microsoft Software License scheme is crazy expensive for a small business. The server cost is around $12,000 if you want to set it up yourself. I don't recommend it for the feint of heart.

We actually just implemented Intellilock in our product. It lets you have all of the decisions for how strict you want your license to be, and it is very cost effective as well. In addition it does obfuscation, compiler prevention, etc.

Another good solution I have seen small/med businesses use is SoloServer. It is much more of an ecommerce and license control system. It is very configurable to the point of maybe a little too complex. But it does a very good job from what I have heard.

I have also used the Desaware license system for dot net in the past. It is a pretty lightweight system compared to the two above. It is a very good license control system in terms of cryptographically sound. But it is a very low level API in which you have to implement almost everything your app will actually use.

Answer 2

If your interested in protecting software that you intend to sell to consumers I would recommend any of a variety of license key generating libraries (Google search on license key generation). Usually the user has to give you some sort of seed like their email address or name and they get back the registration code.

Several companies will either host and distribute your software or provide a complete installation/purchase application that you can integrate with and do this automatically probably at no additional cost to you.

I have sold software to consumers and I find this the right balance of cost/ease of use/protection.

Answer 3

Make it easier to buy than to steal. If you put mounds of copy protection then it just makes the value of owning the real deal pretty low.

Use a simple activation key and assure customers that they can always get an activation key or re-download the software if they ever lose theirs.

Any copy protection (aside from online-only components like multiplayer games and finance software that connects to your bank, etc.) you can just assume will be defeated. You want downloading your software illegally, at the very least, to be slightly harder than buying it.

I have a PC games that I've never opened, because there is so much copy protection junk on it that it's actually easier to download the fake version.

Answer 4

Illegal distribution is practically impossible to prevent; just ask the RIAA. Digital content can just be copied; analog content can be digitised, and then copied.

You should focus your efforts on preventing unauthorised execution. It's never possible to completely prevent the execution of code on someone else's machine, but you can take certain steps to raise the bar sufficiently high that it becomes easier to purchase your software than to pirate it.

Take a look at the article Developing for Software Protection and Licensing that explains how best to go about developing your application with licensing in mind.

Obligatory disclaimer & plug: the company I co-founded produces the OffByZero Cobalt software licensing solution for .NET.

Answer 5

Is not exactly the answer you are looking for, but is a great resource on piracy from a game developer who actively asked their pirates about why they do that. And is related to the first part of the answer you choose.

Readi it at Talking to Pirates.

Answer 6

Digital "Rights" Management is the single biggest software snake-oil product in the industry. To borrow a page from classic cryptography, the typical scenario is that Alice wants to get a message to Bob without Charlie being able to read it. DRM doesn't work because in its application, Bob and Charlie are the same person!

You would be better off asking the inverse question, which is "How do I get people to buy my software instead of stealing it?" And that is a very broad question. But it generally starts by doing research. You figure out who buys the type of software you wish to sell, and then produce software that appeals to those people.

The additional prong to this is to limit updates/add-ons to legit copies only. This can be something as simple as an order code received during the purchase transaction.

Check out Stardock software, makers of WindowBlinds and games such as Sins of a Solar Empire, the latter has no DRM and turned a sizable profit off a $2M budget.