Use plug-in with only one computer

[Tunca]

Hi,

Title says everything.

I just need to add system to work plugin with only one PC.So user can't share their plug-ins.

I guess i need to get system ID and generate serial for this computer.Or?

I need some advice for simple copy protection,actually.

Thanks.

[JD Young]

Hi Tunca,

Read this old forum post of mine about software protection for a quick introduction to protecting your software: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread....tection+scheme

Regards, JD

[Tunca]

Originally Posted by JD Young

Hi Tunca,

Read this old forum post of mine about software protection for a quick introduction to protecting your software: https://forum.cockos.com/showthread....tection+scheme

Regards, JD

Hi,

Thanks for reply.Actually i read all topics about copy protection but i didn't get any answer...And complicated methods...

I need easy solution about sharing plugins with user's friends.

My plugins have no copy protection.I'm okay with that.But i want to prevent sharing plugins.For example when user send plugin to another user,it won't work with his/her system.Only will work on user's system.But can't figure it out...

My protection idea for not against to pirates.Just for simple users.

[JD Young]

Hi Tunca,

I'm afraid you will most likely not be able to find an easy solution for this problem. I understand you are not overly concerned with piracy, but even just binding a plug-in to a specific machine, is a form of "true copy protection", which is very difficult to achieve and maintain. Generating a cross platform machine ID alone is already a very specialized task. The same goes for automating the activation process, with a server. If you do want to take on this challence, start with retrieving the hardware ID's of the users system, like Mac adresses, and a scheme for storing and reading a license file from within your plug-in.

Good luck!

JD

[TBProAudio]

You could use the MAC address of the PC.
Let the user send you the MAC address and compile it into your plug-in.

Good luck!

[Bobflip]

I've been looking into copy protection the last couple of weeks.

I got the impression (via that big "More Copy Protection..." thread on the KVR Developer Forum) that embedding user-specific data in a watermarked plugin isn't the way to go these days, due to operating systems wanting signed binaries, and workload involved in compiling one for every customer!

The MAC address sounds like a good shout though.

For my website I've set up a php script, this runs after a PayPal transaction, converts the customer's name to a hash and emails it to the user. I'm thinking something like that but instead hashing the MAC address and emailing an updated key would do the trick?

This may require the computer to be connected to the internet every time you want to confirm that it's being run on a valid machine, but although there's a few die-hards out there that don't allow their production machine to connect to the net, they're certainly in the minority.

I'd also suggest allowing 3 machines per user. Many users will want at least 2 for a desktop machine and a laptop. 3 allows for a dual boot main system.

[TBProAudio]

Originally Posted by Bobflip

I got the impression (via that big "More Copy Protection..." thread on the KVR Developer Forum) that embedding user-specific data in a watermarked plugin isn't the way to go these days, due to operating systems wanting signed binaries, and workload involved in compiling one for every customer!

Hmm, depends on what you want to achieve:
If it is worth (low number of customers) then a convenient process including challenge response and custom compile (plus signing) is not too hard to implement...

[Bobflip]

That's fair, though I guess it would still be worthwhile not limiting the number of potential users of your product!

Then again, with the issues I've run into today with getting Crypto++ working (turns out there's a resource.h clash when compiling AU, and still not got it linked at all in VS), I'm part tempted to go that route for the time being.

[Tunca]

Thanks for answers!

It's little complicated for me actually.

But i will try to figure it out.

Thanks!