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From: jbn@glacier.STANFORD.EDU (John B. Nagle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Copy protection: A marketing analysis
Message-ID: <17135@glacier.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: Tue, 21-Jul-87 01:23:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: glacier.17135
Posted: Tue Jul 21 01:23:11 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 22-Jul-87 04:37:32 EDT
References: <207@cc5.bbn.com.BBN.COM> <892@omepd> <1393@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: jbn@glacier.UUCP (John B. Nagle)
Distribution: na
Organization: Stanford University
Lines: 18
Summary: Multi-program dongle standards rejected


     There was considerable interest in an industry standard copy protection
device for IBM software during 1986, with the Software Publisher's Association
plugging for such a scheme.  This was to be a card with an external box which
would accept electronic keys of some sort.  But during 1986, most of the
major IBM software vendors dropped copy protection, and the push behind this
scheme ran out of steam; it's now totally dead.

     A serial number in the machine is only useful for expensive products,
since the manufacturer must stamp the software with your machine's serial
number before shipping it to you.  This prevents distribution through 
retail channels.  However, many products for SUNs are protected in this way.

      
     One very promising solution is software on compact disks.  Just make it
so big that no one can afford enough hard disk to store a copy; including
uncompressed color images of the manual keyed to the help system should
do it.