🚀 go-pugleaf

Two weeks ago I posted:

>Have you used software that requires a copy protection device to be attached to
>the parallel port? Are there any problems with that sort of thing?
>
>Jeffrey F. Painter      painter1@llnl.gov

I would like to thank all who replied to my query.
Following are the contents of all the mailed and posted replies.

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My husband manages a computer lab in the School of Architecture and some
of the construction estimating and project management packages use these 
devices.  He hasn't had any big problems with the devices, although there
are some annoyances: 

- if a printer is connected to the same port as the device, it must be turned
  on and on-line.  This is probably not a problem in a one person-one computer
  setup but it causes confusion in a lab where the previous user turned off 
  the printer.

- if the device is connected directly to the port, it sticks out farther than
  you normally expect, so be careful pushing the computer up next to a wall
  or situating it where people normally pass close by it.  Again, this is
  probably more of a problem in a crowded lab.

- if you want to run two packages that require these devices on the same 
  computer, you will need to contact the device vendor who can tell you
  in what order to "cascade" them.

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>From our limited experience, some of these devices will not
work on some PC clones. We had to change I/O cards and/or
BIOS to get the software to work.

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I have used three of these things:

  one for ABEL v4.0    - PLD programming language
          SCHEMA II    - Schematic capture program
      and XACT         - Xilinx design environment

I have had more than one installed at once, and have never had any
problems (The same port has also been connected to a printer through the
devices).

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Usualy none, unless you have an old BIOS (pre 1986). One program I know (MS-DOS
3.3 hebrew support) requires that a printer will be attached and online. This
is uncommon, and most likely fixed already.
You MIGHT have problems with more advanced opareting system (UNIX or OS/2) that
take full control on the parallel ports.
From my experiance (most israeli software is copy protected this way), there is
no problem, and if one arises, the company can easly fix it.

All this said, I don't recomend using such software for two reasons:
1) If the company wants you to buy the software, it shouldn't treat you like
   a thief.
2) The device and copy protection parts of the software cost 100-150 US$
   AND YOU ARE PAYING FOR IT! This is a feature you do not need or want,
   why should you pay for it?

Fogive the flame, I just find software copy protection degrading both for
the buyer and the seller.

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In <1APR199220545943@vms.huji.ac.il> gilf@vms.huji.ac.il (GIL FREUND) writes:

   The device and copy protection parts of the software cost 100-150 US$
   AND YOU ARE PAYING FOR IT! This is a feature you do not need or want,
   why should you pay for it?

We pay $20 per dongle, nothing for the software.

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Argh!!! Dongles!!! I HATE THEM!!!

I spend thousands on CAD software and I have to put up with
a foot long stack of dongles sticking off the back of my computer
(or more correctly, hooked to a cable behind my computer).  

The worst part is, the darn things interact!  I have five dongles.
One cannot coexist with any others.  Two of them are okay with the
last two as long as they are first in the stack, but cannot coexist 
between themselves.  The last two are fairly interchangable.  I'm
forever on my hands and knees under my desk swapping dongles.

By the way, the two mutually exclusive dongles are for two different
s/w packages from the company!  ("Why would ANYONE want to run those
packages together?"  Well, I would!)

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>Argh!!! Dongles!!! I HATE THEM!!!
>
>I spend thousands on CAD software and I have to put up with
>a foot long stack of dongles sticking off the back of my computer
>(or more correctly, hooked to a cable behind my computer).  
>
>The worst part is, the darn things interact!  I have five dongles.
>One cannot coexist with any others.  Two of them are okay with the
>last two as long as they are first in the stack, but cannot coexist 
>between themselves.  The last two are fairly interchangable.  I'm
>forever on my hands and knees under my desk swapping dongles.

  Yes, and I've heard similar horror stories, or stories about
  certain functions which use the parallel port not working through
  a dongle.  Also, let's recall that any time you ask electrons
  to cross a mechanical connection, you're asking for trouble 
  with reliability.  

  Dongles are a *bad* idea, especially if they become popular.
  They ought to be nipped in the bud.

  On the other hand, we in the PC community have to realize
  that software piracy is a genuine problem and neither have
  most of us done enough to control it among our friends,
  peers, and co-workers, nor have our brighter technical
  wizards come up with many good alternatives to dongles.