🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug1.191738.5701@metrosoft.com> gvh@metrosoft.com (Gordon Van  
Huizen) writes:
=>In article <1992Jul31.194615.24025@cs.yale.edu>  
=>nathan@laplace.biology.yale.edu (Nathan F. Janette) writes:
=>> 
=>> The contortions one has to go through to register MMa,
=>> especially multiple copies, are not representative of
=>> a good copy protection scheme which protects the program
=>> but doesn't hassle the user.  We have other apps that are
=>> copy protected that weren't nearly the hassle to register
=>> and use, but still can't be stolen by someone copying
=>> them - they just work in demo mode without a valid keyfile.
=>> 
=>
=>Speaking as a company that is reluctantly considering copy-protecting one  
=>of our products, I'd like to know if end-users find any of the current  
=>schemes truly acceptable. We've been weighing the pros and cons of  
=>registering to a username or machine ID. Neither seens completely  
=>acceptable to us. 
=>
=>What do you folks think?
=>
=>Gordon
=>

I am probably a lone fish in a big nasty sea, but I am satisfied with the copy  
protection like the one used in Mathematica.  I can already feel the heat, but  
I like the ability to limit software to specific machines (not to a specific  
number).  We have ~50 copies of Mathematica licensed to the NeXTs in our  
cluster.  However, there are a few machines that we don't want running Mma  
(print servers, for example), so we simply comment out the password in the  
mathpass file and Mma will no longer run on the machine.  I like this method  
of limiting software much more than "There are already 4 copies of this  
software running...." type messages...

Wolfram has done a great job in dealing with us and they usually have our  
passwords within 24 hours of requesting them (often the same day!).

I do have complaints that you cannot install the software until you have a  
least one of the passwords, but once one copy is licensed, it is trivial to  
add as many more as you purchase...

=>Gordon Van Huizen           vox: 619.488.9411  fax: 619.488.3045
=>Metrosoft                   gvh@metrosoft.com [NeXTmail welcome]

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