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Article #319

Re: Copy Protection (was: Re: WordPerfect Update (NOT!))

#319
From: Paul S. Sears
Date: Thu, 06 Aug 1992 21:49
74 lines
4199 bytes
In article <BsHF8t.2Ap@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> lemson@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David  
Lemson) writes:
=>sears@tree.egr.uh.edu (Paul S. Sears) writes:
=>
=>>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  
=>
=>Did you set it up?  Sure, it's fine once it's running but to set up
=>50 of them is quite a bit of work.

Actually, you only need *one* password to set up Mma.  That is the password  
for the machine you plan to install it on (one of our servers, for example)

=>>of limiting software much more than "There are already 4 copies of this  
=>>software running...." type messages...
=>But with mathematica's floating license server, which supposedly
=>works now, you should have one copy for each machine anyhow, so you
=>should never have anyone see such a message, plus you don't have to
=>run mathinfo on each machine.  I think that license servers which
=>are tied down to one machine are reasonable.
=>

You missed my point entirely!  I said that I want to be able to limit what  
software it run on _WHICH_ machine.  This is _NOT_ possible with the standard  
"Floating license server."  If I have a server with all the commercial  
software available for our clients, then the _only_ practical way to prevent  
clients (not users!) from accessing software is to have the software tied to a  
particular machine by way of somesort of hostid/passwd file.  Again, as I said  
before, the Mma way of protection makes this extremely trivial for me (just  
comment out the password line for the machine you _don't_ want Mma to run  
on...)

=>>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!).
=>
=>Ugh...have you ever tried to fax them a list of licenses?  They
=>frequently 'lose' 10 page faxes.  (Happened to me twice).

I use Email.  I find that email is very easy and is not lost very often.  But,  
I have had dealt with them via fax and they never seemed to loose any of our  
requests....

=>
=>>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...
=>
=>It could be easier, though, with a floating license server...no
=>reason to make it harder than really necessary.
=>

The ideal situation would be for the method of protection to be  
_user/installer_ selectable, like "Choose either a hostid/passwd file or  
floating license server as the method of copy/usage protection for this  
software...."  For example, I want _some_ of my software tied to particular  
clients (clients purchased for the specific purpose of running this software;  
ie, large swap disk, mucho memory) but I also have some general software that  
a floating license server would be perfect...

=>-- 
=>David Lemson                                                 (217) 244-1205
=>University of Illinois NeXT Campus Consultant  / CCSO NeXT Lab System Admin

--
Paul S. Sears                *  sears@uh.edu (NeXT Mail OK)
The University of Houston    *  suggestions@tree.egr.uh.edu (NeXT
Engineering Computing Center *  comments, complaints, questions)
NeXT System Administration   *  DoD#1967 '83 NightHawk 650SC 
          >>> SSI Diving Certification #755020059 <<<
"Programming is like sex: One mistake and you support it a lifetime."
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From: sears@tree.egr.uh.edu (Paul S. Sears)
Subject: Re: Copy Protection (was: Re: WordPerfect Update (NOT!))
Message-ID: <1992Aug6.214904.21001@menudo.uh.edu>
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Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1992 21:49:04 GMT
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