Protection and Conditional Statements

[Semen Matusovski]

Mike --
When you click Ctrl-F5, PbEdit calls PbDll1.Exe instead of PbDll.Exe (if you corrected a path for compiler).
PbDll1.Exe analyzes source code, remembers a command '%C &H12345678 and calls a compiler (for compiler '%C is a comment).
When compilation is finished, PbDll1.Exe (before returning control to PbEdit.Exe) opens compiled exe and writes CRC after EOF.
That's why, when program starts, it's already has CRC


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[Gary Akins]

<<shrug>> I'm just trying to give you a users' perspective on
the matter, Mike... you may not care what happens to your
users if you lose interest in the program, get hit by a bus, or
just decide to go "find yourself" in the Australian outback for a
few years - but I, as a user, damn sure would care what
happens to me; thus, as a user, I would not even consider
purchasing a program that used a protection scheme of this type,
no matter how useful it might otherwise be.

In other words: it's quite likely that instead of getting
more registrations because people can't pirate your
program, you may instead find yourself getting fewer
registrations because your would-be customer base will consider
the risk unacceptable and will simply not use your program at all.

You might also want to consider that you could be
opening yourself up to some legal liability issues here, if your
program should suddenly decide that it's no longer allowed to
work and you can't be gotten hold of for an updated serial
number... forget the car crash; let's just say you decide to
take a couple of weeks' vacation on a Carnival Cruise ship. Can
you afford the lawyer to defend yourself against the civil suit
from the guy who lost a week's worth of productivity because his
IT manager swapped his network card while you were away? (Oh,
sure, you can write a clause into your license that says
you're not liable, and you might actually win the case in
court, but that won't prevent the suit from being filed.
Remember, in today's society, it isn't who's right or who's
wrong, it's whether or not their lawyer can beat up your lawyer.
)




[This message has been edited by Gary Akins (edited May 02, 2001).]