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Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle

dmitrybrant.com

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Re: Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle

#121

Post by bigbuppo »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #60
nsoonhui wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because 1. Physical dongle tends to break, and when it does, they expect us to give them replacing parts 2. They do expect bug fixes-- especially calculation bug fixes-- as the bugs are discovered. It's hard to leave their production critical apps broken like that once you know that the bugs can cause monetary or even life loss.

Wanting to say in business makes sense, bug fixes make sense. But the actual dongle... look, something like that should have a 30+ year warranty. There should be a plan for how to replace it a couple times before making the initial sale.

They actually have this solved with iLok... You can move the license to new dongles at will. And they have a relatively inexpensive annual service where they'll issue you temporary licenses for what was on the ilok while you ship it back the defective dongle to them. Mostly used for DAW software and plugins, but apparently a few other things have used it for licensing.

Re: Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle

#122

Post by djmips »

sowbug wrote: post #86
catlikesshrimp wrote: post #9

Why wasn't (isn't) this more widely used? It was clearly more effective than a cdkey. I know there is cost associated with the hardware, but surely the costumer can cough 15 more dollars. The only reason I can think of is wanting as wide adoption before max revenue as possible. But then, this has never been too popular, not even for games!

Dongles still exist in the form of Nintendo Switch cartridges, though they're an extreme form that contains all the app logic, rather than just 7606h.

Haha, true enough. But you also get all the game 3D assets, music as well.

Re: Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle

#123

Post by [deleted] »

nsoonhui wrote: post #38
SecretDreams wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which, from a business point of view, is especially important in a field where regulations do not change very fast, because users have little incentive to upgrade This take is diametrically opposite to what end users need. In a world where "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" is perfectly fine for the end user, buying a one off license for a software seems much more sane then SaaS. SaaS is like a plague for end users.…

In a perfect world, I would have agreed with you, even if it's diametrically opposite to my interest as a software developer cum business owner. But in an imperfect world whereby our dependencies ( software components that we use) and platforms that we need to build/rely on ( like Civil 3D) do charge us on annual basis, and that some of users expect perpetual bug fixes from us, with or without a support contract of s…

[deleted]

Re: Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle

#124

Post by userbinator »

gnabgib wrote: post #103
userbinator wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are subtantial amounts of large industrial processes still in operation using equipment from the late 19th century.

Do you mean 20th? Even current looms, steam engines, stills aren't from the 18 hundreds

No, I do mean the late 1800s. Operations processing "low level" materials like agricultural, steel, and mining.

Re: Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle

#125

Post by cricalix »

Tangential to this was the existence of California Software Product's "Baby/36" software. My father was a 36/400 programmer and sysadmin, and in his spare time used Baby/36 to write software for local businesses. I have vague memories of parallel port dongles being involved back then too. Don't think he mandated their use, was more a "framework" requirement.

Re: Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle

#126

Post by maxglute »

catlikesshrimp wrote: post #9

Why wasn't (isn't) this more widely used? It was clearly more effective than a cdkey. I know there is cost associated with the hardware, but surely the costumer can cough 15 more dollars. The only reason I can think of is wanting as wide adoption before max revenue as possible. But then, this has never been too popular, not even for games!

Cartridges and cd/dvds/ physical media with DRM were technically dongles.

I remember hearing a courier died overnighting a CAD dongle.

Re: Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle

#127

Post by nopakos »

nsoonhui wrote: post #27

I write civil engineering software [0] and am familiar with this kind of dongle. Yes, even today there are users who want this kind of dongle instead of, say, cloud-based validation. They feel secure only if they have something tangible in hand. Since we sold (and still sell) perpetual licenses, it becomes a problem when a dongle breaks and replacement parts are no longer available. Not all users want to upgrade. Als…

Hey, fellow civil-engineering-software designer here! [https://www.anadelta.com/en/anadelta-tessera/] Same story, same problems with dongles, perpetual & subscription licenses.

Re: Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle

#129

Post by [deleted] »

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #50
antonvs wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Many a crack back in the day was even more simple still, we'd just find and alter the right JE or JNE into a JMP and we're off to the races. I did that with dBASE III, which used ProLok "laser protection" from Vault Corporation - a signature burned onto the diskette with a laser. Back then, I found it amazing that Ashton-Tate actually spent money to contract with a copy protection company for something that could b…

I remember doing something similar with Lemmings 3D. You could simply NOP over the JMP into the copy-protection subroutine. It was surprisingly easy. Made me feel like such a badass hacker at 15 years old.

[deleted]

Re: Defeating a 40-year-old copy protection dongle

#130

Post by 2Gkashmiri »

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #50
antonvs wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Many a crack back in the day was even more simple still, we'd just find and alter the right JE or JNE into a JMP and we're off to the races. I did that with dBASE III, which used ProLok "laser protection" from Vault Corporation - a signature burned onto the diskette with a laser. Back then, I found it amazing that Ashton-Tate actually spent money to contract with a copy protection company for something that could b…

I remember doing something similar with Lemmings 3D. You could simply NOP over the JMP into the copy-protection subroutine. It was surprisingly easy. Made me feel like such a badass hacker at 15 years old.

"Cheat enginge"

This was one of those things you really really wanted but once you toyed with it, it sucked the fun out of games and they felt pointless.

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