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Dealing with abandonware (2024)

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Re: Dealing with abandonware (2024)

#51

Post by tracker1 »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #43
avazhi wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Might be illegal to break someone else's proprietary software, no matter how abandoned it is. Oh no! Anyway Snark aside, what you do locally on your own PC in your own home is kinda nobody else’s business, especially when you aren’t cracking it to share it with others. Pretty sure all the arguments were already hashed out in the ‘80s when VCR companies tried to block recording television to cassette tapes. Literall…

> Pretty sure all the arguments were already hashed out in the ‘80s when VCR companies tried to block recording television to cassette tapes. Why would VCR companies try to block this?

Not the VCR companies but the TV stations and Cable companies.

Re: Dealing with abandonware (2024)

#52

Post by stevekemp »

Taniwha wrote: post #18

You can go to this effort to get it to make the right magic number .... or just find the place where it gets tested and replace the conditional branch with a unconditional branch (or a no-op) Having said that I once wrote 68k code that was an executable copyright message, and other code that if it discovered it wasn't running on an authorised machine logged to a known port, sent an email, unlinked the binary, queued…

All the way I was thinking the same.

Why patch the binary to get the correct "system identity" value, to match the license/serial-key you've got? Instead patch the serial-check out of the software entirely.

Re: Dealing with abandonware (2024)

#53

Post by deepsun »

avazhi wrote: post #23
deepsun wrote: post #3

Might be illegal to break someone else's proprietary software, no matter how abandoned it is. Try to ask them for source code, with the intention to open-source it. Then you (and maybe others!) can break it whole day long.

> Might be illegal to break someone else's proprietary software, no matter how abandoned it is. Oh no! Anyway Snark aside, what you do locally on your own PC in your own home is kinda nobody else’s business, especially when you aren’t cracking it to share it with others. Pretty sure all the arguments were already hashed out in the ‘80s when VCR companies tried to block recording television to cassette tapes. Literall…

Well, didn't think of that, but agree completely.

In order to sue the post author, the software copyright holder must claim some damages. I doubt they will find enough damages to pay legal fees.

Re: Dealing with abandonware (2024)

#54

Post by userbinator »

stevekemp wrote: post #52
Taniwha wrote: post #18

You can go to this effort to get it to make the right magic number .... or just find the place where it gets tested and replace the conditional branch with a unconditional branch (or a no-op) Having said that I once wrote 68k code that was an executable copyright message, and other code that if it discovered it wasn't running on an authorised machine logged to a known port, sent an email, unlinked the binary, queued…

All the way I was thinking the same. Why patch the binary to get the correct "system identity" value, to match the license/serial-key you've got? Instead patch the serial-check out of the software entirely.

For crackers, keygenning is more fun.
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