| From: | Andrew Crowe |
| Date: | 16 Aug 2000 at 00:55:20 |
| Subject: | Re: Amiga Piracy |
Hi Everybody,
> Many PC games use on-CD copy protection, however some CD drives
> cannot read the data that has been fixed onto the data track to
> allow the software to identify it is original, thus failing.
Although, patches to stop games needing to read the CD are easily
available.
> CD drives on the Amiga typically are at lot older than what PCs have
> and the chances of failing are much higher. I'm not even sure if the
> CD drivers on the Amiga allow raw reading and data track
> synchronization.
And the same would be true of Amiga anyway, although probably not
quite as widespread
> At last years trade-only ECTS (Entertainment and Computer Trade
> Show) in London, a company was promoting a method they devised for
> CD producers to make their CDs uncopyable. It uses a special film
> which is applied to the layers of the disc, preventing it from being
> fully copied, but without sacrificing "general readability".
> Basically, it allows you to read parts of the CD at any time, but
> not the whole lot (as to make an ISO image, for example). Don't know
> how it worked because it was their trade secret, or even if it
> worked at all, but was an interesting (and expensive) method.
If the game can read the cd, then it can be copied. Even if you
can't read the whole thing in one go, it would probably take a
programmer a few minutes to write a program to read the disk in
sections and use that to create an ISO image.
Anyway I can't see how that could be possible anyway. What would
stop the cd being read only in parts for a certain time?
> I have looked into doing some form of anti-piracy methods for my
> project. However, because I can see how everything works, I can see
> all the "cracks" in the armor and eventually see that any
> anti-piracy methods I add will be overcome within a week.
>
> It is possible to overcome the "casual copier" but impossible to
> prevent the big boys with their k00l scRipTz + hAcKz.
Well, one of the good ways is to have serial numbers, then if you
find any serial numbers that are pirated, release an 'update' on the
internet that when confronted with those numbers, is set to wipe
their hd at a certain date.
Of course that would be very naughty, and get you in to trouble if
it failed and wiped someone elses.
Or you could just screw it, and make it easier to use (no having to
have the CD or enter black numbers from a black book) to try and get
more people to buy a copy :)
See ya :)
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