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How Can Software be Protected from Piracy ?

posted by janrinok on Saturday March 22 2014, @02:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the questions-without-answers dept.

AnonTechie writes:

"Echoing a question asked on programmers.stackexchange.com - How can software be protected from piracy ?

It just seems a little hard to believe that with all of our technological advances and the billions of dollars spent on engineering the most unbelievable and mind-blowing software, we still have no other means of protecting against piracy than a "serial number/activation key." I'm sure a ton of money, maybe even billions, went into creating Windows 7 or Office and even Snow Leopard, yet I can get it for free in less than 20 minutes. Same for all of Adobe's products, which are probably the easiest. Can there exist a fool-proof and hack-proof method of protecting your software against piracy? If not realistically, could it be theoretically possible? Or no matter what mechanisms these companies deploy, can hackers always find a way around it ?"

 
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  • (Score: 1) by spxero on Saturday March 22 2014, @04:22PM

    by spxero (3061) on Saturday March 22 2014, @04:22PM (#19733)

    I agree wholeheartedly with this- make it easy, but if only a few people use your software make it phone home and require a USB dongle.

    The only other option if you want to completely lock down AND charge a premium for your software is to change to a SaaS model. Supply your app in a terminal server environment, Citrix, or some other VDI environment. But also be prepared to keep up with supporting the infrastructure, keeping a tight grip on customers, and rely heavy on support.