I have developed an application using clarion 2.1 for dos and would like to
build a copy protection system into the application.

The idea is that if someone takes all the application files to a new pc the
application must halt.

Thanking you

What I did was to have the program look for a file (called something
like config.cfg) in another directory (root/windows) whatever, if it
is not there the program will not run, or it will run is a 30 day DEMO
or something.
What about DONGLES
Johan van Zyl
Somerset West
South Africa

CW Standard 2002

Ian,

I have a software product for Colleges that is pretty expensive.  I had the
same concerns, so I purchased the Sentinel Scribe from Rainbow Technologies.

They have several models to choose from, but I chose the Scribe because it
has 128 bytes of non-volitile ram in it which I can access to store and
retrieve system parameters.  My code not only looks for the existence of the
dongle, but retrieves items like the school name, expiration date, and
purchased options from the plug.

This gives me a greater degree of control over the software and allows me to
run the same executable code in 4 different colleges without giving them
options which they have not purchased.

It also makes it difficult for them to dummy up something to bypass my
protection.

BTW:    The cost of the Dongles are about 35.00 USD each.

Hope this helps,

Jeff Morris
Memphis, TN

We have a product called SuperPasscode that works with Clarion 2.1.
You can purchase it through our distributor, Mitten Software.  Their

a lot of these lately, but I'm still using it and supporting it, so
it's definitely a solution.  Catch you later!

-=> Mike Hanson <=-
www.BoxsoftDevelopment.com

Check out a product called SentinelPro by
Rainbow Technologies in Irvine CA

This attaches to the parallel port and when you launch your application, it
sends a signal to the device - the device returns a different value - if it
agrees with your code, the application continues.

Jerry

Ian,

One way is to use the hardware ID (sorry, I have no code for reading this).
If the hardware ID changes, the software won't go. But that means your
registration process has to inform you of the ID.

Good luck! Copy protection is the sort of thing that provokes strong
reactions in some folks<g>.

Dave Harms [Team TopSpeed]

visit the Unofficial Clarion OOP Page at
http://www.incunabula.com/cwoop/index.htm

Ian

We use a product called CrypKey from Kenonic Controls in Canada. It is
one of the few software only products around. You can find them at
www.crypkey.com

 Our application stores very sensitve client information, so we wanted
to protect this information in any way we could. We decided that to be
completely effective we had to protect the data from being read by
third party utilities (via encryption) and the software from being
used on unauthorised machines (via software protection).

It works very well, and we have not had one complaint from clients, as
they can see the protection working with their own eyes <g>.

One unanticipated benefit for us was that it gave us the ability to
enanble/disable program options via authorisation codes, which are use
once only.

It is not cheap, but the product is stable and the support is good.

If you want more information about how we implemented it within our
application, please drop me a private email.

To date we have detected ten attempts to bypass the security. One
person actually owned up, the others blamed the computer, of course
<g>.

David Groves
Alchemy Technology
Perth, Western Australia
Developers of Service Management System (SMS)
for Community Service Organisations