Dev.SN

How Can Software be Protected from Piracy ?

posted by janrinok on Friday March 21 2014, @10:37PM   
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 ?"

• Re:The foolproof way to stop software piracy: (Score: 2) by chromas on Saturday March 22 2014, @12:26AM

  by chromas (34) on Saturday March 22 2014, @12:26AM (#19607)

  Asking for a foolproof way to stop piracy is like asking for a foolproof way to stop robberies or shoplifting or littering or jaywalking or literally any other crime. If it were possible to bring defection to nil someone would have figured it out because every dictatorship in the world would do anything to anyone for any amount of money to make certain crimes (like plotting against the government) impossible. If it is possible someone will do it.

  You're right on, there. While software copy protection itself is fairly new, the ideas behind it are not. People trying to keep each other compliant is ancient. DRM is just that…but…on a computer!

  Parent

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