PureBasic Forums - English

One methode of protection could be to allow access to the PB forums only to registered users, as I think for most folks the compiler & helpfile itself isn't of too much of value alone, but the great forums (with lots of helpful people) add the value to the product.

Bypassing that "zero-information-awareness protection" would be easily discoverable and if all work together (like Andre for the purearea.net or Paul's site), there wouldn't be much joy with PB for thiefes.

On the other hand; I think it is safe to assume that 90% who get an illegal copy don't really use it...

the key question would be: are there enough users using the illegal product that would otherwise buy a legal version if they would not have access to an illegal copy?

i guess most people who use purebasic on a (semi) serious basis like the updates, and in fact need the updates (but that's a whole different story )

these people would not be interested in a p2p version

now the people that use a p2p version appearently do not care about bugs... think about that

blocking the forum for non registered users is, i think, a bad idea... perhaps for posting a block would be acceptable but certainly not when it comes to reading messages... checking out the forum related to some package is the first thing i do before even considering ordering such a package...

and i think fred would like to make a living (hey fred, tell us when that is no longer the case okay? :roll: )

blueznl wrote:the key question would be: are there enough users using the illegal product that would otherwise buy a legal version if they would not have access to an illegal copy?

That is always the question.
But dont be so sure that the answer is no.
Ithe other hand, no one like to see his job distributed in p2p.

checking out the forum related to some package is the first thing i do before even considering ordering such a package...

Yes, i came into this forum before considering to buy PB and when i saw many people coding and exchanging info, etc. THEN i decide to buy it.

In that time (i dont know about now), the PB DEMO was not very good, because the lack of info, so the demo dosent tell me nothing about the real possibilities and most of the examples dont compile in demo in that time.

In fact, my first impression was that PB was developed by an old man :roll: because the IDE and the help file was not very 'modern', just text, no gui designer, far away from delphi or vb's IDE.

Maybe the IDE should have a direct link to the forums to let the user see that he really could develope something in PB.

blueznl wrote:i think the best way to do it, is make the download only possible by presenting a proper key online, then an upload could only be done by a registered user, and the users ip could be tracked down, next to that a constant monitoring would have to take place on sites such as astalavista.box.sk to track down and eliminate illegal codes

again, this does not stop a good hacker, but such is life... at least one can stop easy updates...

That's exactly what I'm plannning to do. Again, it's time spend for nothing...

ricardo wrote:In fact, my first impression was that PB was developed by an old man :roll: because the IDE and the help file was not very 'modern', just text, no gui designer, far away from delphi or vb's IDE.

Fred wrote:

ricardo wrote:In fact, my first impression was that PB was developed by an old man :roll: because the IDE and the help file was not very 'modern', just text, no gui designer, far away from delphi or vb's IDE.

ok, we understand :

more wishlists now to OldMan@purebasic.com

When i first saw PB, i was impressed(tryed the demo). I thought about getting an warez copy. But i like to program. So i was reading forum posts and programmed a little bit in PB, and i found out that this was a great language with easy use of tcp/ip and much more with the great commands. I also like the syntax. The IDE was fine to me, and the Visual Designer is also fine.
So, i dumped the warez thing and bought PB.
It was a good buy.

I'd like to say to you, Fred, and everyone else programming pb or use the forum, thanks!
the price for PB is absolutly fair! And the language is VERY good.
The best way of keeping wares down, just my thought, is making the price fair and making the software good. Its done with PB.
So, of course make a protection for keeping those dump people away, that dont register.

If anyone thinking about a warez copy of PureBasic reads this, you should know that i'm very happy i bought PB.
If you buy it, you can distribute software, commercial or not, without thinking that you havent got a legal version of the developing software.

Thanks, everyone that is involved in PB developing, and everyone at this great forum!


Thanks for reading

-Daniel

If we take a look on HOW Windows got the widespread OS it is actually, we find out that this history goes as follows:

1. Person X had it and had some Software (and knowledge)
2. Person Y asked Person X "What should I buy"
3. Person X says "Buy Windows, I'll give you some Software
4. Person Y buys Windows
5. Person Z has a Company. He wants his employee to be able to use the Company PC's without making a "Computer-Education". As everyone has Windows at home, he will take Windows for his Company too. Of course he pays for all the licences as companies do so. The same happened with MS Office. Companies take it because everyone can use it.

Widespread makes things morewidespread.

Generally I guess the keyfile thing is ok, and Fred should really not bother on 1 or 1000 more person using PB not paying (immediately). If the product is GOOD they will stay with it and become registered users more soon or late.

If the product is good they will spread the word and more people will come and buy.

I guess in earlier times on 1 paid Windows there have been 4 unpaid. However it made Bill Gates to the richest person on the world.

Now after XP has a registration scheme, we see the market slowing reducing and that will continue. Copyright may be necessary to a small amount, but I don't think its a guarantee for financial success.

When I first tried the demo of purebasic I was VERY disapointed. 90% of the example code that came with it could not be compiled. I wanted to test it, check some things out. I couldnt.
A suggestion for the demo (what VC++ does) is just add a popup box in the begining of any compiled app that says "THIS IS A DEMO PROGRAM MADE WITH.....blahlbah blah" And not limit the # of lines. With the debugger allways on and that popup box its disabled enough.

Now after XP has a registration scheme, we see the market slowing reducing and that will continue. Copyright may be necessary to a small amount, but I don't think its a guarantee for financial success.

You call THAT a registration scheme? It was cracked 23 hours after the public release of windows xp. I see less windowsxp piracy than win98 but thats because there is a HUGE overall less amount of people that actually use xp, its not "worth" pirating Most people that own XP do so only because "It came with my PC", not by choice. It came with my last PC, yet I still reformated the harddrive and installed 98se instead.

You cannot protect anything from being given out, you have to TRUST your end users to not leak it (except with filemirrors you cant even trust your end users)

I've edited as you suggested. Please don't post such stuff on a publicly readable forum, I told you by mail I will change the protection scheme.

About the 90% of non working example, could you tell me which one please ? I'm interested to fix them of course.

Yah, right now there is no protection scheme for PB. There's an email w/ the addy to get a very old version of PB, then you download the registered upgrade (publically available) off the download page. It never asks you for the registration key you got in the mail at any time... I thought that was kind weird, but oh well

Ok, Fred, I was unsure if it was something you wanted to keep unknown thats why I added that comment to the bottom. (Simply changing the existing filename and adding a warning to the emails would stop be a good current preventative)

I didnt say 90% didnt WORK I said they didnt compile with the demo (too many lines) Everyone I have compiled has worked just fine.

Almost all PB examples compiles with the Demo here, that's why I wonder...