Antipiracy: softworkz (any comments?)

ricardo · Post by **ricardo** » Sat Oct 14, 2006 6:47 pm

I found this and want to ask if anyone here has experience with this?

http://www.softworkz.com

Thanks

SoulReaper · Post by **SoulReaper** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 2:55 am

well I dont know much but it looks good

@freak - @netmaestro - any comments

also you could look at this...

http://www.purebasic.fr/english/viewto ... &start=15

Regards
Kevin :roll:

ricardo · Post by **ricardo** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 3:14 pm

If you use LEVEL1 of protection and have less than 2000 montlhy registrations, service could be free!!

It looks very good to me (not for the price only, because you only pay for each registration, but for the overall service, sound nice!!)

thamarok · Post by **thamarok** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 3:24 pm

Doesn't look that reliable for my eyes...

Tipperton · Post by **Tipperton** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 4:36 pm

ricardo wrote:If you use LEVEL1 of protection and have less than 2000 monthly registrations, service could be free!!

Uhmmm..... you may want to read that again.... It's not monthly, what it says is that the first 2,000 activations are free, then after that you pay 50 cents per activation.

Personally my preference for protection is Armadillo, but then I'm biased!

ricardo · Post by **ricardo** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 6:17 pm

Tipperton wrote: Personally my preference for protection is Armadillo, but then I'm biased!

But, as far as i understand, Armadillo generate one key (or some keys) and if some user share it on the net you are dead, has no protection against this, right?

This don't work if you distribute many apps downloadble from the internet. Maybe is usefull if you sell large apps that you can 'personalize' for each customer.

[addtion]
I found that Armadillo itself is cracked and everyone can download cracked version from crack sites!!
[/additon]

thamarok · Post by **thamarok** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 7:28 pm

ricardo wrote:
Tipperton wrote: Personally my preference for protection is Armadillo, but then I'm biased!
But, as far as i understand, Armadillo generate one key (or some keys) and if some user share it on the net you are dead, has no protection against this, right?

This don't work if you distribute many apps downloadble from the internet. Maybe is usefull if you sell large apps that you can 'personalize' for each customer.

[addtion]
I found that Armadillo itself is cracked and everyone can download cracked version from crack sites!!
[/additon]

Caught you! I knew you are ricardo from the Warez forum! Still doing illegal things?

Oh, how did I know that?

ricardo · Post by **ricardo** » Sun Oct 15, 2006 11:09 pm

thamarok wrote:
Caught you! I knew you are ricardo from the Warez forum! Still doing illegal things?

Oh, how did I know that?

???

In not any ricardo from any warez forum and i don't do any illegal things.

Im an old PB user that develop audio software basically.

Im interested on using this softworkz in my battle against cracks of my very own software.

If i search for armadillo in google as crack was because the best way to know if something is really uncrackeable is to search if was cracked itself.

You are confused about who i am and i don't like to be confused to warez people.

*BTW Ricardo is the spanish for Richard, very common name.

White Eagle · Post by **White Eagle** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:34 am

Personally my preference for protection is Armadillo, but then I'm biased!

Armadillo is absolutely worthless for protecting your app/game, and I say this as a former die-hard Armadillo lover and supporter. Since being bought by Digital River, Armadillo jumped head first into the toilet, which was pretty much expected being that Digital River bought it.

But, as far as i understand, Armadillo generate one key (or some keys) and if some user share it on the net you are dead, has no protection against this, right?

Both statements are incorrect. The level of protection in Armadillo is developer selected. You can lock to all kinds of hardware and generate a key locked to that hardware only and that key will not work on other systems. Or, You can use less secure methods where the key "could" be handed out and work on other systems.

The security problems with Armadillo now lie in it's protection methods are now completely bypassed (including the nanomites). You no longer have to worry about people trading license keys. That just isn't done anymore as Armadillio is now so easily removed. A lot of cracked Armadillo apps, will just remove the Armadillo protection from the EXE and you will have the Armadillo DLL and the unprotected exe distributed by the cracker. Also, I am seeing a lot of "patches" that are quite good and will patch Armadillo protected EXEs and even circumvent the nanomites if they are used.

It has reached the point now that by using Armadillo, I firmly believe your program is more likely to be cracked and widely distributed than if you implement your own protection scheme (however weak it may be).

ricardo · Post by **ricardo** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:44 am

This one is not expensive ($49.95)

http://www.zappersoftware.com/shareguard.html

Any comments?

Tipperton · Post by **Tipperton** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 4:51 am

ricardo wrote:If i search for armadillo in google as crack was because the best way to know if something is really uncrackeable is to search if was cracked itself.

There is no such thing as uncrackable, if a computer can run it, a cracker can see what it does and change it. It's never a question of if, it's always a question of when.

White Eagle wrote:The security problems with Armadillo now lie in it's protection methods are now completely bypassed (including the nanomites). [...]

It has reached the point now that by using Armadillo, I firmly believe your program is more likely to be cracked and widely distributed than if you implement your own protection scheme (however weak it may be).

Really? Why then after almost three years is there still no working cracks of any of my programs?

Armadillo is a tool, and like any other tool, the end results depend heavily on the user's skill.

Many, if not all, of those easily cracked programs, were done by relying totally on Armadillo to do everything. Any protection, not just Armadillo, is going to be weak with that approach because once the cracker gets past the protection, your program is totally defenseless.

The secret to my success is, tight integration with Armadillo (I use all my own reminder, enter key dialogs, licensing logic, and make heavy use of Armadillo's API), a wide variety of integrity checks scattered through out the program, and delayed, subtle, and sometimes nasty responses to compromised integrity.

There have been numerous cracks released, but not a single one has produced a properly functioning program.

I'm happy!

PB · Post by PB » Mon Oct 16, 2006 8:26 am

> Why then after almost three years is there still no working cracks of any of my programs?

What's the name of one of your apps so I can verify this for myself?

thamarok · Post by **thamarok** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 1:15 pm

ricardo wrote:
thamarok wrote:
Caught you! I knew you are ricardo from the Warez forum! Still doing illegal things?

Oh, how did I know that?
???

In not any ricardo from any warez forum and i don't do any illegal things.

Im an old PB user that develop audio software basically.

Im interested on using this softworkz in my battle against cracks of my very own software.

If i search for armadillo in google as crack was because the best way to know if something is really uncrackeable is to search if was cracked itself.

You are confused about who i am and i don't like to be confused to warez people.

*BTW Ricardo is the spanish for Richard, very common name.

Calm down, it was a joke. I didn't know you don't like jokes that badly. I am sorry and I like spanish people, *my girlfriend is spanish*

ricardo · Post by **ricardo** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 5:22 pm

thamarok wrote: Calm down, it was a joke. I didn't know you don't like jokes that badly. I am sorry and I like spanish people, *my girlfriend is spanish*

Sorry if i react bad
I dont notice it was a joke

BTW im not spanish, im from Argentina

Fluid Byte · Post by **Fluid Byte** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 6:04 pm

Tipperton, do you have a website?