From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261152AbTKYQJm (ORCPT ); Tue, 25 Nov 2003 11:09:42 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261598AbTKYQJm (ORCPT ); Tue, 25 Nov 2003 11:09:42 -0500 Received: from sweetums.bluetronic.net ([24.199.150.42]:23181 "EHLO sweetums.bluetronic.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261152AbTKYQJl (ORCPT ); Tue, 25 Nov 2003 11:09:41 -0500 Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 11:07:21 -0500 (EST) From: Ricky Beam To: =?iso-8859-1?q?M=E5ns_Rullg=E5rd?= cc: Subject: Re: Copy protection of the floppies In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=X-UNKNOWN Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8BIT Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Tue, 25 Nov 2003, [iso-8859-1] Måns Rullgård wrote: >> About 15 years ago, there were many gaming softwares which were procected, (it was more than 15 years ago.) >> for example, by checking "gap" between sectors. > >Can't that be done with a regular floppy drive and some special >software? Please heed the lessons already learned in the software industry... Copy protection doesn't work. It works about as well as locks on doors as it'll keep the honest people honest, and offer a small obstacle to the dishonest. As others have stated, anything *you* can do with a PC floppy drive, *I* can do. (And given this thread, I can probablly do a few things you currently cannot.) Ultimately, any copy protection comes down to the software on the floppy. If the machine can read it to execute it, the hacker can read it to remove the checks. No ammount of hand-waving will change that. (That, btw, is why the DMCA, et. al., exist.) --Ricky