Re: Private Frameworks

FROM : Alastair Houghton
DATE : Tue Jan 15 18:13:19 2008

On 15 Jan 2008, at 04:32, Kyle Sluder wrote:

> On Jan 14, 2008 7:23 PM, John Stiles <<email_removed>> wrote:

>> Typically if someone wants to obscure code, I've found that it's the
>> part of the code that is responsible for distinguishing the paying
>> users from the demo users. (e.g. shareware registrations, or product
>> registration keys, or checking the network to see if other copies of
>> the same app are active with the same license key).
>>

>
> Obfuscation will never secure your copy protection/licensing code.


On the contrary, it is the *only* way on current hardware to secure 
your copy protection and/or licensing code.  Without obfuscation, your 
copy protection/licensing code will only hinder casual piracy, and 
only to the extent that casual pirates choose not to frequent piracy 
websites offering cracks.  I put it to you that such websites are in 
practice quite popular...

> It will only present a fun challenge to anyone who wants to crack it.


The goal with obfuscation is to make the challenge too hard to be fun, 
which is well within the bounds of possibility.

Anyway, John Stiles' suggestion of using #define is probably the best 
bet if preventing others from linking (easily) is the desired goal. 
It may well be, though, that simply not including the headers is 
enough to discourage linking with the framework; it really depends on 
what the framework is for.

On 15 Jan 2008, at 00:08, Timothy Reaves wrote:

> NEWS FLASH: no one gives a damn about other peoples code 
> (statistically
> speaking).  I wonder at all these companies and developers who are so
> concerned someone might want to look at their code.  Get over 
> yourselves.
> Your code isn't that interesting, and isn't that good!



The important part of your remark is the "statistically speaking" 
bit.  On the average, what you say is true.  However, there are very 
real situations where some code may have considerable commercial 
value.  People *have* stolen code in the past (e.g. remember Microsoft 
and Stacker), and if there is enough money involved they will 
doubtless continue to do so in the future.

Also, as John Stiles' rightly says, some people take a pretty 
unhealthy interest in copy protection code.

Kind regards,

Alastair.

--
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