The true protection of using RPN with PPC software?

[fauldran]

Something has been nagging me for a time here so I thought I would throw it out here and see what everyone else thinks.

Obviously copy protection is a critical element in the development of any game. One of the most common methods of copy protection (As I have noticed) is the RPN method. This method seems all well and good except for one thing: The most common piece of key information used is the owner name.

I guess the theory is that it is a hassle for the end user to change the owner name on their device to run pirated software because they would have to change the name for each game.

In reality it only takes about thirty seconds to change the owner name. Someone could download a pirated version of your game with owner name/code supplied and play your game a while then get another one.

To make a solid method for copy protection wouldn’t you have to use a piece of information as the key that can not be modified by the end user, such as the device ID?

It just seems like any piece of software that uses user information to generate an unlock key is susceptible to being pirated by distributing the software along with the key information.

What do you think?

[makslane]

It's a good idea. You can show the hardware ID to the user, and ask for this ID in the order page!