you know you've got a good product when...

[xe54]

irrelevant thread? maybe - but i know this is the first place that spoon checks...

the powerpack has been cracked and a hacked version is doing the rounds! clear testimony that dmc is the greatest mp3 program of all time! bad news though.

hope ive helped a bit by bringing this up

oh, and i found a downloadable copy (not that i downloaded it though) on yahoo filestore.

gots to go - [Xe]54

[Spoon]

I have seen various hacks of the Power Pack, most do not work anywhere near correctly, there will always be hacks - nothing I can do about it, I won't waste anytime trying to combat them.

[Spoons]

and with all the constant updates to dmc it may have to be hacked again?

you could do what jelsoft does. at their forums to get official support you have to put your liscence number in your profile. that way they can check that you are the owner.

[Spoons]

although Spoon is right. it is time consuming and can cost money to track and squash hacked/cracked copies of software.

The best one can do is contact the ISP server where you found the hacked copy to let them know. as most ISP's do not allow warez and have strict policies on what users do on their sites.

although I am surprised to find warez on yahoo! ? I don't visit yahoo! so maybe there is a lot of that there?

[Narler]

although I am surprised to find warez on yahoo! ? I don't visit yahoo! so maybe there is a lot of that there? [/B]

well it could be the best possible spot, as normally you'd not look for wares on such a large commercial sight :nospeak:

I think there will always be pirating, the only way to really combat it is to *never* release a crippled version of a product, that only requires a rego key or activation key to yield full operation (or close to it). However the down side is that potential consumers will not be able to evaluate the product efficiently.

The other aspect which I think is Spoon's approach and that is constant updates or modifications, where each release requires a new hack to be produced, rather than a keygen, as that means each new release requires a hacker to fully activate it, so hacks will be slow, but a program where a keygen can be used on multiple versions is a serious security issue, as that allows complete laymen to fully activate the application.

[Spoons]

The other aspect which I think is Spoon's approach and that is constant updates or modifications, where each release requires a new hack to be produced

hehe, and it is at a rate of about update every ten minutes :D

although I went and had a look at what the crackers were doing, and um ,, yeh I think spoon should consider a new or different method of protection. :rolleyes:

[Narler]

Hmmm i think at the very least, just reorder the variables in the source code, so that they use different address's in the compiled .exe will atleast stop the most basic of blind crack / hack utils from functioning correctly. But if the hack in't blind and performs a lookup prior to patching, then add a second variable with a unique name (each release change this variable name), and do a quick comparison at a later date (1+ days etc) that way the crack / hack may work for a few days, and then the dmc can do the check, correct itself (ie restore the variables that the hack modified), or just shutdown operation completely. Anyone that runs a hack or crack should at the least be inconvenienced enough to be forced into having to uninstall the program and reinstall.

but that's just my humble opinion.

[Spoons]

well thats a great Idea!! i think so anyway.

sure you can never stop this sought of thing. but making it an inconvenience using a cracked version is good thinking.

since it doesn't cost an arm and a leg and Spoon is lenient on the trial period, one would think you would just go and buy it if it's something you use all the time IMO.