02-03-2005, 10:00 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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On Piracy and Malicious Responses...
An interesting piece of news is floating around the Pocket PC Blogosphere: apparently the latest version of Anton Tomov's Pocket Mechanic will hard-reset your device if you're using an illegally-generated code for the software (i.e., a pirated copy). 8O
"After reading this thread at Aximsite where users complain about hard resets invoked by Pocket Mechanic I thought to shed some light on Anton Tomov's crude ways of dealing with software pirates...Use a pirated or blacklisted serial with Pocket Mechanic, Pocket Mechanic will detect it, and send your PDA with all its lovely content to Nirvana land."
I have to say, I agree with the linked poster -- there's no question that piracy (or, copyright infringement if you prefer) is ethically and legally wrong, but that does not mean a software developer should have license to erase the contents of your device. Indeed, there's a number of scenarios I could think of that would directly affect honest users -- what if the license validation code has a bug? Or what if a user pays for the software through a software download site that gives them an illegal code? As a user, I will stay away from a product that has any form of automatically doing that.
That said, I'm not sure where it's "fair" to draw the line. Piracy is a nagging problem for software developers. I think many of us would agree that having the software self-destruct when detecting a pirated code is fair behavior. But let's think about the gray area. How about hiding a file on the device that prevents any future or past versions of the software from running? Or, how about having it pop up a modal dialog asking for a legitimate license and not letting the user go back to their tasks until they fill one in? How do you think software developers can best combat piracy yet not alienate users?
Update 2/4: Anton has posted a clarification on his forums. He states that the code does check for one specific widely-distributed pirated serial number (although he doesn't clarify what it does in that case), and that the entry of an "invalid" serial will not cause a hard reset.
Second update: According to the same thread, v1.51 of Pocket Mechanic contains no such code. I'm glad to hear it, and hopefully we won't have to revisit this topic again.
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02-03-2005, 10:10 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 32
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Whoah! I can't believe a dev would resort to something like this...how can this be legal even? I don't condone piracy either in the least, but let's assume something goes wrong for a legit user of this software...any data would be lost completely!
I see this guy as having some legal issues very quickly with this form of piracy defence...Janak's right...there are better ways to handle this.
I, for one, won't even LOOK at the product or anything from this developer now that I know this...I think it's the wrong approach.
Good luck, Pocket Mechanic :roll:
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02-03-2005, 10:27 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 794
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lol wow, this sounds like a great idea. I have never thought about doing that before. But I'm skeptical about it as well. There might be honest situations where an innocent user might get hurt, huh? Maybe instead of a hard reset, the program itself should of deleted? lol I can't wait to see actual *desktop PC* software developers do the same thing. Very interesting concept. Or a copied movie DVD disable or destroy a DVD player. Maybe I can set my Wi-Fi router to use my laptop to send malicious viruses to any computer who tries to steal my DSL bandwidth wirelessly. Anyone got anymore ideas?
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02-03-2005, 10:37 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 164
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Yowza, that's not good. There is a reason PC developers don't do this.
I never agree with this type of vigilantism. Just because you think you have a good idea doesn't mean you should act on it. I just dropped $90 (ouch!) on PPC software, thus I pay. But what if someone got my number somehow and it becomes blacklisted?
This guy needs to go to bed earlier.
*Phil
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02-03-2005, 10:42 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 555
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Or what if I entered a wrong code and it somehow matched a blacklisted one?
Why can he just not do what MS did and prevent use of the software? What does a hard reset do?
And to someone who is savvy enough to source out pirate software, wouldn't they be savvy enough to have a backup lying somewhere anyways?
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02-03-2005, 10:46 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,097
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Moreover, what if you're a doctor who unwittingly tries out a piece of software a friend of theirs gives them. It then hard resets his device and he looses all patient information. Sounds like lawsuit time to me...
There are many legitimate ways to combat piracy, and this isn't one of them.
PPC titles are so cheap to begin with compared to desktop software (think MS Office, Corel, Photoshop, AutoCAD etc.) that stealing them is stupid. You can afford a $300 PDA, but not a $30 piece of software? Priorities please...
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02-03-2005, 10:47 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 176
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This is the same thing as shooting someone because they stole something from you car.
Not right, not legal. In the analogy above shooting someone is not considered necessary force for the crime.
Maybe something like blacklisting the PDA name from registering the products or something like that would be reasonable but a HARD reset??
Not acceptable.
I have a feeling he is going to be losing more business that he could have had from legit customers wondering if he might screw up the code and hard reset a legit user!!!
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02-03-2005, 10:49 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,162
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Is there any warning?
I wouldn't have so much of a problem with this technique if he brought up a fancy warning that said - "You are using an unlicensed serial number. The next time you launch this product with this serial number your device will be hard reset" (a long message, but you get the point)
I definitely have a problem with just doing a spontaneous hard reset.
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02-03-2005, 10:52 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 794
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by dangerwit
Yowza, that's not good. There is a reason PC developers don't do this.
I never agree with this type of vigilantism. Just because you think you have a good idea doesn't mean you should act on it. I just dropped $90 (ouch!) on PPC software, thus I pay. But what if someone got my number somehow and it becomes blacklisted?
This guy needs to go to bed earlier.
*Phil
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That's a good question... but what does your last statment mean? "This guy needs to go to bed earlier"...
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02-03-2005, 10:53 PM
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Oracle
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 880
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I own copies of both Pocket Mechanic and PocketHackMaster but I do not use PocketHackMaster currently (it does not run stable on my device causing hard resets).
If Anton is indeed using this as a preventative measure I think it is a mistake. I think it is one thing to disable software that is not legitimately in someones system but to knowingly destroy other software could invite litigation.
Definitely something I would stay away from if I were a developer.
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