bit-n...@hotmail.com wrote:
> ...I've posted bout this before, but thought I'd do it again, just to get more people's input.
>
> So - talking about games, it seems to me that it would be advisable to shift games from retail CDs/DVDs to the web - because it would SEEM that this would prevent piracy. How? Well - there's no files on a disc to crack, like with a DVD, so, here - the idea would be, you stick your credit card into a website, and it spits out the JS for the game....right?
If your game is a self contained application, yes. At a minimum you could distributed the "view" for the game an enough logic for server communication which would house the rest of the logic and state. It depends on what type of game this is.
> What if someone LEGITIMATELY buys the game, (with their credit card), then simply waits to download it, and simply COPIES everything between the SCRIPT tags into a separate file, and zaps it onto the Internet on a torrent or something???
If you're selling a game, you should have an appropriate license. This is as much a legal issue as it is a technical one.
Assuming the appropriate license, this is stealing and your have legal recourse in most countries.
> ...What I'd like to discuss is ways in which THIS CAN BE PREVENTED!!
>
> There *must* be some way to ensure that only people who've paid get to play....?
A legal disclaimer is usually enough to make legitimate users play by the rules.
> I was thinking - when you pay, you'll get some kind of "username n password" from the site, which you login with, to start getting the game - what if the game periodically checks for the fact that you're logged in with these two, (ie. a CLIENT-SIDE cookie check, in JS) before it lets you proceed? ..But a cracker could simply check for these lines in the source and remove them, couldn't they?
> Yall have any other ideas?
Plenty, but it depends on the context. There is a long history of approaches:
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_protection#Early_video_games>
Which is far from an exhaustive list.
Thomas Lahn has a signature which is cute, and analogous I think:
"Use any version of Microsoft Frontpage to create your site.
(This won't prevent people from viewing your source, but no one
will want to steal it.)"