needs_upgrade Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 Hello guys! One of my clients suggested that I should be making trial versions of my work to attract more clients. An my concern is how to LIMIT piracy. Would you guys be kind to give me some insights? These are what i have in mind: 1. A function that will delete some php codes (add / del / edit / etc) upon expiration of the software. (But what if someone deleted the function before it expires?) 2. A function that will delete the tables in the MySQL DB (Again, someone might delete the function) 3. Is there a way to limit access from a database after expiration? I know that there is no way to stop piracy, but is there a way to limit it? Most of my clients are medical doctors (most of them are not into programming). I am hoping for some insights/suggestions. Thanks and more power to you guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5kyy8lu3 Posted December 16, 2008 Share Posted December 16, 2008 Hello guys! One of my clients suggested that I should be making trial versions of my work to attract more clients. An my concern is how to LIMIT piracy. Would you guys be kind to give me some insights? These are what i have in mind: 1. A function that will delete some php codes (add / del / edit / etc) upon expiration of the software. (But what if someone deleted the function before it expires?) 2. A function that will delete the tables in the MySQL DB (Again, someone might delete the function) 3. Is there a way to limit access from a database after expiration? I know that there is no way to stop piracy, but is there a way to limit it? Most of my clients are medical doctors (most of them are not into programming). I am hoping for some insights/suggestions. Thanks and more power to you guys. are you talking about a web application? or some client-side software in some other language? i'm not sure what you're asking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
needs_upgrade Posted December 18, 2008 Author Share Posted December 18, 2008 Yes, I am talking about a web application. Specifically, I'm using PHP and MySQL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeeli Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 Sell licenses not software. Very few of registered/legal companies actually has guts to use pirated software as it is highly illegal(or so it is here in Finland). Regards, zEeLi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ngreenwood6 Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 As far as I am aware there is no such trial. The only thing I could tell you is allow them to view a demo on your own site. Another option is to encode your php scripts using ioncube or some other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
needs_upgrade Posted December 19, 2008 Author Share Posted December 19, 2008 thanks a lot ngreenwood6. that's what i really need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ngreenwood6 Posted December 19, 2008 Share Posted December 19, 2008 no problem. if you are referring to the ioncube solution there are some others out there so you may want to google them and see which one fits best for your situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liquid Fire Posted December 28, 2008 Share Posted December 28, 2008 The issue I have with IonCube or Nu-Coder or any other php script encoder is that, from what i know, the end user must install that software on there server. Personally I would not hire any coder that would require me to install one of these encoder programmer or use any software that require one of these. It would be nice if PHP would by default install an encoder/decoder becusae then i would actually use one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corbin Posted December 28, 2008 Share Posted December 28, 2008 The issue I have with IonCube or Nu-Coder or any other php script encoder is that, from what i know, the end user must install that software on there server. Personally I would not hire any coder that would require me to install one of these encoder programmer or use any software that require one of these. It would be nice if PHP would by default install an encoder/decoder becusae then i would actually use one. But, that's pretty much required. Because those encoders are compiled, it's much more difficult to reverse either of them than a method which would be entirely uncompiled. How would you safely (or more safely might be a better term, since it seems like it just takes time for the encryptors to get cracked) encrypt a PHP file without a PHP extension? Anything the PHP file would do to its self could easily be undone and the original source gotten at. So, either the PHP file or an extension needs to be compiled, unless you can think of some other way ;p. Edit: Hrmmmm seems you had no issues with why you had to install one, and I read your post entirely wrong. You just don't want to, you understand why it's necessary. If PHP had one by default, it would get cracked in about 5 minutes everytime it was updated. I almost think the encoder/decoder would need to be closed source with the executable encrypted for it to work well enough x.x. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opalelement Posted December 28, 2008 Share Posted December 28, 2008 Put the web application up on your server, and make it so that every hour or so it will reset the database to the defaults. Do this by making an additional field, `last_reset`, in the database, and a function in the application that checks if it was been over an hour since its last reset. Then, when a user loads the page, it will reset it if it has been too long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liquid Fire Posted December 28, 2008 Share Posted December 28, 2008 If PHP had one by default, it would get cracked in about 5 minutes everytime it was updated. I almost think the encoder/decoder would need to be closed source with the executable encrypted for it to work well enough x.x. And that is why i will probably never ever use one(or at least personally, i would use one if i was told i had to for work). I think the best option for showing a demo of your application is to host it yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSuperHero Posted January 1, 2009 Share Posted January 1, 2009 if you dont want to do encoding, or do a demo, you could "give away" a stripped down version of your software....and possibly sell the upgrade, or sell the add-ons... maybe having a product key that stored on your server, and checked against whats stored on the server where the software is installed, although this would work best only for people who arn't too PHP savvy... :-P Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted January 1, 2009 Share Posted January 1, 2009 Why don't you ask Microsoft, Adobe, or perhaps the entire game industry how to battle piracy? Oh wait, even with their billions of dollars they still haven't figured it out... If PHP had one by default, it would get cracked in about 5 minutes everytime it was updated. I almost think the encoder/decoder would need to be closed source with the executable encrypted for it to work well enough x.x. AES is open. Now go crack it for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WhIteSidE Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Like Daniel0 said, the best encryption solutions are based on an open standard and are still uncrackable. Why open? Security through obscurity only works as long as no one figures out your method. As soon as someone figures it out, you're boned. And someone always figures it out. The other alternative is to use a simple solution in clear php code to authenticate a license key. True, php experts may be able to hack around it, although I never have. Most organizations will pay for a license. ~ Christopher Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corbin Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Why don't you ask Microsoft, Adobe, or perhaps the entire game industry how to battle piracy? Oh wait, even with their billions of dollars they still haven't figured it out... If PHP had one by default, it would get cracked in about 5 minutes everytime it was updated. I almost think the encoder/decoder would need to be closed source with the executable encrypted for it to work well enough x.x. AES is open. Now go crack it for me. AES is open. Go code an extension and encrypt PHP scripts with it. No, but seriously.... The key would have to be either in the PHP file (obviously a bad idea) or in the PHP extension compiled in. So, unless you did a custom install or a key was auto generated the first time the extension was loaded or something..... What I'm pretty much saying is, how do you stop someone from getting at the key? Then, once he/she has the key, decrypting the file would be simple. Also, the key would have to match on separate PHP installations, meaning it would need to be portable with scripts. No idea how that's going to work.... Maybe you were just using AES as an example of a secure open method algorithm. (I sure as hell couldn't singlehandedly crack something with a decent AES key. Not while I'm alive anyway ;p.) Or is there something I'm missing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 Maybe you were just using AES as an example of a secure open method algorithm. Yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.