Forced copyright

[alex clone]

Hey,

I'm making a software of a program [Don't ask plz..]. How ever I know people won't listen to "Don't edit the copyright" so how can I make a forced copyright where it loads the copyright/footer from my website like [www.site.com/copyright.php] or w.e and if they change it to load from somewhere else they will get a large error box saying:

Your viewing this error because you have edited our copyright. Please contact ### for support

 

Or something like that?

 

Please & Thx.

[premiso]

You just have to hide it in your code or encrypt your code (not worth effort).

 

Most of the time it is fruitless as a search through files can find the code that insert's the warning or copyright. Even implementing a check to see if the copyright is intact will be easy to thwart. I know you are going to think it is worth your efforts, so all I can say is that your best bet is to write the copyright as part of a base64 encryption and store it in your script, then return the decrypted version where you want to echo it out, and put it in an "inconspicuous" spot where someone will glance over it.

 

This will thwart most users, but any capable programmer can figure it out in time and remove it. Encrypting the code would be the safest bet that someone does not just remove the copyright, but a last I believe that output buffering would allow for anyone to replace it as it will show up like it was not changed. Unless someone else knows a better way, that is the best I have.

[alex clone]

Thanks alot - I'll work on that now =]

[ignace]

Isn't this the same like with images? Where you use a .htaccess to redirect any inbound direct linking to another specific resource?

 

Something along the lines of: http://www.selfseo.com/story-18469.php (How to block direct image linking)

[premiso]

Isn't this the same like with images? Where you use a .htaccess to redirect any inbound direct linking to another specific resource?

 

Something along the lines of: http://www.selfseo.com/story-18469.php (How to block direct image linking)

 

No, I do not think so. Hotlinking is different than displaying a copyright notice on a website. Hotlinking the images are on your server and people are just linking to them leeching your server's bandwidth. That is actually preventable because the code stays on your server.

 

Where as this copyright, the source files have to be on the clients server, so in essence they have full control of the script by modifying the code on their server.

[chmpdog]

There really is no easy way to keep a copyright notice there. I would recommend trying to hide it.

[thebadbad]

This will require some work and/or cash, but there are licensing systems out there, that can restrict the use of your script to domains specified by you. I'm not sure how they technically work though, and if they can force a copyright notice to be shown, but if it's very important for you, you can have a look. One service I found: PHPAudit.

[Daniel0]

Just drop it. Any programmer could easily circumvent any system you make up unless perhaps you encrypt the source code.

[.josh]

...and this is why trying to make proprietary software is losing popularity, in favor of open source software.  Focus making money on services,  not products!

[Stooney]

You could always Google your script for websites using it, and check to see if the copyright info is intact.  This isn't 100%, but it's something.