Software Deletes Files to Defend Against Piracy 544
teamhasnoi writes "Back in 2004, we discussed a program that deleted your home directory on entry of a pirated serial number. Now, a new developer is using the same method to protect his software, aptly named Display Eater. In the developers's own words, 'There exist several illegal cd-keys that you can use to unlock the demo program. If Display Eater detects that you are using these, it will erase something. I don't know if this is going to become Display Eater policy. If this level of piracy continues, development will stop.'"
Re:Aren't there laws against this? (Score:2, Interesting)
Do you suppose it really does delete things? (Score:3, Interesting)
It seems there would be too much liability to try and pull of a scheme like this
Re:Hope he likes prison (Score:4, Interesting)
It is probably a criminal offense in the USA too, falling under the category of unauthorized access to a computer system. Based on the general advice that contract developers should not use software timebombs to insure payment, it is probably a civil offense too.
Furthermore, to the best of my knowledge, using someone else's serial number is not a crime - you can't copyright a serial number and the DMCA shouldn't apply to a valid serial# since it isn't an "access control circumvention device" any more than something like a car key is, and even if it was an invalid serial# certainly could not be one since it doesn't even work.
I think this guy is setting himself up for a whole host of problems if he pisses off the wrong guy.
Re:Hope he likes prison (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Purchase said application
2. Try to activate it using a pirated key because you have "misplaced" your real key
3. Sue the hell out of him
4. Get a microscopic slap on the wrist for the key thing
5. Get a massive damage award
6. Profit!
I can see so many ways to get the author in so much trouble over this. For example, send out SPAM advertising a 30-day free trial, using said serial number. He'll be drowning in criminal and civil lawsuits quicker than he can pull it from the market.
Re:Aren't there laws against this? (Score:5, Interesting)
More specifically, deliberate destruction of another person' propety is not lawful even if they are in the act of committing a crime, whether or not the crime is against you or anyone else. For example, if you see a man run into a bank and the alarm bells start going off and you know he is robbing the bank, if you pull out your pocketknife and slash his tire to stop him from getting away, you will still be held liable for the damge to the tire.
Thank you (Score:5, Interesting)
I will admit that I have way too much pirated software on my system at home. Of course, I'm also not using most of it. For the most part, I prefer to demo software I've never used - it's just too hard to get through the marketing hype to determine if it really works for me. I must have thirty or forty apps for video conversion. I use three. No, scratch that - I'm down to two now. One is freeware, and the other I registered.
Sadly, 15 day - and sometimes 30 day - trials just aren't enough. Because I'm busy, I may install something to try it, and then not really get to try it out fully for a couple of months. Which means I either get a cracked copy to try it, or I pass.
While I may not have all the software I own registered, I make sure to register those that really help - even those that don't require it. Since I'm not a programmer, I do rely on these "little" apps to help out. Rename1-4a, IrfanView, and a couple of others I find indespensible. I always make sure I pay for anything I'm still using after 6 months. If I 'm still using it, it's got to be good enough to pay for. Oddly, I still have some crakced versions I use becuase I'm too lazy to enter the real SNs. I have two or three versions of Nero floating around, not all of them with legitimate SNs, but I have three consecutive version retail registry numbers I paid for, so I'm calling it even.
Anyway, thanks for being generous. Some of us out here really appreciate it.
Inside the program ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Really, the whole thing looks like it was written by a goofy high-school kid. Since he is displaying the Apple Universal Binary logo on his site, I suspect he's in violation of the logo licence agreement, and I suspect Kagi, his payment processor, won't be too pleased with him, either.
Re:Aren't there laws against this? (Score:4, Interesting)
It is a very dangerous step. The risk you mention is there, and so are others. It is a step so insidious, so tempting, that it could change the entire viability of being involved in the software industry, putting one member of the developer/user pair at extreme risk, even to the point of going out of business or losing things dear to them. It is thoughtless, cruel, and unethical, yet the benefit is so tempting that this same member is unlikely to be able to resist it without at least some soul-searching. The idea of getting something so useful accomplished for just a tiny bit of extra work — regardless of the consequences to the other party — is compelling indeed. So profound is the benefit, it may be that the mantle of social stigma one presumes would be associated with this type of activity will be assumed with pride, perhaps even hats and t-shirts bearing some type of cultural touchstone that signifies the wearer supports this will be produced. Yes, it displays a level of disregard that is no less than appalling to those of us who would like to think that the developer/user relationship would be one based on ethics that should be deeply ingrained into both parties; but we know these characteristics are widespread throughout not only one society, but the world's societies. Because we have seen all of this before.
In the software piracy community.
I suspect that developers in general have worked up just about the same regard for software pirates as the software pirates have displayed for them over the last few decades. That would be... none. So if this gets a foothold, it may be that the only thing that can stop it will be legislation. The only salient difference here is that developers tend to be easily found and prosecuted, as compared to pirates, and utterly toothless though congress and the states have proven to be with regard to protecting the developer's interests, I rather doubt they'll allow the developers to act as judge, jury and executioner in the matter of people who appropriate IP from them without providing the asking price.
So this is probably a tempest in a teapot. It'd be nice if it made the pirates think about what they are doing, but if there is one thing I am sure of, it is that software pirates don't do a lot of deep thinking. These are people with the behavior patterns of small, scheming children. Knowing they are unlikely to be caught, nothing remains to hold them back; they are truly ethical simpletons. I am sad to see developers falling to their level. But I am not surprised.
Re:Do you suppose it really does delete things? (Score:5, Interesting)
Or maybe (hey, this is a crazy idea) the pirated key should just not unlock the program. Whoa! What a concept! That's so ingenious, I should go patent it.
Fact is, the program knows that the key is invalid and chooses to do something malicious rather than simply ceasing to function.
Re:No, it isn't like that. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Aren't there laws against this? (Score:4, Interesting)
If I had purchased this software legitimately, and used the wrong key, I wonder what my recourses would be if it deleted my files.
Video Flash Chat (Score:5, Interesting)
The softare was badly written (used register_globals, etc), and lots of the code was put in an eval() (potentially a security nightmare), and obfusicated (base64'd, etc). We decided to scrap it, rather than reverse engineer it, so we wrote our own.
Re:Thank you (Score:3, Interesting)
Sadly, 15 day - and sometimes 30 day - trials just aren't enough.
I've been in that situation too. It shouldn't be that difficult to make the limit based on hours of use rather than date from install. It seems like that would be more fair. After all, if the app is just sitting there on my box, I'm not really using it. OTOH, if I've used it an hour a day on average for a month, then I've definitely become a user.
Re:Aren't there laws against this? (Score:4, Interesting)
Patently false. Hitting you in the face is an intentional tort: battery. But sign a waiver, put on boxing gloves, and enter into a boxing ring with me, and you'd be completely without legal recourse when the fight begins. Consent, if properly expressed by contract, is a very effective defense to an intentional tort.
Now you might argue that there's no valid consent here, that the contract is ambiguous or non-binding for a number of reasons, but that's a different argument entirely.
This was a stupid idea 25 years ago (Score:2, Interesting)
It was a stupid idea then and it is a stupid idea now.
Re:Actually... it doesn't delete your home directo (Score:4, Interesting)
I'd also be concerned that a mere typo (or the program misreading the input) while entering a legit serial number could trigger this.
I remember some years ago a particular DOS app would delete all files in the %TEMP% directory at exit. Trouble was, it assumed that all users were savvy enough to have moved the TEMP variable away from the default, which happened to be C:\DOS. So when the program was run, at exit it proceeded to delete the contents of the user's DOS directory. (At the time the coder reacted by saying users who didn't change their TEMP variable were too stupid to live anyway... how is that his determination to make? and if so, why didn't he take steps to protect even stupid users' data??)
Several times, I've had legit software refuse to accept its legit key, and had to go find one somewhere on the net to make it work. Not just small stuff either -- in one case, the app was Win98!!
Anyway, my point is... see how easy it is for the coder to make a mistake that could cost legit users bigtime?!
Re:Aren't there laws against this? (Score:3, Interesting)
Irony (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/displ
A piracy tool gets pirated. Why am I not surprised?
Hmmm, lets see, why would I want to capture a video on my screen to a quicktime movie? It must be because I do not legitimately own the video being displayed on my screen.
This guy was tempting fate from the start. Dollars to donuts its the MAFIAA that is pirating his product.
This product should have been underground to start with, and should have stayed there.
Re:Aren't there laws against this? (Score:3, Interesting)
Or better yet, don't run it at all -- and then see how much profit this asshole makes!
Re:Aren't there laws against this? (Score:5, Interesting)
Sure, he says that now, but which statement of his are we to believe? It doesn't look like the source code is available so the only way to test it is to install the program, find a pirated key, try it and see if you lose your home directory. I'd say it's far safer to just find another program and avoid this guy entirely.
Also note this:
Together these imply the deletion code was implemented and in the program prior to 2/7/2007. Based on the information available there's no way to tell how long it was in there, but it sounds like it was removed only on 2/7/2007.
So I don't think it was a hoax, I think the guy really did it, found out that it was the worst mistake he'd ever made and is now trying to do damage control. Personally I wouldn't use any program from him, at the least he lied about the code and has proven himself untrustworthy.
Nice bit of error rate management.. (Score:3, Interesting)
This is a simple breach of virtually any computer related laws I can think of. If you have a problem with piracy you're welcome to stop the program from working - you have, however, no right to act as judge and jury and become a vigilante, nor do you have right of access to the computing resources and information your code is near.
In short, if you do that you're no better than a virus author and thus deserve the same treatment.
You can't even plead temporary insanity (well, OK, maybe permanent insanity