Re: Superdistribution development/release

[stewarts@ix.netcom.com]

At 07:03 PM 12/03/1997 -0800, Brian W. Buchanan wrote:
>Should be relatively trivial to break the encryption, since it can't be
>over 40-bit (or 56-bit if the company joined the kiss-ass alliance).

Ahem.  Notice the dateline on the article.  Calgary.
Not a problem, eh?  Plenty of Canadian content in that one,
so they could even show it on TV if they wanted to.

>Probably just as easy or easier to disassemble the software or do some
>creative tweaking of Windows DLLs to intercept data.  

Sounds likely - they're not only planning to run it on machines
without vaguely secure hardware, they're planning to run it
on machines without operating systems - they'll probably use Win95.
With NT, you'd at least need to look for bugs or design flaws
or other ways to lie to the operating system, since there _is_ one :-)
95 may not be as fragile as Win3.1, but it's still no protection.

On the other hand, if they can inhibit mass piracy, they're
ahead of the game, probably far enough to rack up some sales.

And even if their solution is a total technical crock,
it's a crock a bunch of people are trying to develop,
and it can be used as an argument to lawmakers that they don't
need to introduce draconian new legislation to "solve" the
copyright problems because we're doing it technically -
though of course lawmakers have figured out that this gives them
the choice between being visibly obsolete or writing
clueless legislation to regulate the new technology as well as the old....

				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, stewarts@ix.netcom.com
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