Conference 7.286::atarist

                                       
    Hi,                                
                                       
    	    	I can assure you there are many, many, ways to stop people
    copying commercial software disks, so as to be able to make security
    back ups of their own legal software.                                     
                                                       
    First the physical copy.  To do a physical copy the source disk
    must be organised in a way your copier can recognise. One of the
    easiest ways to stop normal copying taking place is to leave some tracks
    unformatted. The protected disk is written and formatted by a special
    program, with a special auto bootstrap that knows where the required
    program resides, so it doesnt need the disk to be completely formatted.
    However an image copier will normally blow away at the unformatted area. 
                                                                    
    There are schemes that put data on tracks 81 and 82 (not normally
    used by the BIOS). So if a desktop copy is made there is some data
    missing.                                                        
                                                                    
    There are schemes that scramble the format, mix sector numbering
    systems, write the data backwards, all sorts of ways of stopping
    a copy working correctly. These systems normally use a "key" program
    in the boot block to sort the disk out before loading the protected
    software.                                                       
    Obviously if one examines the bootblock then one can normally work
    out the logic of the protection scheme. One of the easiest ways 
    was to ODT the bootstrap and trace it. A "new" protection scheme
    uses the "Speed Lock" (TM) protection system, which checks to see
    if the bootstrap is occurring at normal speed, if a debugger is 
    in use then the instruction cycles in use change!!, the bootstrap
    detects this and aborts.              
                                                                    
    More and more software is being DONGLED, this is the addition of
    a hardware "key" supplied with the software which has to be present
    in the joystick, dma or cartridge port, depending on the cleverness
    of the dongle protection software.                                    
                                             
    As mentioned above, there are software houses around whose products
    are mainly disk copying protection systems, There are also other
    software houses, whose outputs are other programs designed to overcome
    the first lot.  Its a funny old world isn't it ?
    
    Cheers Pat K.                                         
                                      
                                      

    
    
    
    Hi all,
    
    	This is my tuppence worth and is probably the most annoying
    protecttion scheme I have seen yet.
    
    If you make a backup copy of the game 'Captain Blood' using Procopy
    and then run the backup copy, the game runs fine apart from one
    small difference. The hand used on the screen to control the ship
    has an uncontrollable case of the shakes, this makes playing the
    game a little difficult. ( I gave up after 30 secs!!)
    
    Jason.
    
    PS. Any idea how this is done, my guess is that somehow it senses
    being copied and patches the image???
    

    Re: .1
    
    I dislike protection methods if they make me do any of the following.
    
    	Reboot my system in order to use a program.
    
    	Prevent me from putting it on my hard disk.
    
    	Lift up my computer to put another hardware key into the joystick
        port.
    
    The one copy protection method you didn't mention is the 'key
    disk' method.  The program comes on a normal disk and can be
    copied.  When executed the program looks in the floppy drive
    for the key disk and won't run if it isn't there.  The key disk
    is in a special format which can't be copied.
    
    Martin H.

Despite the loss of protection caused by programs such as PRO-COPY, a
software product that uses a specially formatted "key disk" does gain
sufficient protection to prevent copying the program via electronic mail
systems and bulletin board systems.

What I don't understand about Atari games is why they don't make tthem
in Cartridges?  Not many people would go to the trouble of cloning a ROM
cartridge. (Yes, I know a few that would...)

    There is yet another protection scheme...
    
    Marginal bits. The company in question writes a certain portion of the
    disk at marginal magnetic levels (between a one and a zero) The
    software reads the section several times, and if it always comes up
    with the same data, it must be a copy.
    
    Since it requires special equipment to write the floppy, the company
    is protected.
    				- HBM

    Re:.4
    
    ROMed software is not protected.  It is very easy to make a
    program which copies the ROM into RAM and saves an image of
    it on disk.   ROMed software can defend itself by trying to
    write to itself and if it succeeds it punts. This is usually
    pretty easy to defeat.  In the 8 bit Atari market several
    companies sold ROM cart backup utilities which would create
    and run these image files.
    
    I hate ROM carts because they require cycling power to change
    them.
    
    Martin

    
    
    Why is a key-disk better protection then any other disk based
    protection scheme. What is to prevent you copying the Key-Disk.
    
    
    					Paul.
    

    Re: .7
    
    The key disk is usually in a format which is hard for the average
    drive to duplicate without special hardware.  Some techniques used
    are bad sectors, fuzzy logic levels (both described earlier).  The
    advantage of key disk is that it gives the seller protection while
    giving the user flexibilty.  It does not give the seller enhanced
    protection over other disk based methods.
    
    The real Achilles' heel of this method and the hardware key method
    is a user patching the image so that it ignores the key.  A program
    can try and defend itself by determining if it has been patched.
    
    Martin H.

    RE using Procopy to copy Captain Blood;
    
    Procopy has trouble copying a great deal of the more recent products.
    A much better disk copier to use in creating backups of your original
    software is ACOPY. Version F is the latest.

    
    
    Hi there,
    
    	Where can I get ACOPY from???
    
    
    Jason.
    

    I will second that request. I hate running software off original
    discs as they are the only ones I ever seem to kill :-} I have enough
    games that I can't backup with PROCOPY 1.5 (latest version ?) to
    want ACOPY.
    
    Many thanks
    
    Daniel Crow