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pirated?

 
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darkice
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2003 2:17 am    Post subject: pirated? Reply with quote

I was in a direct connect hub, and started to dabble in the dark arts that is known as PC Engine. I saw a folder called emulator, I whough "hey, great" And I downloaded it. Shortly thereafter, I loaded up Dracula X and played it for about an hour. It was good. However, I came to visit the site, thinking maybe there was a newer release than what I had. I went to the website and saw that the emulator is supposed to be purchased. So I was thinking "I guess this guy had a cracked copy" But I was dead wrong. Turns out, that pce.key file is the registration and I had downloaded someone elses key. I looked in the about thingy of the emulator, and saw I had Philip Hankin's registered version. Now Im not sure if you can freely distro your keys or not. So, should I delete his version and stick with the demo? Or is it legal to distro your registration file? Keep up the good work
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dmichel
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2003 4:16 pm    Post subject: Re: pirated? Reply with quote

MagicEngine is like any software you buy, the registered version can not be freely distributed, it's not legal, when you purchase a key you get a one-user license only. Now it's up to you to delete the key or not, but deleting the key doesn't necessarily mean to stick with the demo version, you can also purchase your own version and be an happy MagicEngine user. Smile

The key you have found won't work with newer version of MagicEngine too, it has been around for a while now and was disabled.
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Tru
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2003 10:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In a lot of the hub designed for pc engine/ Turbo Duo emulation and iso games, there are strickt rules about sharing pce.key files. If you see someone that is sharing those files, please tell a mod and let them know that they are breaking the rules or they are pirating software. Such as in RIGGs hub, if someone is caught sharing a pce.key file, they are warned to remove the key before they are kicked, if they come back after being kicked and do not remove the key file, they are then banned from the hub.

We all want to support David & Cedric Michel in thier work to provide us all with good constant updates. My only concern is that once David and Cedric have made a perfect version (when they get one that is perfect not sure if 1.0 will be or not) is the pirating of the key at that point, as after that point there will be no updates for the key, perhaps they have something up their sleeve for that when the time comes.

And speaking on terms like that, I amnot sure how good of programmers you are, but if possible, you could always make the registration file (pce.key) a special key that uses the users computer as a key itself, where the key will only work on that persons computer. An example of this would be Active MediaEclipse Screen Saver Maker. They use some kind of program that it gathers information from your computer (not sure what it is) but then the key to unlock thwe software is based on your system only, and if you even get another computer that is different, you have to call or email them information about your original purchase in order to get a fresh key for your new computer. Now this may be a lot of work, but it would certainly stop people from pirating your key file. Well, it was just a though to make a key file that is for only 1 cmputer... I guess you could say it is almost like Windows XP, only without haveing to connect online to activate it.

Keep up the excellent work, and I (im)patiently ( Whistle ) wait for ME v1.0...

Trū
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Kaminari
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 03, 2003 1:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tru wrote:
you could always make the registration file (pce.key) a special key that uses the users computer as a key itself, where the key will only work on that persons computer.


Glidos by Paul Gardiner uses this method. It works great, except when you change a piece of hardware in your system (say the graphic card, sound card, ethernet card...), in which case your key becomes invalid and you have to bug the poor programer for another one Neutral
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Tru
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 04, 2003 8:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, you know, I don't think David and/or Cedric would mind so much if that was the case, it would really shut down on the piracy of his emulator. I mean after all, it is pretty sad when people have to start pirating $16.00 software. Brick wall

But all in all, I personally think that would be a good move for them. Ecspecially in their final release or near final release. Just my opinion though.... any one else feel the same way?

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Xeno
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 04, 2003 6:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well I can say there is no problem with pce key's in the NEC Archives hub cause if your caught sharing regardless of the reason you are banned from the hub and the message board without any warnings as we support the Magic Engine project to the fullest.

Rule Nr:08 - No Magic Engine or Magic FX keys if you decide to share them you will be banned from the hub and the board...

And thats the bottom line.

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rcmcghee
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 04, 2003 6:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I really hate that Magic Engine is being pirated, but to make it to where the program will only run on one computer would'nt be right. I personally own 3 computers that I run emulators on, one thats hooked to my TV as a media center, my desktop PC that I do html on, and my laptop that I take on the road with me. I enjoy playing my games on all these computers and I regularly upgrade the hardware in each of them. It would become very annoying and expensive if I had to pay for a new key for each computer everytime I did a major upgrade..... Just my 2 cents.
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Tru
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 6:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

well... there is always the possibility that if you provided your purchase information, you could get multiple licensing.

Like I said though, this is just a thought on a way to decrease people pirating magic engine... No matter how many people come to this board and say "there is no one that I know of pirating magic engine software keys", there is always that other person that is doing it. There is no way to guarantee that the software is not being pirated. But if it is made harder for someone to pirate, and even at a cheap price that magic engine is, it would not be worth while for someone to crack the code so that they could pirate it. By just having a Magic Engine key file that one could put up on the internet for people to download is just too easy for newbies to distribute.

And no offense Xeno, but just a quick question, even though I am sure you know 90% of the people in the hub (even though I can no longer gain access for some reason), if someone has a file called ME.rar or me.zip whatever, do you download and extract that file to make sure that they are not distributing the key file within the compressed file? If so, great job! If not, you shouldn't be so quick to say that you know for sure. And even so, it is too easy for someone to share the file, and by the time that you ban them from your hub, there is no telling what they are uploading to other hubs... that only counts for your hub, as with everyone else that shares a key file to a pce/duo hub, they get banned/kicked, but if you go to a warez hub and they share the file... who is going to ban them there? Last I knew, you had about 20-30 people in your hub, and there are how many other hubs??? See my point? And how may other file sharing programs are there as well? Just saying that there is nothing going on in your hub, does not meant that the other several million people using over 2 dozen different file sharing programs really care if they are stealing someones work or not.

Now perhaps David and Cedric don't want to have worry about this. This is just me coming in with a though, that in the end would provide a better protection for their software so that they get the money they deserve to get. I can honestly say, that when I first found Magic Engine (v0.96 I think), I downloaded it from a site and it contained the key file, and I didn't even know of this site back then, so of course, I kept the file. And now that I have been in the scene for so long, I can see where David and Cedric deserve the money...

It doesn't come down to hubs or groups at all if you think about it, it comes down to that one person that doesn't care/know that shares the file to someone else that doesn't care/know and that is where the piracy starts, next thing you know, there are now over 1000 people sharing the same key file.

And again, that is just my thought on the matter. Do I think they should go this route? Well, that is up to them, but I have seen many people sharing key files, and I personally do not think it is right for David and Cedric to be ripped off for their software.

Trū
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Xeno
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 9:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
And no offense Xeno, but just a quick question, even though I am sure you know 90% of the people in the hub (even though I can no longer gain access for some reason), if someone has a file called ME.rar or me.zip whatever, do you download and extract that file to make sure that they are not distributing the key file within the compressed file?


Simple answer is yes we do. Rolling Eyes

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Tru
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PostPosted: Mon Oct 06, 2003 9:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Glad to hear that Xeno, keep up the good work. Applause

After talking to NightWolve, he also came up with a possibility for making it harder to pirate the key file. Perhaps imbed it in the registry.

Quote:
<NightWolve> he can use the registry and hide the key
<NightWolve> instead of it being just a file that sits there


That is another posibility. I would like to hear David or Cedrics veiw on this, if they even feel it is worth going that extra mile to do or not.
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C4
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 18, 2003 3:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow, I'm just a passerby, but so glad to see this anti-piracy attitude around here. One gets just a little sick of the blatant disregard for other people's work around the web.

I stumbled across two copies of .99b5, and was planning on writing the authors with they names of the keys that are around. Is there some kind of good way to submit keys to the authors to crack down the pirated copies? I can't believe people don't pay for this...

As far as embedding the key in the registery, it wouldn't be much different that what you have now. The registry entries can be exported to .key files and entered back in by just running them. I imagine if the author's sent out "pce.key" that worked directory from the registry, I'm willing to be a lot of people would drop it in the directory they run ME from anyway (I know I would). So the occasional person that zip's up his rom's and emulator directory for his buddy would fire off his key to his friend too...

God I hate to suggest this, but maybe a "phone home" system? If your servers detect the same key in use >1 time it should nuke they keys and add it to a database of nuked keys. Of course it would have to work if it couldn't connect to the server (for instance, I'd be pissed if I was on the road and couldn't play), and would be thwarted by firewalls, but not everyone runs a firewall.
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