Copyright protection

[Guest]

Hi guys,

I have an Access database that I am running and I want to prevent people
from using the database without my permission. How could I protect it?

My one thought is to uniquely identify the machine that it is running on and
then use that identifier in conjuntion with the date/time to produce a key
that I will issue to the user. In order to do this I need my code to lookup
or identify some unique number on the computer.....I dunno.......maybe the
CPU production serial number(if there is such a thing) or somethng similar.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Kenny

 

[Damien]

Kenny,

why not just use Access User-level security? If set up
properly, no-one will be able to open the database without
a password, plus you can set up different groups and
control which areas of the database they have access to.


Damien

 

[Guest]

Hi Damien,

Sorry, I didn't explain properly......it is more of a little utility(pilot's
logbook) that I want to protect from unauthorised copying.

The idea would be that when someone tries to run a new copy, it will spit
out a code unique to that guys' computer. He must then phone me with that
code, which I will then put through some sort of routine to generate a
key(the program on his machine does the same routine) and if it matches, the
program works.

The idea of the network card is good, except that this is a simple desktop
utility and not all computers will have a card......but it is on the right
track.

Ok. Thanks guys.....looking forward to more ideas.

Kenny

 

[Mike Painter]

Hi Damien,

Sorry, I didn't explain properly......it is more of a little
utility(pilot's logbook) that I want to protect from unauthorised
copying.

The idea would be that when someone tries to run a new copy, it will
spit out a code unique to that guys' computer. He must then phone me
with that code, which I will then put through some sort of routine to
generate a key(the program on his machine does the same routine) and
if it matches, the program works.

The idea of the network card is good, except that this is a simple
desktop utility and not all computers will have a card......but it is
on the right track.

Ok. Thanks guys.....looking forward to more ideas.

I recently moved to a freeware version of a "simple little utility" because
I could not move my existing one to my laptop. I have no need of it on the
other machine.

I have paid for free programs that ask for a donation if I found them
useful.

Chances are you have enough competetion with programs that don't require
Access to worry about protecting something.

 

[Steve Schapel]

Kenny,

Depending on how commercial you want to get, this may be of interest...
http://www.sagekey.com/products/security/security.asp

 

[Ian D.]

I kenw I had seen a link for this somewhere before.
It just took me a while to find it again.
I'm not sure if this is what you want but you can check it out anyway.

http://www.rogersaccesslibrary.com/Otherdownload.asp?SampleName='LicenseLock'

Good luck

 

[Paul Overway]

See SDK and sample at web site below under Extras.