Distributing files online for cash, but making them hacker safe?

Anyways, I programmed some files and I'd like to open up a website and charge about $5 a year for a subscription. They visit the site, head to the registration page and once the people sign up and paid for the subscription through paypal they have access to the download section which is updated weekly with new updates (not patches, straight up whole new versions).

I want to make as much cash as possible doing this. I don't want to discuss the price im charging or what kind of program it is (I will if its necessary, don't worry it's not illegal), but rather how can I protect my files from being stolen and re distributed/sold by someone else?

Now I know its very likely someone can easily just register and pay the $5 then download all the files and after that have the power to do whatever they want with them, so if they decide to give the files out for every person that downloads them I lose $5..

Are there any tips, or any way I can design my programs to slow down the stealing of my files? It's not a program like photoshop, its basically just compiled java files.

I'd appreciate any feedback thank you very much.

Nothing is hacker safe.

You should consider setting up a donation system instead or somehow make your apps require a login name and password and have something to make sure theres only 1 person logged in at the same time on the same account.

The people who are targeting my files have no knowledge in java whatsoever, hence the reason why they are paying $5 for me to compile files for them.


I'm thinking of including very large files inside the original folders and make them seem important. That way, I can increase the file sizes to a couple hundred MB so people cant easily distribute them over msn and what not.

Also, 1 person per account sounds good. I hope there is a way to make accounts 1 IP only.

installed via serial #?

Originally Posted by CanadaBoy

installed via serial #?

That doesn't work. Take Microsoft software for example.

unfortunatly its very hard to make it as secure as you want. chances are good though if you have a fairly obscure program it won't get hacked because nobody will want to waste the time.

if you do put large files in the program your just waisting customers hard drive space. personally i would not want your bloated program on my system lol.

any tips on how to slow down the distribution?

basically its a folder with an excecutable .bat file, and other folders with .java and .class files.

how can i slap a serial # on that?

you need the internet to use this program.
maybe to have the program extract you need a serial # that needs to be confirmed online? but those serials are stored in the program.. i need those serials to be one of a kind though.

also maybe i can have the installer install hidden files that arent easy to see unless you put a lot of work into it, which most people wont. that way they cant just rezip the stuff and distribute.


anyways guys all ur comments and advice is appreciated, keep it comming!

i don't know how exactly to do it but i have seen programs that go through a Authenticate server to verify the cd key. i have bought one such program online in which after its installed and a 1 time authenticate its locked to my CPU and if i want to change it i would need to email the maker and he voids my previous copy and re-issues one.

each time i load the program and try to connect to my other computer it goes through his site first . the program only cost 10 $ one time fee and is updated almost weekly with bug fixes and such.


http://solidice.com/keyclone/

maybe you could check it out and see if you could do something like he has done.

I would certainly consider a serial # or some tagging for each download, to enable you to check a legitimate download from a copy. Perhaps in the file 'notes' hidden with the text colour white. Making the file 'big' will make this inconvenient for transfers (.jpgs screen grabs of the copywrite gives you the opportunity to add hidden info in the .jpgs) and limiting downloads to regged IP addy's will help. I personally doubt that copying will be an issue to a small market.. especially if the fee is low.

sounds like you don't have a real application per se, but you still have a few options...

as people mentioned, having a serial to protect your app is just fine, but there's nothing to stop people from sharing the serial. and since they cannot get a download link until they have paid for it they would have a valid serial anyways.

you could then either: have a custom serial for each computer, or do online activation. since you don't have a real app, you should probably throw everything into a installer (there's lots of free installer apps out there), and then setup the security on the installer. it should be relatively to set up your app itself so that people can't just copy the installed files off the hd and send those instead.

so, provided you have everything packaged into a installer exe you need protection added to it. there are lots of different protection schemes out there, for example armadillo (http://www.siliconrealms.com/). Most cost something.

You could potentially code a protection yourself, and i'd recommend one that either verifies the serial online against their ip so you know it isn't being used by a bunch of people, or one that verifies it against a unique machine id. I'd set it up so when they run the program it generates a machine id (based on their comp hardware), which they can then enter in your site and have it generate a serial.

There are lots of easier things to do, but they will also be a lot easier to get around. Bat files are plain text, no issue for anyone to read or edit. Compiled java classes might as well be plaintext unless you go all out with some obfuscating apps.

thanks for the replies.


if i do have an installer... it will just install the java files into some folder and then the person would be able to put those files in another folder and zip them right?

hmm maybe i can put something into the registry, wher they need to install the actual program itself, which needs a serial # to activate, which gets you the registry entry?

thanks for the replies i appreciate it

Can anyone comment on this program?

http://www.chainkey.com/en/patefig.htm

Originally Posted by series1000

Can anyone comment on this program?

http://www.chainkey.com/en/patefig.htm

Will you be giving away a finger print reader with each copy of your software?
Or are you expecting that each one of your customers has one of these scanners?