Can someone tell me how can i protect my plugins?

Warmonger · 26 Jul 2012

The easiest way is to not share your schematic at all. Unless I'm missing something?

tunca · 26 Jul 2012

Warmonger wrote: The easiest way is to not share your schematic at all. Unless I'm missing something?

I made some plugin and i will sell them.So i need serial protection system.

http://bullshitaudiotechnic.wordpress.com/

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=355753

You can see my products.

philter5 · 26 Jul 2012

please note that the following sentences are only what i would think as a plugin customer/user:

i haven´t had a look at your plugins, and i can´t tell you how to protect them(i think you simply can´t, there will always be someone that is able to crack them, for sure!) . i can only tell you WHAT I THINK when it´s about bying a plugin: IF IT is really worth it,Users WILL PAY FOR IT, no matter if they can get the plugin for free on one of the 1000 torrent/tor sites . i can only give you one example: SonicCharge microtonic/synplant . cracked versions are available ALL OVER THE NET, and, TBH, i used "tryBeforeBuy" versions too . BUT at the point i realized that this is REALLY GOOD SHIT, i PAID for it. Simply like that! as said that´s only my end-user view of the things, i´ve never released a commercial plugin written with SM or SE and i doubt i ever will... 😕 for some kind of protection / demo limitations you can have a look here [old link] there are some examples of NAG screeens that remind the user of buying the full version .

EDIT: sorry, perhaps i misunderstood you. is it about protecting Your SCHEAMTIC/OSM or protecting the final PLUGIN *.dll?

tunca · 26 Jul 2012

Yes i know someone will crack them but i have to give serial to customers. I tried some serial protection but i have to enter serial every use.It generate serial.key but it doesn't see it next use..

Dell · 29 Jul 2012

There was a serial protection osm running about on the forums. You may find it by using the search however, as already mentioned, your plug-ins will be cracked. The only plug-ins that was never cracked is the ones dependent to audio hardware in order to work.

I don't even sell plug-ins and found warez forums linking into my blogs to download my plug-ins.

Do keep that in mind 🙂

tunca · 29 Jul 2012

Dell wrote: There was a serial protection osm running about on the forums. You may find it by using the search however, as already mentioned, your plug-ins will be cracked. The only plug-ins that was never cracked is the ones dependent to audio hardware in order to work.

I don't even sell plug-ins and found warez forums linking into my blogs to download my plug-ins.

Do keep that in mind 🙂

I know that!

Go and tell this Softube,Waves bla bla bla bla bla..

Dell · 29 Jul 2012

Bear in mind you are new to the market so, don’t expect you will get the same market share as Waves & Softube. Larger companies can afford to write of their losses and have more leverage in terms of capital than a small developer.

Since Synthmaker can only offer 32-bit plug-ins, you will lose a great share of the market since your main objective is to sell your plug-ins. You will eventually need to move to C++ if want your company to grow.

Nevertheless, to get help in regards to protecting your plug-ins pose your question in the “Help” section. Upload the OSM you are working on or a photograph of the OSM showing where you are having difficulty figuring something out and, someone will try to sort it out for you.

infuzion · 29 Jul 2012

I personally shrink down bodyguards from the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang, & squeeze them inside my installer. When they see the wrong authorization code, or one of the other guards says they see the same code over there, these micro-guards will set up a blockade on the harddrive, then start to burn rubber on the disks.

Honestly, expect about 90% of the people who use your VST to NOT pay for it. No matter the protection, though a select few mange to get better results via keys, or switching to OSX/RTAS/etc.

Dell · 30 Jul 2012

infuzion wrote: Honestly, expect about 90% of the people who use your VST to NOT pay for it. No matter the protection, though a select few mange to get better results via keys, or switching to OSX/RTAS/etc.

OSX plug-ins became the new plug-ins to crack in 2010!

I recall someone suggesting publicly I should install Hackintosh on my PC (On a very popular Recording/Mastering forum) so I can offer plug-ins for MAC. I would imagine in the late 1990's to mid 2000's you could put your faith in not getting your plug-ins cracked using a MAC platform. These days MAC is the new trend to crack in terms of software & plug-ins.

If the customer tries to be loyal, but the protection is too complicated for the customer to understand, the developer will face a backlash from the customer(s), which turns into a no win situation.

infuzion · 30 Jul 2012

Dell wrote: I would imagine in the late 1990's to mid 2000's you could put your faith in not getting your plug-ins cracked using a MAC platform. These days MAC is the new trend to crack in terms of software & plug-ins..

I am so out dated! Ah well, iOS was busted just a year after release, & apps are bootlegged about 90% there, so I'm not surprised.

Dell wrote: If the customer tries to be loyal, but the protection is too complicated for the customer to understand, the developer will face a backlash from the customer(s), which turns into a no win situation.

Reaper has a better-than-industry buy rate, but most professionals understand devs want to protect their IP.

Dell · 30 Jul 2012

infuzion wrote:

Dell wrote: If the customer tries to be loyal, but the protection is too complicated for the customer to understand, the developer will face a backlash from the customer(s), which turns into a no win situation.

Reaper has a better-than-industry buy rate, but most professionals understand devs want to protect their IP.

I would have thought many turned up their nose to Reaper due to looks and price. 😕

infuzion · 31 Jul 2012

Dell wrote: I would have thought many turned up their nose to Reaper due to looks and price. 😕

Oh no, it competes with Pro Tools, Cubase, & other suites, due to its ease of use etc. Other pro software does cost more, but that is partly because you pay for their marketing & copy protection, & partly due to you paying for an less-effecent programming team (always better to have 3 genius programmers than 10 OK programmers).

You know, another way to protect your plugins is to raise them right; tell them not to do drugs, hang out with the wrong crowd, don't have sex until marriage, give hugs, etc.

philter5 · 31 Jul 2012

infuzion wrote:

You know, another way to protect your plugins is to raise them right; tell them not to do drugs, hang out with the wrong crowd, don't have sex until marriage, give hugs, etc.

my plugins are addicted to DSP (a new designer drug, similar to lsd) what can i do dr infuzion ? 😀

Xtinct · 31 Jul 2012

I didn't protect my XYXY plugin

And look what happened

Now all it does is make muffled groaning noises 😈

mwvdlee · 3 Aug 2012

There's a module that can give you a harddisk ID, which you could use as a unique ID. I like using e-mail as a unique ID for my non-SM software, which has the benefit of being generatable from a website immediately upon initial purchase.

You can do some simple encryption on SM, but anything remotely complex or secure is out of it's league.

Then again; don't waste time trying to create a failsafe system. No matter how good your encryption is, the nature of SM means it'll be trivial to circumvent for any half-assed hacker.

Give your customers a nice serial code so you can give them a feeling of ownership and stop non-programmers from copying it, but don't waste time you could have spend on marketing/advertising; those two will bring in far more money than copyright protection ever will.

infuzion · 4 Aug 2012

mwvdlee wrote: Give your customers a nice serial code so you can give them a feeling of ownership and stop non-programmers from copying it, but don't waste time you could have spend on marketing/advertising; those two will bring in far more money than copyright protection ever will.

Good advice.