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Main IndexI probably shouldn't do this but I will anyhow. This particular company based in Canada (on the web) at http://www.emulive.com pursued me unsuccessfully a while back (1998 sometime) after I published a document describing how to reverse engineer all of their VB serial number protections with around 1 minute of SoftICE work. Instead of learning something from this document my next e-mail contained a rather unpleasant threat from their lawyers (Cassius Linval as I recall).
After trying unsuccessfully to resolve the situation, another more threatening document was to occupy my inbox a few days later (just think how much these little gems must cost). Another e-mail back and eventually I decided to remove the offending document from my server in the hope they would desist, I tried also pointing out to them that I had no interest whatsoever in cracking their software for my own gains.
A few weeks past, all was calm, and then another priceless letter, this time asking me to remove the document from a server that I had no knowledge of, more threats, "you will be financially liable for all of our losses"..... I'm sure you can visualise. Naturally the fact that I had no control over said server escaped their lawyers technical competence (better sack them EmuLive and get some that at least have a passing knowledge of the Internet).
Eventually the webmaster of the other site removed the document but this didn't stop me receiving a final threat. Now EmuLive listen up really carefully :-
Take a visit to a DupeChecker and type in 'Emulive', here are just some of the hits.
11-05-1999 cr-elp99.zip 1 91 KB Emulive.Producer.99.v1.1.Win9xNT.Keymaker.Only-CORE 10-14-1999 cr-es39a.zip 2 5430 KB EMULive.Server.v3.9.520.Win9xNT.Incl.Keymaker-CORE 07-30-1999 ep11290a.zip 3 6418 KB Emulive.Producer.99.v1.1.290-DNI 06-23-1999 dodemul1.zip 5 5868 KB EmuLive_Producer99_v1.1_Win9xNT-DOD 05-18-1999 vrsp9901.zip 4 6004 KB Emulive.Producer99.v1.0-VERSUS 03-07-1999 rs-esvr02.zip* 2 2471 KB Emulive.server.3.9.500.win9x.cracked.-rs 03-07-1999 rs-lat01.zip 4 5659 KB Emulive.active.theatre.vers.3.9.34.cracked.REPACK-RS 02-26-1999 cr-evp31.zip 1 5033 KB EMULive.MultiVideo.Producer.v3.1.Win9xNT.Keymaker-CORE 02-26-1999 cr-eap26.zip 1 97 KB EMULive.Audio.Producer.v2.6.Win9xNT.Keymaker-CORE 02-25-1999 cr-emp39.zip 1 4698 KB EMULive.Video.Producer.v3.99e.Win9xNT.Keymaker-CORE 02-25-1999 cr-emp23.zip 1 3788 KB EMULive.Multimedia.Producer.v2.3.Win9xNT.Keymaker-CORE 02-25-1999 cr-ede28.zip 1 3422 KB EMULive.Directory.Engine.v2.8.Win9xNT.Keymaker-CORE 02-23-1999 vrses36a.zip 15 20850 KB Emulive.Starter.Kit.v3.6-VERSUS 09-02-1998 pgcemvp1.zip 3 4501 KB EMU.Live.PRO.Video.Producer.v3.99d.Keymaker-PGC 08-17-1998 gwa-ed01.zip 2 3008 KB EMULive.Directory.Engine.v2.4.build.79.WIN9x_GWA98 08-13-1998 gwa-el01.zip 3 3244 KB EMULive.Multimedia.Producer.Build.20_GWA98 07-05-1998 tno-emu1.zip 4 4495 KB EMUlive.server.v3.30.build.101.win9598NT.cracked-TNO 06-11-1998 nblemu01.zip 4 4523 KB EMULive.PRO.Video.Producer.3.99c.For.Win95-NT-Nobliege
You see, your scare tactics cost probably a $1000 in letters to me and achieved absolutely nothing. Lamers that steal software aren't interested in debugging your protection, they will just visit their sites (of which they have hundreds), and leech your readily packaged software complete with key generator or crack and use it that way, if you really think any significant percentage of them have enough intelligence to use SoftICE then you'd be pretty sadly mistaken, on the web you'll find maybe 30 good reverse engineering sites, contrast that to 500,000+ warez sites (and thats just the BSA's figures I researched below).
"Report: Software Piracy Epidemic
Could Slow E-Commerce Boom"
E-Commerce Times (04/06/00); Creed, Adam
The Business Software Alliance (BSA), an anti-piracy industry
group, believes that the e-commerce boom could be negatively affected
by the hundreds of thousands of "warez," "appz,"
and "crackz" Web pages that are giving Internet users
access to pirated software, illegal serial numbers, and software
patches. The Internet now has 500,000 warez pages, 144,000 appz
pages, and 46,000 crackz Web pages, the BSA estimates.
So you see, instead of doing what most authors do (which is take heed of my advice) you've tried to use tactics that clearly don't advance the debate any further or improve your protection (and thus your sales). In the interim, anyone can pay a visit to EmuLive's website and download all of their software for free. I hope you will all refrain from cracking it black and blue, because that will only hinder our cause.
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