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hermesalphaFlag for Paraguay

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How secure is a AES-128 encrypted archive from illegal copying and distributing?

How secure is a AES-128 encrypted archive from illegal copying and distributing?

If I have a database that is stored in an AES-128 encrypted archive, is this the most secure way of protection against illegal distribution (as torrents etc.)? Will it work as well for PDF:s also?

Somehow, this encrypted archive has to be tied to one single computer only (only possible to open on that particular computer). Is that possible today to guarantee success doing so, without any backdoors to tie it up and copy the PDF to other computers?

Will it have high copyprotection on any operative system, so that it's not easier on a Linux for example to modify the file and remove the copyprotection?

 
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Dave Baldwin
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irzaqar,

I haven't encountered but one instance where the software vendor has done exactly this: tied the encryption to a hardware function. What's the reason? I mean, it seems to work very well, it was a bit inconvenient for me as a customer when I bought the software (Chinese character bible), but it seems to work (although I didn't try to break the encryption or anything). It's this software I'm talking about: http://www.globechinese.com/

The procedure was that I purchased the Chinese character bible, then launched it to generate a request for a licence file. I sent this request to the software vendor (which was a registration code). I then received a registration file which I had to save in a particular folder on my laptop.

I wonder if this procedure would be completely watertight?

I'm going to cooperate with a software vendor who will incorporate my add-on in his software. So I want to make certain my add-on will be as much protected as is possible today from illegal copying.

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jrzagar

If what you're looking to do is protect your software from illegal use, I'd strongly recommend you look at FlexLM / FlexNet from Flexera.

This software has a very long history (+15y) of preventing software piracy and is used on software packages costing hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars.
hahahahaha.

FlexLM and FlexNet is routinely bypassed by pirates. It inconveniences legitimate users, and gives little or no protection.

Only hardware dongles give any real protection, and even then, only if some of the functionality is actually embedded in the dongle (otherwise, the parts of the code that test for the dongle will simply be commented out; just look at the past history of games looking for "genuine" media in the drive for examples here)
But I think there are a few software vendors that have been successful in preventing their software to be circulated as pirated, like SDL Trados. And Chinese character bible. SDL Trados used a dongle some years ago, but have changed that. But I think they have been successful in preventing pirating of their CAT-tools.

If I tie my PDF to a hardware component (like a chip) in a specific computer, plus tie the PDF to the software it will become an add-on to, plus storing it in an AES-128 encrypted archive, would these three measures be the best copy protection I could get? Or should I need to add a fourth component, like the one Chinese character bible uses, or like SDL Trados used earlier (with a hardware physical dongle)?
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