From: The Spectre <spectre@anthrax.net>
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 13:27:45 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Software license detector vans
In-Reply-To: <B0000003768@hades.crmcom.com>
Message-ID: <B0000003781@hades.crmcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 13:15 3/17/98 , you wrote:

>Well, you don't have to cover *every* house, just *any* house. THe
>Brits have vans that roam around looking for unlisenced sattelite
>receivers, and it provides a pretty effective deterrant.

That works in that scenario, but you do have to monitor *every* house, and
continually, if you want to catch a software pirate.. in the satellite
scenario, they're just looking for a signal to see if it exists or not.  In
the M$ scheme, you'd have to get the license key and compare it against a
database to see if that license key was in use by anyone else at that exact
moment... it's not illegal to use multiple copies of the same piece of
software, it's just illegal to use them concurrently.


-The Spectre [SP4 w/ clam cluster]
-http://www.anthrax.net/cos
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher
esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
		-- Neitzsche, _The_Dawn_
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