Adding Copyright Protection To Cd's

[sTrAnGeFrUiT!]

Hi All,

i own a legal distributable version of office 2003 Pro Edition
i am allowed to register the copy on ten PC's

a couple of people have asked me for a copy
i have no problem giving them one

but....

i would like to add some copyright protection onto the copied Cd's
to prevent them being copied and me finding that one day all my liscences have gone!!

any ideas how i go about doing this is there any free software out there that does do it or can it be done in apps like nero??

Thanks

Dave!

[T3hGr8£st]

I think you would find that they can load it on to more than one PC with just the one disk, so they could cain away your liscences anyway.

[Funkstar]

You can make as many copies of the disk as you want, it's the license that is what you pay for. I don't think there is any copy protection methods for CD-R disks anyway.

Are these 10 licenses part of the Direct Access Pack from the Microsoft Partners program? If so i don't think the license terms allow you to give others one of your licenses, they are meant for product testing and development within the organisation that payed for the license pack.

[charleski]

The licence is linked to your product key. Don't give that to anyone whom you don't trust completely.

[Fabula]

You can't add copy protection to CDs easily. There are commercial systems that developers pay thousands to use, but they get cracked very quickly.

If you are happy to give a friend a copy (and legally allowed to do so), then it is safest to just go round their house and install it.

[sTrAnGeFrUiT!]

A lot of my friends are quite computer illitirate so im just looking for something to stop them making copies of the cd

all im after really is a little message that pops up and says...

This cd is copyrighted and cannot be copied

is there not anykind of free software that can do this!?

what would be really kool is if i could make a cd where the instalation package can only be run once! but i cant see that happening

anyway...

a bit more input would be much appricated!

Thanks Again

Dave!

[charleski]

The real thing you need to protect is your product key, forget about the disc itself. Someone with your product key can use up your licences, and can use a different installation disc they got elsewhere. If your product key gets out onto the net, then you'll find your licences vanish rapidly.

If they're really illiterate, perhaps the best thing would be to prepare an unattended installation that inserts the key automatically. There's a guide here. Anyone who knows a little bit about such things will still be able to extract the key from your disk, but at least you aren't just handing it out to them.

As I said, if you don't trust these people not to give out your licences to all and sundry, don't let them have it in the first place. Installing it on their machines yourself remains the safest option.