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Copy Protection / Access Control


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Hi There all

 

I am wondering .... as I thinking about setting up a business for selling Logic Projects files online.

Imagine you are in a cover band, and you create Logic Project files with stems of the various instruments ...so that the band members could practice in a much more clever way.

The drummer could mute the drums, and play along, the vocalist could rehearse with only himself and backup vocals .. the list goes on and on ...

 

But ...

 

If the idea is to sell stuff like this online, you need some kind of security

 

You need at least:

* Control over who can open the file inside Logic. Some kind of system where only the buyer of the file can open it.

* Control over the audio files themselves (inside the Bundle) so that you can't copy those files out of the Bundle

* Control over file export

 

I feel that the buyer shall have some options, but not options that will expose the building blocks of the initial creation. The buyer should be able to make changes to the Project (i.e. set up the mixer to taste) but not be able to get access to the original audio files so they can be spread all over the place.

 

 

So ..... has anyone of you heard about a system that could enable this ..

Or .... is this an idea that some of you would stand behind, as a feature request to Apple ...

 

I can imagine that something could be done by utilizing Apple ID as a control tool, but I am not sure ..

 

Please comment on this if this is something you also find missing ...

 

Kind redards Nils

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You cannot control those things, just like when you purchase a book you cannot control who will make photocopies, or type the text in a website, or read it in a video that they monetize on YouTube etc. What you can do is, when these things happen, decide if it's worth your time trying to get whoever infringed on your copyright to take down their illegal material or stop their illegal activities.

 

But honestly I wouldn't worry about it too much. Mainly because... well there's not much you can do about it anyway.

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I sold many thousands of copies of a successful niche software product online for over 20 years(!) – every now and then I still sell another copy and they are not cheap. The product has an extremely simple license-code system. I never concerned myself with limiting its use, checking for other installed copies, locking it in to one computer, "phoning home," or anything like that. I did not want anything to malfunction.

 

Every now and then a live license-code or license-file would show up on the Internet. Of course I requested a "take down" when I saw one ... but I continued to sell copies to paying customers, and those are the only ones who commanded my attention. I did not want to make my product "onerous to use." And, I did not want to convey the idea that I did not trust them. Most people are not shoplifters. If people conclude that your product is worth the fair price that you ask them to pay for it, they will.

 

Dutifully register your copyright ($35.00), and consider a software patent application ($$$!!!) if you have something that might qualify. In my case I also registered the product's name as a ® Registered Trademark. ($150 good for only ten years unless renewed.) Beyond that: "dazzle your customers." So that they want to tell their friends. Most of your exposure will be by word of mouth.

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ChimneySweep® for Windows – an automatic table repair and maintenance tool for Paradox and some xBase databases. https://www.sundialservices.com/products/chimneysweep

 

I sold many thousands of copies of it worldwide – and every now and again I still do. One to every borough of the City of London. Although the Paradox system was abandoned by its owners, both of whom later went bankrupt without choosing to release it as open source, it still was one of the best products of its kind and very widely used. I've never encountered any other "rapid software development environment" which could match it. Yet so far as I know it was never imitated.

 

ChimneySweep's reputation grew entirely by word-of-mouth in the days when Usenet news-groups were popular.

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It has been – and still is, to some degree – a very long and interesting trip. I suppose that I actually did succeed in "building a better mousetrap." In fact, a very significantly better and (100x ...) faster mousetrap.

 

And to think that the entire project began entirely as a personal one: to keep me from having to drive hundreds of miles over the greater Phoenix (AZ) area after every summer "monsoon" thunderstorm, repairing databases that had been damaged by a "power blip." I needed a better mousetrap, so, crazy fool that I was, I built one.

 

It never occurred to me at the time that anyone else in the world would be interested, until I happened to "talk it up" on the Usenet forums that I frequented every day . . .

 

Anyhow – "copy protection" was the least of my worries. Not one single paying customer ever told me that my license-code system was standing in their way. (Which, of course, would have been the moment when the entire sale would have been in the greatest jeopardy, indeed probably before it began!)

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