DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF COPS: A COPY PROTECTION SCHEME FOR SOFTWARE

Abstract

In this work, a scheme for software copy protection has been developed. Care has been taken that the program should be unccpyable from the harddisk of the computer, as well as from the floppy disk on which it was sold. Both har..dware and software techniques have been used for protection at different steps. The scheme has been kept very. flexible so that small modifications allow the sale of software under different trade conditions. For e>-ample the permitted number of installations of software on different computers, can be changed according to requirements,• Cr it can be grade to be sold under site licensing agreement. Also the :.cheme is so generalised that it can be used to protect any software with little efforts, irrespective of whether we have the source ccde of the program which is to be protected or not. Finally the scheme has been used to protect the popular Wordstar package.