Security threats Toolkit

Story: Defending their copyright with your taxes

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Hi

My name is Bill Barna and I have been developing software mainly games development since 1982. In my time as developer and producer for some of the biggest names in the industry, I have seen piracy and blatant theft on every level, warez is a word used to describe not only a group of thieves but a whole way of life for some of these people and they are all over the world. I have seen within days of a release, of a product, copies being sold on a market stall. I have used some of the anti-hacking and copy protection that is freely available to developers and I can tell you it is not worth the time and effort when it can be broken in minutes by organised pirates. The problem is that protection that is available to all of us is also available to the hackers, with this kind of information available to them how is going to stop them. Individually tailored protection for each product is the best way and this is still not secure, there’s always a way round. Protection software is not the only answer, arrest, prosecution and conviction is also needed. We need some high profile cases but we should also be sending a message to the smaller hacker and copiers that it is not ok to just do a quick copy for a friend or friends. As for the cost of prosecuting these people, it is a tiny amount compared to what it has cost us all over the past twenty plus years, if a software house closes down (and they have) and people are laid off then the cost is already past on to the public.

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