AppleShare: IBM Software Can‘t be Fully Copy-Protected



Is it true that IBM software on AppleShare server cannot be fully copy
protected?

I am running an AppleShare file server (v2.01) containing a number of IBM
software items. These application files have been marked as "copy
protected" using the AppleShare administrator. Logging in from a Macintosh
and examining the files with MacTools shows them to have the "protected"
bit set. They cannot be dragged to a local Macintosh hard disk; if I try,
I get the message "Cannot be duplicated or copied".

However, these items can be copied by IBM users, using normal command-line
copy commands! As far as I can determine, there is no way to prevent
piracy of any IBM software placed on the AppleShare server.

AppleShare's copy protection feature was put in as an aid for Macintosh
users, and it built on an old feature of the Macintosh file system. MS-DOS
is not even aware of our copy protection bits, so there is no way to get a
COPY command to respect this level of protection without being extremely
intrusive into the operating system (and causing a good chance of
incompatibilities with future operating system releases).

We don't know of a way to keep DOS users from copying applications from the
server while still having access to run the program.

One solution is to distribute applications to the individual users who need
them and use the file server only for data.


Published Date: Feb 18, 2012