teamhasnoi - Slashdot User

Submission + - File Deleting Software a Hoax

Submitted by

teamhasnoi

on Sunday February 25, 2007 @07:02PM

teamhasnoi writes: "In a followup to yesterday's story the developer of Display Eater has responded to the poor publicity, admitting that the app does not delete files. Quote: "It was my hope that if people thought this happened, they would not try to pirate the program. I could stop wasting time writing copy protection routines to be broken over and over. It turned out to be a mistake." He has now made the application free by posting a registration code, and plans to open-source it."

Submission + - Software Deletes Files to Defend Against Piracy

Submitted by

teamhasnoi

on Saturday February 24, 2007 @02:10AM

teamhasnoi writes: "Back in 2004, Slashdot discussed a program that deleted your home directory on entry of a pirated serial number. Now, a new developer is using the same method to protect his software, aptly named Display Eater. In the dev's own words, "There exist several illegal cd-keys that you can use to unlock the demo program. If Display Eater detects that you are using these, it will erase something. I don't know if this is going to become Display Eater policy. If this level of piracy continues, development will stop." Is deleting user data ever acceptable, even when defending one's software from piracy?"

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