3

I'll be releasing a paid-for Windows Phone 8.1 app soon and I want to ensure that users can't simply share the app to other phones.

I've recently learned that it's easy to share my app on Android and iPhone, so now I have to implement copy protection into the app for each platform.

Is there anything build into Windows Phone 8.1 to prevent this? Do I need to build my own custom copy protection mechanism?

DaveDev
  • 41,155
  • 72
  • 223
  • 385
  • No mode of protection is a 100% fool proof! That said you could try server-side authentication (though this would, at least, periodically require an internet connection), providing content as downloads (post-authentication). You could also try the *freemium* model, with a basic free app and a premium upgrade (unlock packaged content or download content) by way of in app purchases. In the end you may have to stick with the lesser evil. – Ed_Fernando Sep 22 '14 at 08:26

2 Answers2

3

Windows Phone 8.1 is, at the moment, 100% safe from this point of view, application assemblies are all encrypted and can't be reverse engineered. You could in wp7.x and in 8.0 prior to gdr3 update (but only with a Samsung Ativ S, because of a bug in a Samsung diagnostic utility)

the_nuts
  • 5,634
  • 1
  • 36
  • 68
  • if the assembly is encrypted that means it can't be decompiled, but does that mean it can't be copied to a different device? – DaveDev Sep 22 '14 at 12:38
  • Every copy is designed to only work with the device that downloaded it, so no one will ever be able to copy your application. – Faisal Sep 23 '14 at 09:35
  • They can't be copied. Even after an hard reset, if you had apps saved on your SD card, the phone tells you they come from another device and must be wiped – the_nuts Sep 23 '14 at 13:32
  • 1
    "can't be reverse engineered". Are you serious? :-) The fact that the code is encrypted doesn't mean that it's unreadable, the CPU must read it. By definition, any program can be "reverse engineered", it's really just a matter of understanding which yes, takes some time. People make software, not aliens (except the bitcoin protocol :-) ) – Gianluca Ghettini Aug 15 '15 at 07:26
2

Have incentives to not copying it.

Your best option is to make it a better deal for the guy that buys your software, than it is for the people copying it.

Having said that, that option might not be possible or easily done, in which case you should avoid giving your paying customers too hard a time. For instance, if you add serial numbers with online activation and limited number of activations before they need to call you or sit waiting for you to answer an email, I can guarantee that this way will hurt more than just ignoring the people that copy your software in the first place.

The worst option you can go for is the one that will make some of your paying customers wish they hadn't.

Gianluca Ghettini
  • 11,129
  • 19
  • 93
  • 159