[gmpi] Re: 3.18 Copy Protection

On Mon, Sep 20, 2004 at 06:00:26PM -0400, Ron Kuper wrote:
> I'd like GMPI to say something more about copy protection.

Well, as someone with real requirements, we're looking to you for Reqs :)

> Several times in the we have bunded plugins made by other vendors in our
> host app(s).  What we are often asked to do is "lock" the plugin so that
> it can only be used in our application.  To do this for our DirectX
> plugins we need to create a couple of new special COM interfaces to
> manage a kind of handshake.

And how do you prevent me from writing a mini DX plugin that is also a
host that fakes your handshake, and then can load these "locked" plugs in
any host?

There are lots of authentication schemes that might apply, I just don't
know how apply them.

I mean, we *really* don't want to encourage plugs that are locked to
hosts.  Can public key encryption come into play here?  Can fingerprinting
be used?

I don't personally know enough about them to know how or if they apply.
I'm all for some sort of reasonable system, as longs as it's not
cumbersome on plug authors or users.

> Otherwise I'd least want something where the host can identify itself to
> the plugin, in some "secure" way, so the plugin can know whether or not
> it's allowed to run.

Define secure?  The plugins are the thing we want to protect, so any
host-centric security is moot.  A host can be faked.


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