The software industry loses enormous sums of money each year due to rampant software piracy. Several attempts have been made to develop protection systems capable of fighting piracy, but at the end of the day it turned out to be just promises and hopeful expectations! The software market reality proved that fighting piracy takes more than just inspired marketing and expensive promotional activities.

Today, all these seem to be part of the past; a pioneering breakthrough in copy protection technology has been released: the "CD-COPS II" total antipiracy solution for CD-ROMs.

CD-COPS recognizes the original disc and thereby rejects all illegal copies that were produced on a CD-R burner, or by "professional pirates" expertly using illegal glass-masters. Minute differences are scanned and measured to establish the disc's fingerprint and to ensure that illegal copies are not accepted. This fingerprint is expressed as an access code, or unique key number. The software utility which identifies, recognizes and either accepts, or rejects the CD-ROM, is itself protected by "Code Security", a system that has been in use since 1984 and is well-known throughout the world, as being virtually unbreakable. Code Security is a legend in the Middle East where piracy is a very serious problem.

CD-COPS protection does not rely on special mastering, or manufacturing process; no special equipment is necessary. Therefore, any pressing factory can produce CD-COPS protected discs. The only actual restriction for the manufacturing proceedings is the strict compliance to the quality rules and standards contained in the Yellow Book, issued by Philips.

Other protection systems base their operation on special glass-mastering that can be performed only in a very few selected factories, and always under extremely high prices. At the same time, the mastering procedure followed is not compliant to the Philips standards, resulting to CD production that is certainly accomplished not according to the Yellow Book specifications. The initial idea was to embed physical marks that only the protection code could realize, and therefore, burning utilities wouldn't be able to copy original discs. Today's market reality shows that this kind of conception has created enormous operation compatibility problems. Hackers have totally realized the technique and have released several generic cracks in the Internet. Additionally, several advanced burning utilities, such as CloneCD, can easily copy original discs protected by those systems!

CD-COPS relies on state-of-the-art encryption techniques and encoding algorithms that give zero chance to hacking attempts. CD-R burning utilities cannot copy CD-COPS protected discs and produce workable copies on a large scale. Pirate re-mastering is also out of the question! That explains why CD-COPS generic cracks cannot be found on the Internet, as it is simply impossible to be created!

CD-COPS supports all commonly used operating systems, such as: DOS, Windows 3.x, 9x, NT, ME, 2000, XP and OS2. Additionally, all currently available CD-ROM speeds are supported.

CD-COPS can be applied on silver CD-ROMs (hybrid, mixed mode, etc.) only and it cannot be applied on CD-Rs.

CD-COPS may be used either as a shell protection (Wizard option), or as an API protection (API option). Both options use the very same digital encryption algorithms and most advanced encoding techniques, but on a different operational basis:

	The Wizard option uses an automated wrapper software utility to apply the system in a very simple and fast manner, as a shell (envelope) protection to the software product.
	The API option allows implementation of the system functions and integrated code commands directly into the application's source code, by the use of various specific programming routines and modules, according to the specific programming and security needs of each software product.
	In addition, a combination of the two options, called the GameAPI option, could be used, consisting of object modules that also check the CD-ROM. Then, developers can have both shell (envelope) protection and additional checks of the CD-ROM, on selected spots. One more advantage of this method is that these checks can be done much later, or a number of days after installation of the software application, then even in case that a hacker goes through the whole game, he will not find the "mines" that come later.

For CD-COPS to be implemented into a developer's application, a most dedicated Software Developer's Kit (SDK) is engineered and developed, uniquely for each and any developer, to be used only for the protection of its own software products. This way, maximum anti-piracy security is achieved, and developer's software products get a unique electronic stamp, with its own firm digital encryption algorithm and identification signature. Therefore, one SDK is designed for each and any developer, resulting to unique anti-piracy encryption and software encoding for each customer.

During the system implementation, it is possible that a few minor changes could be made to the installation script. Finally, the gold master CD-R with the protected application is created and tested.

All protected CD-ROMs produced out of the same glass-master, no matter how many stampers have been used, are identical and the special software utility contained in the SDK, shall measure one of the CD-ROMs to extract the exact matching access code needed for the protected application to run. The code is entirely public, not confidential, and should be included with the CD-ROM as a label sticker, enclosed in the packaging, or printed onto the disc's surface.

During installation of the software, the end-user has to enter the access code. This is done only once, and from then on, the software shall run only when the original CD-ROM is inserted in the local CD-ROM drive. The data can reside either on the CD-ROM, or on the hard disk drive, but the original CD-ROM must always be present in the drive. If a pirate disc is inserted into the drive, the software will refuse running.

Unlike other competitive systems, CD-COPS is the only software copy protection system that could fight piracy in critical areas, such as China, Middle East, etc., for years now, under the most effective way. Bear in mind that in such areas, pirates are not the only enemy; operating under low-quality PC configurations and out-of-standards CD-ROM drives that cause enormous compatibility problems, is the most tough problem to deal with! And that is because having a crack or so is something that software publishers can accept, but having unsatisfied end-customers who paid for the product and it simply doesn't run, is something that no developer or publisher can tolerate.

CD-COPS has made it with flying colors! The system is definitely the ultimate software copy protection solution that can guard software content in the most effective manner!

Concluding, some of the most important induced benefits of CD-COPS are:

	CD-R copying utilities cannot copy CD-COPS protected CDs
	Normal CD production and verification
	In-house implementation and testing
	Game-API option enables special coding
	Prevents separation from guard module
	High security level; no generic cracks on the Internet
	Market leader in critical areas (China & Middle East)
	Network version, time-expiry and periodical checks
	Works with parallel port and DOS assigned CD drives, and removable drives on portables PCs

The customer reference list of CD-COPS is rather long, including some pretty important firm-names of the worldwide software industry, such as Oxford University, Cognos, Syracuse Language Systems, Microsoft, Bonnier, Meteksan, Cambridge University, Lademanns, DeAgostini, Brockhaus, MacMillan, Compedia, Sebit, Sakhr, CyberStone, Springer, etc.