Note to Steinberg/End-Users:
It seems that our prior Release Note stirred something in the
Audio Community (Yes, we can read). To get some of the facts
straight we're going to reveal some secrets about the copy
protection itself, and why we stated that it severely impacts
performance.
Info from Syncrosoft website:
"Syncrosoft's protection solution is different from
mainstream software copy protection methods. It is based on a
secure executer, the eLicenser, and the patented MCFACT
technology" "At runtime, the transformed program code does not
reveal its semantics. The eLicenser's crypto-services are called
from time to time by the transformed program code." The
transformed program code is represented as tables in the computers
memory. An adversary can not reverse-engineer or debug the tables,
because a reverse transformation from the tables to original
program code is not feasible. If the tables are manipulated, the
transformed program code will crash or produce invalid results."
[ENDQUOTE]
So its not crackable?...
Now here is the explanation for what really goes on:
Transformation is based on replacing ordinary machine code into
tables representing results from calculations
Example:
Adding 2 numbers Normal machine-code would look something like :
Add eax, ebx
This will take 1 CPU cycle to execute.
Now comes MCFACT :
1) Transform the first number into a table
2) Transform the second number into a table
3) Do allot of manipulation of these tables
4) More manipulation
5) Transform the Tables back to the numbers
6) Add the 2 numbers
This entire piece takes up hundreds of machine code lines and a
lot of loops inside this code...estimated CPU-cycles
No performance loss? We don't think so..........
And this code runs all the time!!......The dongle in fact is only
called 1 out of 10 times inside these scripts.........
A good example is the protection build in the midi-part. This is
entirely wrapped in the script-crap. Try moving a note and swirl
it around.....you should notice a sluggishness in the movement.
In fact u will notice an improvement in version 3.1 prior to the
3.0 release. This is not due to improvements made by Steinberg
(the midi-engine is still the same) but improvements made by
Syncrosoft! (They optimized the script engine)!!!!!!!
To give the end user some peace of mind: the scripts aren't built
into the real-time audio-engine.....this is impossible because of
the performance loss u would have from the MCFACT.