Free way to secure scripts ?

Don't give FTP access Don't give out to "friends" who might leak it later on. Don't post it around and keep it for yourself.

Are you asking about your scripts you are planning on coding yourself and selling or about the ones you bought and are just using on your server?

Byfreemmaannat 11th of January 2018 22:51:39

Are you asking about your scripts you are planning on coding yourself and selling or about the ones you bought and are just using on your server?

I think he means scripts he'll code himself, otherwise I feel like he wouldn't be wanting to protect his bought scripts from "leaks" but from "leaking them" if you get what I mean. Interested in the topic as well to be honest, never really saw any effective methods apart from GModSecure. If I remember correctly, you use your own system to protect VCMod? It looked really promising in the screenshots, hope it works just as well as it looks :D

It has been for 2 years now. Had 26 bypass attempts so far, only single one was semi-succesful due to my damn coding mistakes, which have been patched since.

Issue is: I am not too sure my protection could be as useful for single types of addons, which do not have thousands of data files and what not.

Byfreemmaannat 11th of January 2018 23:29:57

It has been for 2 years now. Had 26 bypass attempts so far, only single one was semi-succesful due to my damn coding mistakes, which have been patched since.Issue is: I am not too sure my protection could be as useful for single types of addons, which do not have thousands of data files and what not.

Understandable, I was just wondering really. I always wanted to create some semi-drm to protect from leaking but then again, not limit the users as much. Don't think I have the skill nor motivation to make anything like that to be fair.

Now, back to the main question: If you mean protecting your purchased scripts from getting leaked, never ever give FTP to anyone unless you trust them, I mean really trust them. If you ever hire someone, don't give them FTP access either.

If you mean protecting your custom coded scripts, I don't think there's any effective protection against leaks unless you use a DRM which, we all agree, is rather invasive and users generally dislike it because it limits customisation (beyond config of course) of the script.

DRM does not have to be something hated upon. My clients were in favour of DRM, since it gave a lot more positives than negatives. And a few other people have followed my lead, including Skeleton which is developing an Auto Updater of his own (so proud of him :3 ).

So yeah, priority should be making life easier for your clients, then sneak DRM in there when its hardly noticable. Or go with the SE route, which was annoying as hell, but worked wonders. Other than that, gmodsecure is pretty damn great, but its not free.

Byfreemmaannat 11th of January 2018 23:45:39

DRM does not have to be something hated upon. My clients were in favour of DRM, since it gave a lot more positives than negatives. And a few other people have followed my lead, including Skeleton which is developing an Auto Updater of his own (so proud of him :3 ).So yeah, priority should be making life easier for your clients, then sneak DRM in there when its hardly noticable. Or go with the SE route, which was annoying as hell, but worked wonders. Other than that, gmodsecure is pretty damn great, but its not free.

Hmm, I do agree that if it actually works in favour of the customer, the DRM is perfect. I have however stumbled upon multiple unhappy customers on GModStore in general which absolutely hate DRM (at least the one commonly used) and are capable of just not being the script because of it. I personally think that DRM seems fair for the developer (being one myself, I'd hate to see people steal my hard work) but then again, the customer is also somewhat limited.

I think it really depends on the DRM and the customer, some will like it, some will hate it. You just have to choose, if you'd rather have less customers (assuming people actually won't buy it) for the sake of making profit accordingly and minimizing the leaks overall OR get your script leaked pretty much all the time but make some customers happier.

Personally, when buying a script I wouldn't really mind the DRM because I believe that the developer has a reason behind it, hours and hours of work deserves proper appreciation. Honestly, GModSecure is much better compared to Script Enforcer, SE was terrible if you ask me, the whole process overall seemed rather stupid and the fact you'd have to change your server name and so on. GModSecure is pretty good, the only downsides is that clients may feel limited as they can't freely edit the serverside script, then again, perhaps that's good? They can't break it if they can't see it :D And of course, GModSecure isn't free :(