Pass That Protection

By F. Thomas

Originally published in EUG #18

All of us have protected tape programs which we like to use on a regular basis, and then it is much more convenient to be able to store them on disk. I realise of course that any form of copying is illegal but it is unrealistic to believe that the authors of old Electron software or the Federation Against Software Theft are going to make a fuss about copying programs to disk strictly for your own use!

There are many forms of protection - some of it quite sophisticated - and you will not find any tools to help you overcome it!

However, in the early days of the Elk, some programs used a relatively simple locking system in an effort to prevent copying, and a number of programs (such as IMAGE) have been published that will unlock them.

EUG published a program written by Howard Guppy in EUG #4 and this letter is really just a reminder to any readers having trouble in this area that it, and an article describing how one can transfer from tape to disk, exists. I have enclosed a copy of Howard's program with this letter for inclusion on EUG #18.

F Ray Thomas, EUG #18