Date: Wed, 25 Sep 1996 10:15:23 -0400 From: Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu> To: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> Cc: jhs@FreeBSD.org, current@FreeBSD.org, commercial@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: Licensing Software Message-ID: <9609251415.AA23310@halloran-eldar.lcs.mit.edu> In-Reply-To: <199609250118.SAA05124@phaeton.artisoft.com> References: <199609250013.CAA02049@vector.jhs.no_domain> <199609250118.SAA05124@phaeton.artisoft.com>
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<<On Tue, 24 Sep 1996 18:18:03 -0700 (MST), Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> said: > Machine ID: 32 bit value > use network tuple > use ifconfig interface > attempt to subvert via kernel hacking will damage ifconfig No, do not use any form of network address for machine identification. This sort of idiocy is one of the most significant barriers to the IPv6 transition and to flexible renumbering in general. Network addresses are just that, ADDRESSES. They are subject to change at will, without notice, and without any recourse on the part of the licensee. (Some of the other proposals for IPng would have separated the addressing and identification completely, but unfortunately this did not happen.) DEC's license manager does not identify machines at all. You can in fact just copy /var/adm/lmf/ldb from one machine to another and it will work just fine. (We can legally do this because we have a site license.) If PCs had some sort of IEEE 802.x address burned into them as a sort of serial number, you might be able to do this, but they don't, so you can't do this, either. Probably the best you can do is some sort of network machine-id-uniqueness verification, but if you want to avoid doing network stuff that doesn't help. -GAWollman -- Garrett A. Wollman | O Siem / We are all family / O Siem / We're all the same wollman@lcs.mit.edu | O Siem / The fires of freedom Opinions not those of| Dance in the burning flame MIT, LCS, ANA, or NSA| - Susan Aglukark and Chad Irschick
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