Obsidium description
An easy to implement software protection system mainly aimed at shareware programmers and small companies

The Obsidium software protection and licensing system will allow you to protect your program from unauthorized modifications (i.e. "cracking") and provides you with a reliable yet easy to implement licensing system. It is compatible with any 32-bit Windows OS.

It is mainly aimed at shareware programmers and companies who would like to provide evaluation versions of their applications but is not limited to that scenario.

Here are some key features of "Obsidium":

· Encryption and compression of application code and data
In order to prevent disassembly or modification of your program file on disk, all code and data of your application will be encrypted using a strong yet fast cipher (AES) and its integrity verified. Additionally, you may choose to compress your application which will reduce the size of the executable by up to 50 percent.

· Time trials
Obsidium allows you to easily integrate time trial functionality into your software. You may set a fixed expiration date or have the application expire after a user defined number of days or executions.

· Integrated licensing systems using strong public key cryptography
Obsidium offers two built-in licensing systems that take advantage of high security asymmetric encryption to prevent generation of fake license keys. Depending on your individual needs, you may choose between long and short license keys (using RSA and elliptic curve cryptography respectively) and distributing keys in binary or textual form. Both types of license keys support expiration dates, hardware locking and license dependent code encryption.

· Protection SDK directly supporting Delphi, C++ Builder, Visual C++, Visual Basic and others
Include files and sample applications demonstrating the use of advanced features and the protection API are included in the Obsidium package.

· Counter-measures against disassembling, debugging, dumping and runtime patching
Obsidium implements a number of counter-measures against various techniques and tools used by crackers.

· Blacklisting of stolen or compromised keys
License keys that were stolen (i.e. by credit card fraud) or leaked by a customer can be added to a blacklist thus invalidating the offending license in the next release of your software.

· Runtime code encryption
Important parts of your code can be protected individually, providing extra protection against modifications while the program is being executed. You may also mark code that can only be decrypted if a valid license key is present.

· Automation of protection and license generation
If supported by your development environment, newly compiled applications can be protected immediately. Moreover, a license key generation library is included (as a Windows DLL and Linux shared library) that can easily be integrated into your own or a third party online registration service.

· Hardware locking
License keys may be locked to a specific system by validating a customizable list of components such as CPU, operating system, harddisk and MAC address.

· Password protection
For additional protection or to prevent unauthorized use of your software, a password may be selected that has to be entered in order to start the program.