It has come to our notice that some of our software has been stolen, hacked, and illegally distributed through shady file-sharing/bit-torrent sites.
Such software is simply stolen goods and should not be used.
Using stolen software isn't a victimless crime: we're not a big corporation; we're a small, family-run company, and our only income comes from software sales. Without this income, we can't continue to develop and support the software.
Using stolen software also puts up the price of legitimate software. Our costs remain the same, but are borne by a smaller number of genuine customers.
Using stolen software also endangers your system: the software has been "hacked" and you run the risk of potential viruses and other damage to your system.
The best way to ensure that you are using genuine software is simple: only download the software from our website, or the direct URLs we specify when you purchase the software.
Here are some simple checks to tell if your software is genuine:
If the software was downloaded from this website, it is likely to be genuine.
All our software is code-signed, so if you are using your default system security settings, most "hacked" software will not run.
On the other hand, if you are used to running dubious software from rogue third parties, you might well have disabled your system's security settings (in which case you are wide open to all kinds of attacks).
Display the "About" box and refer to the "Licensed to" fields.
(On Mac versions, this can be displayed by going to the Application menu and choosing the About command; on Windows versions, the About is located on the Help menu).
If you are using a genuine, full-feature version of the software, then your user name, address, and serial number, will all be displayed here.
If you are using one of our free "Demonstration" versions, you should see something like:
Licensed to
Demonstration Version
(some program features are disabled)
©1995-2013 CrystalMaker Software Ltd...
Some illegal "cracked" copies display the hacker's name in the "Licensed to" field, and "Corporate Site Licence" below.
Check that the program hasn't been tampered with, by verifying its code signature.
Windows Users:
Right-click on the application (not the shortcut; locate the application in the Program Files\CrystalMaker Software\ folder).
Choose Properties.
In the Properties dialog, click on the Digital Signatures tab (if there is no Digital Signatures tab, the app is not signed).
In the Digital Signatures pane, double-click on the CrystalMaker Software item in the Signature List.
The Digital Signature Details dialog will appear, and should say 'This digital signature is OK' near the top. If it does not, it means that someone has modified the application.
Mac Users:
Locate your copy of the application.
Open the Terminal window (Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)
Type:
codesign --verbose --verify pathtoyourapp
where pathtoyourapp is the location of your application. The easy way to do this is to type everything up to the verify, type a space, and then drag your application into the Terminal window; the path will automatically be appended to the command line.
Press Return.
The codesign utility should generate the following output:
pathtoyourapp: valid on disk
pathtoyourapp: satisfies its Designated Requirement
If instead it says something like
pathtoyourapp: invalid signature (code or signature have been modified)
then someone has modified the application and rendered the signature invalid.