>Another point, I have found that for me (I do custom software) simply hardcoding the company name into the software is deterant enough for preventing illegal copying. What good is a program that prints the name of some other company on all of its output, forms, and reports.

Rather than hardcopy it into code. I've found a solution where the company name is written into a table along with a some kind of CRC code. If the two match your able to work with the progam else it stops. This keeps the EXE working independend of the company data, so updating your exe is easier.

Walter,