Hi

Is there anyway to prevent an accdb from being opened in Access or any other
application, other than the one it's intended for??

I know i can password protect the file, but that is almost a joke, since i
can download 1000 different tools that recover that password for anyone to
use. Encryption seem also not to be the answer, since access still can open
the darn thing..

All i want is for tha database not to be able to opened other than with the
C# appz i'm coding to use it... It that possible or do i have to use my own
data encryption and leave the file open to look at the garble-de-gook of
encrypted data left in the file, only my appz can decrypt before use...

/Finn

On Thu, 5 Nov 2009 02:59:59 +0100, "Finn Stampe Mikkelsen"
stampe at (no spam) city.dk> wrote:

It depends on how strong you want that protection to be. In one case I
wrote an AutoExec macro in the back-end database, with a:
Msgbox "Yo! You shouldn't be here. This db is only for use with the
XYZ app"
DoCmd.Quit
and that helped a lot. But it's not foolproof, of course.

Also, in many jurisdictions the data belongs to the owner/licensee of
the app, and you as the manufacturer of the app do not have the right
to make that data unavailable.

The copyright of the is mine, would i therefore not be the owner
of supplied data with the app??

I can se how data created with the app could be the
owner/licensee, but data supplied with the program (ergo not
compiled/created by the owner) should not be covered by that...

"Finn Stampe Mikkelsen" <stampe at (no spam) city.dk> wrote in
news:4af2a131$0$271$14726298 at (no spam) news.sunsite.dk:

The copyright of the is mine, would i therefore not be the owner
of supplied data with the app??

Depends on what you mean by "supplied data." We generally don't
consider forms/reports/modules/macros to be "data".


The data your customers insert into the tables behind your app is
their data. You have no legal or moral right to prevent them from
using it in any way they see fit. That doesn't mean you have to
support it, just that's it will get you in legal trouble if you try
to lock them out of their own data.

"David W. Fenton" <XXXusenet at (no spam) dfenton.com.invalid> skrev i
meddelelsen
news:Xns9CBA9C9C8A72Df99a49ed1d0c49c5bbb2 at (no spam) 74.209.136.97...
"Finn Stampe Mikkelsen" <stampe at (no spam) city.dk> wrote in
news:4af2a131$0$271$14726298 at (no spam) news.sunsite.dk:

The copyright of the is mine, would i therefore not be the owner
of supplied data with the app??

Depends on what you mean by "supplied data." We generally don't
consider forms/reports/modules/macros to be "data".


The data your customers insert into the tables behind your app is
their data. You have no legal or moral right to prevent them from
using it in any way they see fit. That doesn't mean you have to
support it, just that's it will get you in legal trouble if you
try to lock them out of their own data.


To specify the situation...:

I have a database app, that presents pre-excisting data to a user.
This data is supplied with the app and is not ment for the user to
edit. Alongside this data, there is another database containing
the user own additions to the data.

What i wanted to encrypt was the data supplied with the app, to
prevent someone from using this data to create there own app, with
similar functionallity...

Real life example.. Picture a digital phone directory, with the
option to add comments in the seperate database to every directory
entry. The data i want to encrypt is the actual directory supplied
with the program. i could'nt really care less about the data
created by the user..

Wether the data is in front-end or back end i have no idea of what
you talk about. Those concepts, datawise, are unfamiliar to me...

Besides that, this debate is off-topic in relation to the original
posting, concerning built-in ways to secure data in an accdb file.
It seems not to be a feature available...

"Finn Stampe Mikkelsen" <stampe at (no spam) city.dk> wrote in

To specify the situation...:

I have a database app, that presents pre-excisting data to a user.
This data is supplied with the app and is not ment for the user to
edit. Alongside this data, there is another database containing
the user own additions to the data.

Are these different data tables? What's the purpose of this data?
Does it like to the users' data?

What i wanted to encrypt was the data supplied with the app, to
prevent someone from using this data to create there own app, with
similar functionallity...

Oh, boo hoo. What makes you think your precious data is so fabulous
that somebody would want to "steal" it?

Or that somebody who knows what they are doing can't just look at
your app and recreate the data and the functionality just by
understanding what your app does?

Real life example.. Picture a digital phone directory, with the
option to add comments in the seperate database to every directory
entry. The data i want to encrypt is the actual directory supplied
with the program. i could'nt really care less about the data
created by the user..

Data cannot be copyrighted, so you don't have copyright on the data.
That's why so many reference databases are locked behind pay
firewalls, because once it's out, it's legal for anyone to use it.

Wether the data is in front-end or back end i have no idea of what
you talk about. Those concepts, datawise, are unfamiliar to me...

Then you must be a novice Access programmer. No properly designed
Access app puts the data tables and all the forms/reports/etc. into
a single file. Instead, the user interface objects are in the
front-end file and the data tables in a separate file, which the
front end links to.

Besides that, this debate is off-topic in relation to the original
posting, concerning built-in ways to secure data in an accdb file.
It seems not to be a feature available...

There is no encryption built into Access.

But if you need encryption, I don't think you should be using an
ACCDB to store your data.

--
David W. Fenton http://www.dfenton.com/
usenet at dfenton dot com http://www.dfenton.com/DFA/

There is no encryption built into Access.

I thought there is in A2007. I don't believe you can encrypt specific

David W. Fenton wrote:

There is no encryption built into Access.

I thought there is in A2007. I don't believe you can encrypt
specific tables or fields; it's all or nothing.

"David W. Fenton" <XXXusenet at (no spam) dfenton.com.invalid> skrev i
meddelelsen
news:Xns9CBAD16A2770Ef99a49ed1d0c49c5bbb2 at (no spam) 74.209.136.90...
"Finn Stampe Mikkelsen" <stampe at (no spam) city.dk> wrote in

To specify the situation...:

I have a database app, that presents pre-excisting data to a
user. This data is supplied with the app and is not ment for the
user to edit. Alongside this data, there is another database
containing the user own additions to the data.

Are these different data tables? What's the purpose of this data?
Does it like to the users' data?

The app has not yet been programmed and is planned to be written
in C# when done. The data can be in different tables or in
seperate databases. Makes no difference to the application in the
end..

The purpose of the data is as basis for a lookup. See it as a
phonebook. It is not actually a phonebook, but similar. The data
the user could add, could either be additional data to the records
in the supplied data or complete records to enhance the data that
can be accessed.

Either way, the initial data needs to be compiled an that takes a
lot of time so i would not like others to just be able to use that
data raw with other apps. I really can't se how this in anyway
could be illegal..

What i wanted to encrypt was the data supplied with the app, to
prevent someone from using this data to create there own app,
with similar functionallity...

Oh, boo hoo. What makes you think your precious data is so
fabulous that somebody would want to "steal" it?

What kind of attitude is that.

If you had a collection of data you had
assembled, would you not like to protect it.

Anyway, since the application
would potentially be used by many, it would be subject to hacking.
I really don't think i need to justify this to you or any other.

Or that somebody who knows what they are doing can't just look at
your app and recreate the data and the functionality just by
understanding what your app does?

Real life example.. Picture a digital phone directory, with the
option to add comments in the seperate database to every
directory entry. The data i want to encrypt is the actual
directory supplied with the program. i could'nt really care less
about the data created by the user..

Data cannot be copyrighted, so you don't have copyright on the
data. That's why so many reference databases are locked behind
pay firewalls, because once it's out, it's legal for anyone to
use it.

Ï'm quite sure that you are correct as far as the use is
restricted to the app to which it is supplied. I don't think i can
rip just any data supplied with any software and use it for my own
purpose

and i am sure, that if i
used that data to create a clone app with similar functions and
thereby try to steal the market of the company that released the
first app, that would not be legal..

Wether the data is in front-end or back end i have no idea of
what you talk about. Those concepts, datawise, are unfamiliar to
me...

Then you must be a novice Access programmer. No properly designed
Access app puts the data tables and all the forms/reports/etc.
into a single file. Instead, the user interface objects are in
the front-end file and the data tables in a separate file, which
the front end links to.

I never, as far as i know, stated to have any experience with
Access programming what so ever.

In fact i asked here, cause i believed that i
could get some help for that very same reason. You seem to have
understood, that the app i'm intending to write, will be written
in Access itself. This is not the case.

It will be a DOT.NET C# app, standalone but using accdb
files... The reason for that is besides the point. I could use
SQLExpress or SQL Server, but the choice has been made to make it
with an accdb database.

Besides that, this debate is off-topic in relation to the
original posting, concerning built-in ways to secure data in an
accdb file. It seems not to be a feature available...

There is no encryption built into Access.

But if you need encryption, I don't think you should be using an
ACCDB to store your data.

That may very well be true. But SQL Server is not an option and i
opted to not use SQLExpress for reasons not important to this
thread...

If under oh, say, 50 Mb, why not supply some sort of
encrypted text file and read the entire file into RAM into an
Enum. And see if it even needs to be sorted with a binary lookup
or not. Maybe running down 100K array sequentially is fast enough
for your requirements.

All i want is for tha database not to be able to opened other than
with the C# appz i'm coding to use it... It that possible or do i
have to use my own data encryption and leave the file open to look
at the garble-de-gook of encrypted data left in the file, only my
appz can decrypt before use...