Let’s say you download a game and can play it offline. In theory, everything you need is on your computer, right ? So how come people don’t just find everything, copy it and massively share (or sell for a lower price) folders with everything in ?
In: Technology
Some of the explanations on here are going into a separate issue (recovering source code). This really has nothing to do with what OP is asking.
OP you are right that in theory a program can be transferred to other computers simply by transferring all the files. In fact this is exactly what people used to do back in the day and it worked.
I remember when software companies started to require a serial number (usually found on the physical packaging). You would need a valid serial number or the software wouldn’t run. At first, software would check that a serial number was valid based on an algorithm it ran itself.
Later when the internet became prevalent, software would require an online validation of a serial number.
Now that most software does not come in a physical box, the protections are all happening behind the scenes I would assume. I’m sure any major software company has piracy protection built into their software.
So to answer your question, yes it is possible in concept but highly illegal and most software has hidden protections to prevent you from successfully doing this.
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