Hi,
Way OT but worth a shot...
I've historically imaged each of my (COTS) distribution media as a backup against loss -- floppies, CD's, DVD's -- even *tapes*! This lets me "mistreat" the originals (e.g., store them under the bed, in the garage, etc.) and not run the risk of losing their contents (yet still retaining the original media in case the "software police" come knocking!)
I HAVE ASSUMED THE IMAGES ACCURATELY REPRESENT THE ORIGINAL MEDIA (i.e., if a file resided in sectors A, B and Q on the original medium, then recreating that medium from the "image" would result in that file, once again, occupying sectors A, B and Q!) As such, any "security by obscurity" measures shouldn't come into play -- any reconstructed copy of the medium would be indistiguishable from the original.
[Yes, I recognize there are ways to make the original "truly unique" and irreproducible... but, that's not the subject of this post]I typically record the "activation code", serial number, etc. *on* each of the original media. So, when I make the image (on *bulk* media), I have to add a tag-along file: "SerialNumber"
This can get separated from the image file. Or, if I have 3 different image files (Version X, Version Y, Version Z), then I need 3 different S/N files (SerialNumberX, SerialNumberY, SerialNumberZ).
What I would *prefer* to do is add these SerialNumber files to their respective media images. Just like writing *on* the physical medium!
The only downside I can foresee would be if some copy-protection scheme was overly pedantic -- actually examining raw sectors of the media for specific content (e.g., the exemplar file, above, MUST reside in sectors A, B and Q). Or, even *absent* content! (e.g., sector 12345 should be "unused" *and* contain the following data:...)
Are we past the days of this sort of insanity? E.g., verifying volume names, "hidden" files, etc.?