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Recently, Adobe announced that it is moving the Creative Suite (which includes Photoshop and other graphic design applications) to Cloud-based licensing. The company will no longer distribute boxed versions with perpetual licenses. This move demonstrates a growing transition to Cloud-based subscription licensing, which SafeNet pioneered in 2010 with the introduction of the first Cloud-based software licensing service – Sentinel Cloud.

Adobe is positioning this announcement as very beneficial to its users, providing the customer with immediate access to the latest features and upgrades, enhanced collaboration, cloud based storage, and more. Read More

In the first part of this post, I discussed the history of software piracy, its accelerated growth and some of the legislative efforts against it, such as the DMCA and PRO-IP acts. These may be two of the most prominent initiatives in the battle against software piracy, but there are other efforts worth mentioning – both legislative and commercial, with household names such as Google and PayPal being very active examples of the latter. Read More

Electronic distribution of pirated software and other copyrighted materials didn’t start with the advent of the worldwide web during the 1990’s. A full decade earlier, people have been using dial-up modems to connect to private bulletin board systems (or BBS), which in many ways can be regarded not only as a precursor to the web, but also to the illegal and widespread electronic distribution of copyrighted materials.

Two decades of constant growth have made the internet a ubiquitous commodity, and its potential as a vehicle for piracy is now at an all time high.

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A common argument against DRM is that it punishes paying customers without successfully preventing piracy. Legitimate users are restricted from freely using the content or software that they rightfully own, while illegitimate users can still download the very same content, and use it without restrictions – and without paying the publisher. Read More