Anti-piracy

What do you really want from your software licensing solution? Strong, robust protection is great for you and your company. With piracy and reverse-engineering threats lurking around every corner, you need a solution that will strengthen your security. But what else should you be looking for out of a software licensing solution? Read More

HR 3261, or the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is currently being considered in the US congress.  Like most legislation that deals with the Internet, it comes with a certain amount of controversy.

At its heart, the bill is designed to help prevent the illegal distribution of intellectual property – music, movies, software, books, periodicals and so on.  Even today the notion of copying media is still somehow not perceived as stealing by many people.  While walking in to a bookstore or music store and taking something without paying for it is clearly understood to be stealing, many people don’t consider the download of the same material to be illegal.  It is.  Regardless of the legality – when people stop to think about it – they realize that it is morally wrong.

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I have always talked about how important it is for software vendors to include technology with their solutions to help manage their licensing policies. This can be anything from outright enforcement and anti-piracy measures to tools to measure and monitor compliance with license agreements. The great thing about putting this kind of technology in to a software solution is that it eliminates doubt, misunderstanding and audit.

Today,  there is a wide array of technical solutions that allow software vendors to implement a licensing solution that removes ambiguity and allows flexibility, seemingly solving the primary issues for both the vendor and the customer in a licensing relationship. Companies like mine provide solutions that do that in pretty much every software delivery mode – i.e. online, packaged and embedded. The internet provides additional opportunities to ISVs and their customers, not only for the delivery of the license, but also now for maintaining, measuring, updating, and publishing compliance to both parties. This allows for an entirely open relationship and one that can virtually eliminate the issues faced between vendors and their customers. Read More

While your current security infrastructure is robust, you need to ensure that you effectively keep your implementation protected in order to increase your product’s longevity and significantly increase your company’s revenue. Read More

In the past we have discussed how many of our customers are interested in fighting piracy in developing nations. Hard data is always a challenge. The New York Times posted …
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In speaking with our larger global customers I’ve noticed a troubling and difficult conundrum when it comes to software licensing trends. Firstly, ISV customers in established, advanced economies are demanding greater granularity and flexibility than ever before when it comes to how they implement and use software. In most cases the ISV’s are more than happy to oblige. Closer alignment of pricing and value creates happier customers, less discounting and more achievable up sell opportunities for the future. Read More

A great article describing the depth Microsoft goes to in order to protect customers from pirated software.

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I don’t know if they teach this in every MBA program, but I am sure you have heard that every business case can be boiled down to a certain number of “P”s. It is just a question of how many…some have 4 P’s, some have 5; but in this world of Twitter and brevity, I am going to go with the three that matter most when you think about creating licensing approaches for software: Piracy, Portability, and Profitability. Read More