Category Archives

8 Posts for Software Piracy

May 1
2012 

White Box Encryption Debuts

by R. Colin Johnson

by R. Colin Johnson
Guest Contributor to LicensingLive
Originally published on Smarter Technology.

 

With hackers becoming increasingly sophisticated traditional “black box’ encryption techniques no longer cut it, necessitating a new era of “white box” encryption that is virtually uncrackable.

Traditional encryption techniques assume that the code that executes the security algorithms is hidden, so that hackers can only eavesdrop on what goes into and comes out of the “black box” making it very difficult to crack. Unfortunately, cryptographic algorithms that are executed in software can be extracted by enterprising hackers and executed in the broad daylight of their own or an untrustworthy platform.

Mar 28
2012 

Do software vendors intentionally allow ways to bypass their enforcement mechanism?

by David DiMillo

This is a juicy question was posed on Quora (http://b.qr.ae/HmF392). I was intrigued by a couple of the responses and added my own.  Here is my view…

The answer is yes but mostly no. Confused?

Here’s how it usually works…

First, software vendors separate compliance strategy from piracy prevention because they are inherently different beasts. This can be done by placing their customers along a compliance continuum.  On the left you have customers who go to lengths to be compliant and will gladly pay for software they use regardless of whether the software has license enforcement or not. On the right you have users who intentionally use pirated software and wouldn’t pay for it if they couldn’t steal it. The vendor’s focus is clearly on the left end of the scale since this offers the largest revenue opportunity.  The right is often nothing more than noise.

When vendors introduce license enforcement, the most common philosophy (by far) is to consider the enforcement a tool that will help keep their honest customers doing the right thing and to facilitate creative licensing models. All software license enforcement tools have some level of vulnerability. However, the software market usually considers the higher-end commercial enforcement products more than adequate to cover ~90%+ of their continuum, working from left to right.

That 10% is essentially the topic of the original question posed in this post. The software vendor asks itself if it really cares about investing additional time and resources making the enforcement more air-tight to further prevent piracy by users who would never pay them.

All said, there is always a point of diminishing return and vendors choose to not care a whole lot about usage where they’d never see any revenue.

I agree with the premise that many companies would rather see users stealing their software than paying a competitor. However, applying the notion of the compliance continuum, the real money is typically on the left end of the scale with companies that wouldn’t use pirated software in the first place so the revenue in question is likely a fudge factor at best.

What do you think?

Jan 25
2012 

Sentinel Cloud Wins CODiE Award for Best DRM Solution!

by Michelle Nerlinger

 

Last night, the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) announced the winners of the 2012 CODiE awards – an awards program 27 years in the making dedicated to recognizing excellence in the business software, digital content, and education technology industries. I am pleased to announce that SafeNet’s software licensing and entitlement management solution for cloud services, Sentinel Cloud, was awarded the industry’s Best Digital Rights Management Solution CODiE award!

SafeNet's CODiE Award
Prakash Panjwani with SafeNet’s CODiE Award for Best DRM Solution
Nov 18
2011 

Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

by Chris Holland

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.

Oct 4
2011 

Unmanaged Software Licensing Causes Buyer Side Angst

by Chris Holland

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.

Jul 27
2011 

When Does Software Monetization End for SaaS?

by Chris Holland

Great companies consider and plan for the whole user experience – the product, its price, how its purchased, updates through its life and the service and support provided.

In the days when products were purchased up front – and the monetary relationship came to a close – all the burden was on the buyer to research, plan and hope that, after parting with their money (monetization ends), the product will have met and continued to meet or exceed their expectations.  Because the customer experience often falls below this mark – and yes, sometimes with enterprise software – the dynamics of the buyer/vendor relationship are changing.

Jul 5
2011 

Can Piracy be Good for Business?

by Justin Benson

Two recent events caused me to stop and consider whether piracy could be considered good for business.

The first example involves a children’s book.  You may have heard of this particular book as it’s causing something of a stir. “Go the XXXX to Sleep” is written as a humorous book (a “Children’s book for Adults” per the author) that focuses on the difficulties some parents face when it comes to getting their children to sleep.

What’s remarkable is that it managed to grab the number 1 slot on Amazon’s bestseller list – a month before release.  However, what makes it even more remarkable is