Re: Protecting Software w/ Software License
Re: Protecting Software w/ Software License
- Subject: Re: Protecting Software w/ Software License
- From: Michael Gersten <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 13:28:02 -0700
I'll take a serious stab at this.
Chilton Webb wrote:
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Since it appears many people know far more about the answers to the
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piracy questions than I ever hope to, I offer a few questions of my own.
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I'm torn on some of them, but I thought I'd answer anyway. Feel free to
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answer any you care to, on or off list, as this may be not-so-on-topic
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for Cocoa development.
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If my software is pirated heavily, is that a bad thing?
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If my software is pirated only by 4 people, is that a bad thing?
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If no one pirates my software, is that a good thing?
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If no one wants to pirate my software, is that a good thing?
If no one wants to pirate your software, then it has little to no demand, and needs to be improved.
If no one wants to pirate it, your software is dead.
If no one pirates it, then there are two possibilities:
1. People want it, and cannot -- Congratulations, you can patent your protection system!
2. No one wants it -- see two paragraphs back.
If it is only pirated by 4 people, then you know
A: It can be pirated, and
B: There is little to no demand.
Again, it's not good software. (Fn 1)
If it is pirated heavily, then the question is, are you making enough money to make your job of producing software worth it?
Consider this idea: Every user of free software has a pirated, unpaid for copy.
They want their software to be heavily pirated. Probably the most successfully pirated author is Larry Wall. (Fn 2)
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If I lose five users for every ten I get, because my anti-piracy scheme
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makes using my app horribly difficult to use under certain
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circumstances, is that a bad thing?
You are getting 66% of maximum revenue.
You are losing (opportunity cost) whatever you'd be making if you had a non-restrictive anti piracy scheme and had whatever the theft rate was.
** You are also getting a reputation as hard to use software **
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If I demand that my users be connected to the Internet once a month, is
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that a bad thing? How should I implement the user interface to tell them
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that it's time to refresh their key? Is this approach too much like
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parole?
This is a seriously done commercial idea. There is plenty of software that is commercially licensed by the month, etc.
How about "Your license will expire in 5 days." <Remind me later> <Refresh license now>.
** Do not: "Your license is now expired" <Exit> <Refresh license>
with no way to refresh in advance. Not everyone has constant connections, or even "as needed" connections.
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If I let my user only use the software for 30 days, and their laptop
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battery disconnects briefly when they drop their powerbook, messing with
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the clock, is it okay to accuse them of piracy when they call to get a
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new key? What about after they've purchased the software, but before
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their copy of the CD arrives? Macromedia did it to me, I thought I'd ask.
Hmm... I would never accuse someone of piracy just because of one call for "I need a new key".
Even Windows XP doesn't do that.
Macromedia did it to you? Consider how much bad press there are getting in this relatively small field. Consider how much bad press they will get when the readers of this list start mentioning it to others.
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If I buy some software and it's stolen from me, is it my fault? How do I
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get a new copy? Is there anything that as a developer I should do to
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prevent people from using stolen serial numbers?
This is a problem.
If you sell a copy of software, and it's stolen, then the customer is out of luck.
If you _LICENSE_ the use of the software, and one copy is stolen, then the customer still has a _LICENSE TO USE THE SOFTWARE_.
I'm not a lawyer. I don't know if that has ever been argued in court. I think that software companies -- especially those that use key disks, installation key codes, etc. -- are on a time bomb.
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If I require that the user inserts the Install CD, how do I handle
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online purchases?
Probably like Intuit does. Call, or visit a web site. Give a credit card number. Get an activation code. Type code into program.
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If the user sells their copy of software I wrote to another user, who
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then calls in with a problem, using user a's serial number, do I honor
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the request for help? If they bought it off of eBay, do I honor the
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request?
Hmm ... ...
Does your license require that you are notified when ownership changes?
If you sold that copy, ???
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If I bump the price of my software unbelievably high, then secretly hand
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out the serial numbers on Warez sites, so as to drive my competition's
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fairly priced (but not as oft pirated) software out of the market, then
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implement an anti-piracy scheme for v.2 of my software, is that Evil, or
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just Malicious?
Hmm ... sounds very Gatian. You know, cheap office all-in-one, drive the high priced, well written, low bug competition off the market, then raise the price of yours once you have no competition.
Or perhaps it's Sunny. You know, free office all-in-one, lower the demand for the higher priced, buggy software, then start charging the market rate. OK, so it's not the same :-)
Evil? Define Evil.
My definition: Doing something to deliberately hurt another that does not also help yourself.
By that definition, no, it's not evil.
(Odd definition? I kill to eat. I deliberately hurt another to help myself.)
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If I make a backup copy of my software and someone comes by and steals
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my backup and puts it on a warez site, is it my fault?
I say no.
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If I give them the disk but tell them not to put it on the warez site,
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and they do it anyway, is it my fault?
You gave the disk away?
If you are a licensed user, does that violate the license agreement?
If you purchased a copy, and installed, then giving it away without removing your installed copy violates copyright.
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If I give them the disk, and don't tell them not to put it on the warez
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site, and they do it, is it my fault?
See above.
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If I accidentally leave my backup disk at a friend's house who runs a
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warez site, am I to blame if he puts it on his site?
Why did you take your backup disk to that friend?
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If I use pirated software, but later buy the company that wrote the
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software, am I still in trouble?
Hrrmmm...give yourself a complementary license. :-)
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If I use pirated software, but later buy the software that I pirated, is
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that bad?
Heck no. I consider that "Try before I buy".
I won't purchase software that I cannot try first, or return if I don't like it.
I've been burned by bad software far too many times.
The last time was Dungeon Keeper. I do mean _Last_ time.
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If I buy some software, but the key I'm given doesn't work, and I have
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to use a pirated serial number, is that bad?
Hey, reminds me of my Starcraft. :-) (See above re: licensed software and time bomb)
I don't consider it bad. I do think that you need to contact the company and get a good key.
If they won't give you a good key, that's another thing entirely.
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If I implement a system that uses the end user's personal information to
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gen the password, and that password/serial number gets out, and people
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get ahold of that user's personal info, am I liable for any damages that
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come about as a result of that?
If your system is a two-way -- you can recover the personal info from the password -- then you probably will be found guilty of this in our courts.
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Who came up with this 'you may have a backup copy' clause, and do I have
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to use it?
My understanding (I'm not a lawyer) is that copyright law does permit this, under fair use if no where else.
If you are licensing the use, then the user's making a backup copy is just proper security.
If you license the use, and prohibit a backup via copy protection, and the user's installed copy dies, then
(A) They have a valid license,
(B) Your software has done things to terminate the use of the software,
(C) They have done nothing to violate the license,
(D) You are on a time bomb in court.
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Is piracy bad?
Depends on who you ask.
Is music piracy bad? Is radio bad? (Fn 3)
Fn1:
A low rate of piracy in a small, vertical market is NOT an indication of bad software. If, for example, you have a market size of 30-100 possible customers, sell 20, and have 5 pirates, then you have a very large market share.
Fn2:
Larry wall did something that most people considered impossible. He wrote several major pieces of internet software -- including rn, the best news reader when the volume of news was still low enough to read. (rn's basic assumption was that you wanted to read all, or most, of the groups that you subscribed to, and that the total number of groups was manageably small).
He then managed to release patches to rn, to improve it, and __kept everyone up to date on patches__
One of the big tenants of open source development, the "sufficient number of eyeballs" comment, is that on every update you can expect to lose people who don't bother to upgrade.
Neither 'rn' nor 'patch' had any significant number of non-upgraders.
Fn3:
Radio -- the ability to listen to music for free -- increased music sales.
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-Chilton
Michael
--
I am a Mac 10-Cocoa/WOF/EOF developer, and I'm available for hire. Please contact me at michael-job @ stb.nccom.com if interested. Resume at
http://resumes.dice.com/keybounce
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