4 ms·

A question to those who are more experienced than me: I know that crackers are a big problem in the case of 'consumer software' e.g. games, simple utilities. M

by nadam 16y ago

A question to those who are more experienced than me: I know that crackers are a big problem in the case of 'consumer software' e.g. games, simple utilities. My assumption is that this is not a problem in case of software specifically created for small and medium-sized companies. So currently I think I will not build any copyright protection into the software I am creating right now. I assume that companies (at least in the 'developed countires') mostly play fair (-> behave according to the license of the software). Is my assumption right?

count 16y ago
I think it depends on how expensive your software is, and who makes the 'decision'. I've seen thousands of WinZip installs go unlicensed for years. I doubt anybody pirates Oracle for business use though.
- nadam 16y ago
  Thanks. My software is somewhere in-between: Both its price and its 'importance for the business' is somewhere between WinZip and Oracle.
- qeorge 16y ago
  Same experience here, but consider this: WinZip will work forever without being licensed. Oracle makes you buy a new license for every core. Part of it might be the cost of the software, but pirating Oracle is also much harder than pirating WinZip.
  - someone_here 16y ago
    Actually Corel just changed winzip to stop working after 60 days and saw a sales increase of 20%.
    - count 16y ago
      I always wondered how they made any money - then I did some work for the US DoD. Nearly every desktop has a licensed copy of WinZip! My new firm has WinZip licenses as well - while Windows can do zip files natively now, it still cannot (as far as I know?) encrypt them natively.
eli 16y ago
In my experience, medium to large organizations are usually mostly pretty good about licensing software. Small companies with no dedicated IT staff? Not so much.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
spatulon 16y ago
My experience is that companies generally have the intention of playing fair and paying for all the licenses they need, but without any license protection enforcing it, nobody is going to keep an eye on how many people are actually using the software within the organisation.
- wyday 16y ago
  This is exactly right - licensing exists for enforcing contracts. Weak systems (e.g. serial-only licensing) results in actual lost sales. It's not always malicious thieving - mostly it's just inefficient bureaucracy. This means you should either protect your software using hardware dongles, or online activation. Hardware dongles are a pain in the ass and will increase your support costs, but some companies prefer them. Nadam, if you're looking for licensing and online activation we're the makers of LimeLM (http://wyday.com/limelm/ http://wyday.com/limelm/ ). Or you can build your own. But we do offer entrepreneur friendly pricing.
pmorici 16y ago
Licensing 'dongles' are pretty common for more expensive business software, HASP is a common licensing dongle for example, http://www.aladdin.com/ http://www.aladdin.com/

by nadam 16y ago

count 16y ago

I think it depends on how expensive your software is, and who makes the 'decision'. I've seen thousands of WinZip installs go unlicensed for years. I doubt anybody pirates Oracle for business use though.

nadam 16y ago
Thanks. My software is somewhere in-between: Both its price and its 'importance for the business' is somewhere between WinZip and Oracle.
qeorge 16y ago
Same experience here, but consider this: WinZip will work forever without being licensed. Oracle makes you buy a new license for every core. Part of it might be the cost of the software, but pirating Oracle is also much harder than pirating WinZip.
- someone_here 16y ago
  Actually Corel just changed winzip to stop working after 60 days and saw a sales increase of 20%.
  - count 16y ago
    I always wondered how they made any money - then I did some work for the US DoD. Nearly every desktop has a licensed copy of WinZip! My new firm has WinZip licenses as well - while Windows can do zip files natively now, it still cannot (as far as I know?) encrypt them natively.

eli 16y ago

In my experience, medium to large organizations are usually mostly pretty good about licensing software. Small companies with no dedicated IT staff? Not so much.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

spatulon 16y ago

My experience is that companies generally have the intention of playing fair and paying for all the licenses they need, but without any license protection enforcing it, nobody is going to keep an eye on how many people are actually using the software within the organisation.

wyday 16y ago
This is exactly right - licensing exists for enforcing contracts. Weak systems (e.g. serial-only licensing) results in actual lost sales. It's not always malicious thieving - mostly it's just inefficient bureaucracy. This means you should either protect your software using hardware dongles, or online activation. Hardware dongles are a pain in the ass and will increase your support costs, but some companies prefer them. Nadam, if you're looking for licensing and online activation we're the makers of LimeLM (http://wyday.com/limelm/ http://wyday.com/limelm/ ). Or you can build your own. But we do offer entrepreneur friendly pricing.

pmorici 16y ago

Licensing 'dongles' are pretty common for more expensive business software, HASP is a common licensing dongle for example, http://www.aladdin.com/ http://www.aladdin.com/