4 ms·

True, but note that in many cases the goal is not absolute security but rather making it as inconvenient as possible for someone to circumvent the licensing. I

by rsp1984 6y ago

True, but note that in many cases the goal is not absolute security but rather making it as inconvenient as possible for someone to circumvent the licensing. In some cases the licensing security is even weak by design, e.g. Windows 95 or the early AutoCAD. This is desirable when the size of the userbase itself is of value (which is actually true for a lot of software!).

huhtenberg 6y ago
Cases like W95 and Photoshop are exceptional edge cases that worked for them as a part of a very aggressive marketing push with a very long-term market domination goal. It doesn't apply to ISV products that need to feed their devs right now. If you add licensing enforcement into your program, making it trivially breakable is just... dumb. At the very least it will pollute the heck out of native search results with all the hacked versions, because THAT will in fact be the more relevant search for a lot of people. Secondly, people won't bother actually buying a license if a hacked version works. It's a very persistent urban legend that allowing easy hacks is good for adoption, but it's a legend indeed. Making products less easily hackable results in massive increase in sales.
- danenania 6y ago
  It depends a lot on where your revenue comes from. If it comes from large businesses, realistically they aren’t likely to pirate since it’s a legal risk to them and a hassle compared to just buying the thing. In that case, some token DRM could be enough.
  - bscphil 6y ago
    > If it comes from large businesses, realistically they aren’t likely to pirate since it’s a legal risk to them In that case, wouldn't a "free for personal use" license be sufficient? I know some software Oracle's VirtualBox, for example, implement something like this and it must work for them because they come down hard on supposed violators.
    - danenania 6y ago
      Yes, that could work, though I think if you make it too easy for people to use it for free, then many will do so just as the path of least resistance, at least until you make an issue of it. Just putting some kind of minor barrier in the way is enough to make paying the easier option, and it doesn't require any monitoring or enforcement.

huhtenberg 6y ago

Cases like W95 and Photoshop are exceptional edge cases that worked for them as a part of a very aggressive marketing push with a very long-term market domination goal. It doesn't apply to ISV products that need to feed their devs right now. If you add licensing enforcement into your program, making it trivially breakable is just... dumb. At the very least it will pollute the heck out of native search results with all the hacked versions, because THAT will in fact be the more relevant search for a lot of people. Secondly, people won't bother actually buying a license if a hacked version works. It's a very persistent urban legend that allowing easy hacks is good for adoption, but it's a legend indeed. Making products less easily hackable results in massive increase in sales.

danenania 6y ago
It depends a lot on where your revenue comes from. If it comes from large businesses, realistically they aren’t likely to pirate since it’s a legal risk to them and a hassle compared to just buying the thing. In that case, some token DRM could be enough.
- bscphil 6y ago
  > If it comes from large businesses, realistically they aren’t likely to pirate since it’s a legal risk to them In that case, wouldn't a "free for personal use" license be sufficient? I know some software Oracle's VirtualBox, for example, implement something like this and it must work for them because they come down hard on supposed violators.
  - danenania 6y ago
    Yes, that could work, though I think if you make it too easy for people to use it for free, then many will do so just as the path of least resistance, at least until you make an issue of it. Just putting some kind of minor barrier in the way is enough to make paying the easier option, and it doesn't require any monitoring or enforcement.