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In enterprise (and academic) settings a traditional approach has been to let the client run the license server. That's how Matlab works, for example: a network-

by mjn 13y ago

In enterprise (and academic) settings a traditional approach has been to let the client run the license server. That's how Matlab works, for example: a network-licensed copy won't start up unless it can "phone home", but typically it phones home to the license server run by the client, on the client's network, not to centralized DRM servers run by the vendor. I know for consumer software things are slowly moving towards centralized-DRM as the norm, but I thought for enterprise applications this kind of self-hosted license server was still the norm. Maybe not?

warfangle 13y ago
Theoretically, the bitcoin ledger could be used as a decentralized phone-home.
- interstitial 13y ago
  Or say any other type of crypto-ledger that is not participating in the currently fadish pump-n-dump bitcoin schemes. And I post this comment knowing I will suffer the down-vote rage of bitcoiners.
  - to3m 13y ago
    The only possible reasonable response to this well-meaning comment is to point out that you spell it "faddish".
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
Silhouette 13y ago
I know for consumer software things are slowly moving towards centralized-DRM as the norm, but I thought for enterprise applications this kind of self-hosted license server was still the norm. Maybe not? It seems to depend on the application/software developer. Just about everything serious I've worked with in recent years defaults to needing some sort of phone-home activation in the first instance. Some certainly have alternative options, usually at a significant but not off-the-chart price premium, to have a floating licence server on your own network so you can have up to N machines running at once but it doesn't have to be the same N all the time. And of course various brands are trying to push some popular software suites towards a full-on subscription model anyway: Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite come to mind. Unfortunately, my businesses currently fall into an awkward middle ground, shared by many start-ups and probably freelancers/contractors/small agencies as well, where you're not really into volume licensing or floating licence server territory, but you still rely on heavyweight professional software to get things done. Basically, we have none of the protections of a consumer because we're operating as a business, but we also lack the natural bargaining power and the in-house legal department a larger business would have. Sadly, despite recommendations even from a formal review within the legal profession, neither our previous government nor the current one seem keen on fixing this. That leaves many of us in a permanent position of vulnerability to these kinds of Internet-based DRM schemes, where the failure of a key software supplier could quite literally bring down our entire company overnight, even though we have already completely paid for all the software we need. And yes, as a business owner, that does scare the $#!% out of me.

by mjn 13y ago

warfangle 13y ago

Theoretically, the bitcoin ledger could be used as a decentralized phone-home.

interstitial 13y ago
Or say any other type of crypto-ledger that is not participating in the currently fadish pump-n-dump bitcoin schemes. And I post this comment knowing I will suffer the down-vote rage of bitcoiners.
- to3m 13y ago
  The only possible reasonable response to this well-meaning comment is to point out that you spell it "faddish".
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

Silhouette 13y ago

I know for consumer software things are slowly moving towards centralized-DRM as the norm, but I thought for enterprise applications this kind of self-hosted license server was still the norm. Maybe not? It seems to depend on the application/software developer. Just about everything serious I've worked with in recent years defaults to needing some sort of phone-home activation in the first instance. Some certainly have alternative options, usually at a significant but not off-the-chart price premium, to have a floating licence server on your own network so you can have up to N machines running at once but it doesn't have to be the same N all the time. And of course various brands are trying to push some popular software suites towards a full-on subscription model anyway: Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite come to mind. Unfortunately, my businesses currently fall into an awkward middle ground, shared by many start-ups and probably freelancers/contractors/small agencies as well, where you're not really into volume licensing or floating licence server territory, but you still rely on heavyweight professional software to get things done. Basically, we have none of the protections of a consumer because we're operating as a business, but we also lack the natural bargaining power and the in-house legal department a larger business would have. Sadly, despite recommendations even from a formal review within the legal profession, neither our previous government nor the current one seem keen on fixing this. That leaves many of us in a permanent position of vulnerability to these kinds of Internet-based DRM schemes, where the failure of a key software supplier could quite literally bring down our entire company overnight, even though we have already completely paid for all the software we need. And yes, as a business owner, that does scare the $#!% out of me.