4 ms·

Here's another White Hat use case for local IP addresses. You can use it to unobtrusively monitor license compliance for a SaaS biz. You charge each user. A

Here's another White Hat use case for local IP addresses. You can use it to unobtrusively monitor license compliance for a SaaS biz. You charge each user. A user is constantly logging on from multiple browsers during the day (e.g. IE and Chrome). With local IP knowledge you can determine whether or not this is being done from the same machine (still abiding by license terms), or from multiple machines (most likely sharing with a colleague and breaking license terms). Before this webRTC hack the only other way to do this that I am aware of, is via the dreaded Flash cookie.

chc 11y ago
I hope that doesn't catch on. I have a laptop, two desktops and a phone that I use depending on where I happen to be sitting. They are all me, though. Even desktop software like Adobe Creative Suite seems to acknowledge that people use more than one device these days.
- andrewchambers 11y ago
  I guess the approach is something like: 3 PC's? fine, 6? fine I guess. 58? ok something is going on.
ossreality 11y ago
>With local IP knowledge you can determine whether or not this is being done from the same machine (still abiding by license terms), no, no, no, no, no. scenario: a dhcp server that doesn't remember ip/mac associations.
AYBABTME 11y ago
This will raise a bunch of false positive, ruining the experience for legitimate users. I think you're better off focusing on increasing revenues by growing your user base instead of alienating existing ones.
- jgalt212 11y ago
  That's true, so you have to manage those false positives with other data points. A. How often do we see this user using multiple machines on the same day? B. Is access being made from two different machines at the same time (very high indicator of license sharing) At the end of the day no matter how much data you add to the equation, you are still dealing in probabilities. So as a business you must be careful about when and who you accuse of license violations.

chc 11y ago

I hope that doesn't catch on. I have a laptop, two desktops and a phone that I use depending on where I happen to be sitting. They are all me, though. Even desktop software like Adobe Creative Suite seems to acknowledge that people use more than one device these days.

andrewchambers 11y ago
I guess the approach is something like: 3 PC's? fine, 6? fine I guess. 58? ok something is going on.

ossreality 11y ago

>With local IP knowledge you can determine whether or not this is being done from the same machine (still abiding by license terms), no, no, no, no, no. scenario: a dhcp server that doesn't remember ip/mac associations.

AYBABTME 11y ago

This will raise a bunch of false positive, ruining the experience for legitimate users. I think you're better off focusing on increasing revenues by growing your user base instead of alienating existing ones.

jgalt212 11y ago
That's true, so you have to manage those false positives with other data points. A. How often do we see this user using multiple machines on the same day? B. Is access being made from two different machines at the same time (very high indicator of license sharing) At the end of the day no matter how much data you add to the equation, you are still dealing in probabilities. So as a business you must be careful about when and who you accuse of license violations.