It looks like a great deal. For just $189.99, you can download the latest version of the Microsoft Office Professional 2019. Indeed, it seems too good to be true, but that offer is just one of many on several websites that sell discounted software.
As we look back on 2019, we want to share some of our most popular blog articles on software license compliance and piracy.
We are excited to share this guest post from our partner Connor.
Jason and Michael close out the year and Season 2 of the Piracy Impact Podcast with a great behind-the-scenes conversation with Revulytics’ VP of Product and Strategy, Vic DeMarines. Vic talks about his background in security software with companies ...
Michael turns the microphone on Jason for a very special episode of the Piracy Impact Podcast! Hear Jason’s software license compliance origin story and how he made the transition from sales to compliance before joining Revulytics. Jason also shares ...
We are excited to share this guest post from our partner Connor.
Jason and Michael travel to Worcester, Massachusetts to speak with John McInnes and Jodi McLane, founding partners of intellectual property law firm McInnes & McLane. John and Jodi discuss the importance of software vendors laying the groundwork to ...
In this episode we share the final interview from our conference in Paris where Jason spoke with Vinod Moza, Senior Group Director and Worldwide Head, License Compliance, at Cadence Design Systems. Vinod shares that “once confronted with the ...
We are excited to share this guest post from our partner Connor. For companies with limited resources, deciding to start a compliance program can be tricky. As we’ve outlined in our previous blog post, there are good reasons to establish a ...
Jason speaks with Rafael Amaral, senior partner at Brazilian intellectual property law firm Kasznar Leonardos. Rafael had just stepped off the stage from presenting at Revulytics’ recent conference in Paris, so he was ready to share his thoughts on ...
We feature another conversation from Jason’s trip to Paris when he spoke with Dominique Laffret, VP at leading CAD/CAM vendor TopSolid. Dominique discusses how they decided they needed to track and measure the illegal use of their software and how ...
Jason traveled to Paris and spoke with Borja Suarez, a lawyer specializing in intellectual property law working in international environments at Law 21 in Madrid. Borja talks about the different methods of engagement when doing software license ...
According to the most recent BSA Global Software Survey in 2018, software piracy in the United States is reported to be at 15 percent (down from 19 percent in 2011), yet has a commercial value of $8.6 billion (down slightly from 9.7 billion in 2011).
According to the most recent BSA Global Software Survey in 2018, software piracy in Russia is reported to be at 62 percent with a commercial value of $1.29 billion. While the piracy rate has remained relatively steady since 2011 (when it was 63 ...
China’s reputation for its heavy use of pirated software is well established. According to the latest Revulytics Compliance Intelligence data, China topped our list of Top 20 license misuse and piracy hotspots.
Like no other industry, software companies have had a long and conflicted history with those who misappropriate and misuse their intellectual property. As long as there has been software, there has been software misuse, which includes overuse ...
Commercial Value of Unlicensed Software in North America and Western Europe Data from the BSA Global Software Survey 2018 shows significant revenue generation opportunities in regions with strong intellectual property (IP) laws.
As long as there has been software, there has been software misuse: both pirated use (companies using pirated versions of software with cracked licenses) and overuse (legitimate customers exceeding the legal use defined in a license agreement). ...
What is Software Piracy? Software piracy is the use of unlicensed software where the user has never paid the software vendor a licensing fee for the application. It can be contrasted with “license overuse” where the user has paid a software vendor a ...
Consider it a compliment that a company wants to use your software product, even if it’s an unlicensed version. After all, despite the financial hit, the culprit could have chosen a competitor’s product.
Piracy has long been a thorn in the side of the software industry. A 2018 survey found that worldwide, 37% of software installed on personal computers is unlicensed, with the commercial value of that unlicensed software coming in at $46.3 billion. ...
Jason and Michael hit the road to Connecticut again - this time to talk to Gerber Technology’s VP and GM Sam Simpson. Sam talks about his more than 40 years at Gerber starting as a software engineer and now as vice president of the company’s global ...
Jason and Michael take advantage of the International Trademark Association’s (INTA) annual meeting in Boston to speak with MSA IP’s Milos Bogdanovic. MSA IP – Milojevic, Sekulic and Associates is a boutique law firm which specializes in prosecution ...
Be sure to start with Episode 4 for part 1 of this conversation! In part 2 of this interview, Michael continues his conversation with former Dassault Systemes Anti-Piracy and Compliance Head Andy Clarkson. Andy shares more about the evolution of ...
In part 1 of this interview, Michael talks to former Dassault Systemes Anti-Piracy and Compliance Head Andy Clarkson about leaving a 24 year career in UK law enforcement to build a career at IBM and Dassault addressing software piracy. Andy shares ...
Jason and Michael take advantage of the International Trademark Association’s (INTA) annual meeting in Boston to speak with Anand & Anand’s Shantanu Sahay. Anand and Anand is among the largest practices specializing in Intellectual Property laws in ...
Jason and Michael took a trip to Connecticut to talk to leading CAD/CAM vendor CNC Software’s Chief Legal Officer, Gary Hargreaves. The company’s Mastercam software is designed to solve the world’s manufacturing challenges and has more than 250,000 ...
“It’s not a technology project, it’s a business project,” is often heard as stakeholders seek to build consensus and gain support for programs that require technical resources and buy-in. Yet, often times too much is expected of engineering ...
Interested in hearing from the leaders of software license compliance on the front lines of software piracy? Of course you are! These topics are usually covered in one-to-one conversations away from microphones, so we are excited to bring you a new ...
Softwarepiraten zu zahlenden Kunden machen Softwarepiraterie ist nach wie vor ein großes Thema. Lizenzüberschreitungen durch Kunden sind immer noch ein großes Problem. Lassen Sie uns also über Software-Compliance-Analysen und Daten sprechen, die ...
Converting Software Pirates to Paying Customers Software piracy is still a big issue. Customer overuse is still a big issue. So let’s talk about software compliance analytics and the data that helps you convert pirates into paying customers. ...
The chain of events set in motion by SAP’s actions against so-called “indirect access” (where 5,800 users utilized SAP’s software engine on a single license through a third party application) was front-page news in the world of enterprise software ...
Google’s top searches of 2018 included the World Cup, unicorn cakes and 1980’s fashion. While that’s all very exciting, the world of software license compliance had its moments too this year. Here’s a look at our top picks for software license ...
We thought it would be interesting to update our blog post from 2017 in which we looked at China’s Golden Week and its impact on the use of pirated software by businesses. In that post we examined years of our compliance intelligence data on the use ...
Over the years, the software vendors conducting the most licensing audits haven’t changed much, according to the most recent survey by the International Business Software Managers Association (IBSMA). Microsoft, Adobe and IBM still top that list. ...
According to Gartner, analytics enables software providers to improve retention and revenue by “tracking how often and when the software (including specific modules) is being used, allowing identification of licensing compliance gaps.” Let’s ...
According to the 2018 BSA Global Software Survey, the commercial value of unlicensed software was $46.3 billion dollars. Revulytics compliance analytics has supported customer compliance programs generating more than $2.4 billion in new license ...
BSA | The Software Alliance recently released its 2018 Global Software Survey and I thought it would be useful to review some of the findings and their implications for software vendors and end user organizations.
Every time I travel through an airport or workout at Harvard Stadium, I am reminded of the phenomenon that is Fitbit. Perhaps the only thing capable of competing for attention that people reserve for their smartphones is the desire to sneak a peek ...
As the May 25, 2018 deadline for the General Data Protection Act (GDPR) regulations inches closer, there isn’t a compliance officer on the planet who isn’t consumed with making sure every asset is covered. With the networked, global nature of our ...
It’s a complex time to be a compliance manager.
If you’re in the software industry, then you already know that piracy is big business. The BSA recently estimated the commercial value of unlicensed software to be $46.3 billion (be sure to read “2018 Revulytics Software Piracy Statistics and ...
Likely, in some trade show, meeting or some other PowerPoint-driven conversation, you’ve come across this quote attributed to Albert Einstein: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” (Perhaps, you’ve even silently ...
Are you responsible for license compliance at a software company? This short video will show you how Revulytics proven solution enables you to identify non-compliant use and recover license revenue without alienating your users.
At the cornerstone of technology giant Adobe’s strategies to combat software piracy is a simple truth – pirates are often victims who thought they legitimately paid for the software. Hackers have become so sophisticated that landing pages to ...
So far, we’ve been guiding you through your “ideal day”: the compliance manager’s state-of-the-art experience. In our first three posts, we talked about streamlining and automating the process of uncovering infringement you can monetize. Then, in ...
Software piracy can happen in a blink of an eye. Check out our latest infographic on software piracy to see how it happens, how quickly it's adopted by your prospects (often unknowingly), and how it negatively impacts your software revenues.
Efficiently moving cases to action With conventional compliance management systems, it can be difficult to organize and manage the cases you’re pursuing – especially as you scale, and must share just the right information with sales teams, ...
Refining and prioritizing your leads with exceptionally detailed information In our previous post, we showed how you can quickly get access to large amounts of accurate and usable information about potentially infringing clients and prospects. Now, ...
If you want a successful compliance program that will generate top-line revenue for your company, collecting infringement data is not enough. Detecting and reporting on the unlicensed use of your software is just the first step in taking a proactive ...
In our recent post, we asked you to imagine your “ideal” day as a compliance manager – and we explored why too few compliance managers experience days like that. In this and future posts, we’ll take a closer look at what your ideal experience can ...
At a time when we are all too quick to click “Agree” and share our data in exchange for access to the latest cool app (or a coupon for 10% off your next purchase), it may be time to paraphrase Bo Diddley and ask a new question: “Who Do You Trust?” ...
If you’re a compliance manager, I invite you to imagine your ideal day.
As we enter the New Year, it is customary for a wide-eyed sense of optimism to permeate much of our work. Perhaps this feeling has seeped into how you’re looking at fighting software piracy in 2017. “We sorted out a bunch of customers in 2016 and ...
Facebook recently revealed its list of the most talked about topics on its users’ news feeds in 2016. Running in third, behind arguably more important discourse on the US presidential election and Brazilian politics, was the international phenomenon ...
In the tech world, we’re quite fond of the “end-of-year” story roundup. A quick Google search on the topic will yield a variety of layouts and angles that is sure to satisfy whatever thirst for nerdom you’re looking to quench – whether it’s a look ...
You have likely seen the news about Boeing’s $17 billion deal with Iran Air for 80 aircraft, but have you wondered about what it means for software vendors? While there is some uncertainty around whether the deal will withstand the scrutiny of the ...
Tip 7: Make Sure Your Software Intelligence Investment Pays Off
Tip 6: Get Actionable Data to Ensure Revenue Recovery is in Your Future
Tip 5: Proper Vetting, Implementation Can Make or Break a Software Intelligence Program
Tip 4: Get the Best Tools to Defeat Pirates and Generate Revenue
Tip 3: Recognize the Limitations of Conventional Approaches to Preventing Software Piracy
Tip 2: Get Executive Support for a Top License Compliance Program
Tip 1: Acknowledge that Piracy is a Big Problem (and Opportunity)
“OK Michael, nice rant blog post about the BSA’s Global Software Survey, but how about you put your money where your mouth is and offer up some more meaningful piracy statistics of your own?” (Anonymous email from a blog reader)
Thoughts on the May 2016 BSA Global Software Survey Feel free to pregame for this blog post/rant by reading my response to the last global software study published by BSA | The Software Alliance in June 2014.
As part of V.i. Labs' education campaign with FAST (Federation Against Software Theft), I'll be joining FAST's General Counsel, Julian Heathcote Hobbins, on June 14 for a webcast conversation about the changing approaches to users of pirated ...
It has been an exciting few weeks here at V.i. Labs since we announced our acquisition of Trackerbird Software Analytics. You may have read our CEO Joe Noonan's blog post about why we acquired Trackerbird. Today, I want to talk about how software ...
Most software marketers are familiar with affiliate programs. You pay a commission to an associated website to drive traffic to your site. They can be a great, pay-for-performance way to get more people to your site.
There’s an antivirus software product out there surging in popularity – and you would never know it from looking at its legitimate market share.
You may remember Mike Schramm from our webinar on "Ecommerce Strategies for Converting Unpaid Users to Paying Customers." Mike is the former head of eCommerce Programs and Operations for Autodesk and is now advising software companies on digital ...
You may have seen our announcement about CodeArmor Intelligence 5.0 last week, but I wanted to comment on the journey we’ve been on with our customers that's driven us to this new version.
The Good News: The good news is that commerce today is global in scope. Products manufactured in Spain are marketed in Brazil, Japan and Canada. Investments, supply chains, and manufacturing infrastructures are producing wares for consumption in ...
Did you watch the Emmys Sunday night? While Amy Schumer fans (me included) were not surprised to see the hilarious and thought-provoking Inside Amy Schumer win for best sketch comedy series, the first line of her acceptance speech was much more ...
Will the Microsoft Windows 10 Upgrade Be Free for Pirates?
Over the years, we've talked a lot about unpaid software and the three types of pirates (83% of whom will pay for software in mature markets), including our recent webinar with Mike Schramm titled, "Ecommerce Strategies for Converting Unpaid Users ...
It makes a lot of sense when you think about it, but there are still some folks that still aren't sold on the strategy: pirate users are your best trial users. Let's talk about why this is the case and how you can convert those users to paying ...
Like most sales leaders, I’m always looking at our funnel and trying to find ways to improve our conversion rates. As a company providing software vendors a new way to add new top line license revenue, you would think our meeting-to-opportunity ...
Ecommerce provider cleverbridge shared an interesting infographic from Invesp on its blog yesterday that focused on "customer acquisition vs. retention costs." Among some of the more interesting findings:
Software piracy is a large and costly problem that is not going away any time soon. In fact, since 2011, the global rate of unlicensed software use has actually increased despite both legal and corporate efforts to curb the problem.
After digging into our 2014 piracy data, we're kicking off the year with a discussion of the popularity of different types of the most pirated software. Taking a look at our list below, we see that the order seems to follow the needs of the user.
Unlicensed users represent a significant revenue opportunity for software vendors. In fact, 83% of pirated users in mature markets will pay for your software. Companies that can identify and target these users can double their online conversion ...
Frequent readers of the Code Confidential blog know that V.i. Labs views software piracy distribution channels (torrent sites, file lockers, industry forums/bulletin boards, etc.) as an untapped channel that software vendors can leverage to generate ...
Welcome back to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated Applications - a dive into the depths of the world of the top software torrents. This week we see a resurgence in Nero’s 2015 Platinum product. With a new build version coming out, we usually see a new ...
Welcome back to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated Applications - a dive into the depths of the world of the top software torrents. First up on our list this week is a newcomer to the Top 10 called BlueStacks. This software allows users to run Android ...
Welcome back to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated Applications. Another week, another dive into the depths of the world of the top desktop software torrents. We are seeing a number of torrents from a few different release groups this week. ATOM makes ...
Welcome back to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated Applications. Another week, another dive into the depths of the world of the top desktop software torrents. This week we see a wealth of interesting releases break into the Top 10, in part due to ...
Given how often antivirus applications appear in our weekly Top Ten Torrents, we thought it might be interesting to dig a bit deeper into this category. We see these titles almost weekly among the most pirated software and they are often released in ...
Welcome back to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated Applications. Another week, another dive into the depths of the world of the top desktop software torrents. New to our Top 10 is Trimble’s SketchUp Pro product, seen here mislabeled as a Google product. ...
Welcome back to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated Applications. Another week, another dive into the depths of the world of the top desktop software torrents.
I love it when my daily comics mirror my daily life at work. This week the Newman kids (Katy and Clayton) from Adam@Home have a brilliant and inspired plan for Halloween and trick-or-treating.
Welcome back to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated Applications. Another week, another dive into the depths of the world of the top desktop software torrents.
Welcome back to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated Applications. Another week, another dive into the depths of the world of the top desktop software torrents.
Want to give your ecommerce program a 100% lift? Double online revenue with the best Affiliate Marketing program you have never heard of. Ecommerce managers spend most of their time working on ways to move the conversion needle on their marketing ...
Welcome back to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated Applications. Another week, another dive into the depths of the world of the top desktop software torrents.
Welcome back to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated Applications. Another week, another dive into the depths of the world of the top desktop software torrents.
Depending on what you do, you call it software intelligence, software analytics, software business intelligence, software usage analytics, piracy business intelligence, or runtime intelligence (if I missed your favorite add it in the comments!).
Welcome back to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated Applications. Another week, another dive into the depths of the world of the top desktop software torrents.
Welcome back to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated Applications. Another week, another dive into the depths of the world of the top desktop software torrents. This week we see a continued interest in Microsoft Windows releases including a claimed ...
Not all unlicensed users are alike. Sure, there are the software pirates you picture in your mind – students, anarchists, etc., but as a pirated version of software becomes more readily available it can begin to leak its way into more legitimate ...
Welcome back to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated Applications. Another week, another dive into the depths of the world of the top desktop software torrents. This week we’re met with a few continued trends in the torrent world. DriverPack Solution tops ...
Thoughts on the 2013 BSA Global Software Survey Can I be honest? I read and reread the latest report from BSA and I felt like something was missing. Why was I feeling this way? Was it the fact that we had to wait two years since the last report? Was ...
Welcome back to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated Applications. Another week, another dive into the depths of the world of desktop software torrents. This week we’re faced with a new type of release to discuss in the form of a “Microsoft Toolkit.” In ...
Over the last two years we seen some clever schemes to convert piracy activity into dollars. As we have mentioned many times, the piracy groups and crackers themselves are rarely out to make money. They enjoy being part of the scene and receiving ...
We know that the piracy enablers are at the top of the software piracy distribution process. The software “crackers” are individuals and groups who love to crack DRM and software licensing schemes. While many crackers are well-hidden, some are ...
How Well-Intentioned Users Can Become Victims of Piracy Not all software misuse is malicious. Often times end-users may not even be aware that the software they are using is unlicensed. These accidental software pirates want to be in compliance and ...
Welcome back to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated Applications, where we take a look at the world of Torrent piracy and see where the most revenue is being lost! The piracy world is constantly changing. Here is this week's top 10 most popular ...
Many companies either do not realize that they have a piracy problem, or underestimate the scope of it. The fact is that piracy continues to be a worldwide problem and for many software companies, revenue losses from the use of unlicensed software ...
Inspired by TorrentFreak's Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of the Week, welcome to the latest Top 10 Most Pirated, where we take a look at the world of Torrent piracy and see where the most revenue is being lost! The piracy world is constantly changing. ...
Inspired by TorrentFreak's Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of the Week, welcome to the first Top 10 Most Pirated, where we take a look at the world of Torrent piracy and see where the most revenue is being lost! The piracy world is constantly changing. ...
In early May, I was honored to participate on a panel sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers in San Jose titled, “Brand Protection in the Digital Age: Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy.” The panel was moderated by Abhi Joshi, Managing Director and ...
One of the most common misconceptions about embarking on a track and recover strategy is that existing customers will never accept software application tracking in any form. After helping numerous billion dollar software companies implement and ...
I had the privilege of attending the cleverbridge Networking Event in Edinburgh, Scotland last week. I spoke on the topic of software piracy ("Ignore It or Make Money from It") and how software usage intelligence uncovers a hidden and untapped ...
Software companies have had a long and conflicted history with those who misappropriate and misuse their intellectual property. There are many common myths about software piracy have convinced software executives that piracy is not a significant ...
Unlicensed software is a multi-billion dollar problem for the software industry. Despite this, companies that take a pro-active approach to identify the users of their unlicensed software have a significant opportunity to recover revenues and add to ...
Want to learn more about V.i. Labs, but don't have a lot of time? This video will give you an overview of V.i. Labs in just 7 minutes. In this introduction to V.i. Labs you will learn:
Software compliance in the business-to-business (B2B) space has a number of time tested ways to professionally approach and convert companies that are breaching their legal entitlements. How then, do you deal with consumers who are downloading ...
Last week V.i. Labs sponsored the IBSMA Compliance Manager Summit in Santa Clara, CA. The conference was jam-packed with industry-expert speakers and software license compliance content.
You may have seen that V.i. Labs is sponsoring the Compliance Manager Summit in Santa Clara next week. We're really looking forward to seeing you there and talking about the latest trends, issues and challenges. We are sending our A-Team: VP of ...
Each month we check in with a member of the V.i. Labs Piracy Investigation Team to see what trends they're seeing in software piracy. This month tells us about the impact Chinese New Year had on new piracy infringements. It’s no secret that piracy ...
In case you missed it, we recorded our 4th Annual License Compliance and Software Piracy Panel Discussion on February 13 featuring Peter Beruk from BSA | The Software Alliance, Julian Heathcote Hobbins from FAST (Federation Against Software Theft), ...
This article originally appeared on Building Keystones from cleverbridge Infringing Use Means Your Software is Useful Emotions can run strong when you discover that your software has been cracked and pirated versions of your software are widely ...
Regular readers of this blog have likely heard that the U.S. government is paying logistics software vendor Apptricity $50 million to settle a case involving unpaid software. While most news headlines are shouting about software piracy, Apptricity's ...
Are you responsible for driving revenue at a software company? This short video will show you how Revulytics’ proven solution helps you to recover the license revenue you lose due to unpaid software use.
Craig Vodnik, co-founder and VP Operations at Cleverbridge, published a fantastic article yesterday titled, “How to Make Software Piracy a Revenue Source.” It was great to see another voice in our industry turning conventional wisdom on its head ...
Back in November 2010, the New York Times published a fascinating story on Microsoft's war on piracy. It discussed Microsoft's "link-removal machine" - an artificial intelligence system that "scans the Web for suspicious, popular links and then ...
I wish I could say that I was surprised, but I'm not. I'm not surprised that Adobe's new Creative Cloud version of Photoshop has been pirated, and I'm not surprised by the "told you so" reactions when it was pirated just one day after its release.
Did you attend our software license compliance panel in Waltham last week? If so, you may recall Peter Beruk from the BSA mentioning that they were going to be releasing a study this week.
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. In this edition: proxy services circumventing ISP blocks against The Pirate Bay, and an invitation to meet leaders in license compliance and network with your ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. In this edition: Game Dev Tycoon pirates bemoan piracy but miss the point, and a Sri Lankan garment manufacturer is caught using pirated software.
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. In this edition: a Finnish topsite trial results in suspended sentences and reduced damages, and a distributor of pirated AllData software avoids jail and pays ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. In this edition: the Pirate Bay is turned away in Greenland and a BSA survey show one-third of UK SMBs knowingly use unlicensed software.
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. In this edition: more news on the Unfair Competition Law front and an update on the Super Radio Network software piracy case. Microsoft Leveraged Washington ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. In this edition: Unfair Competition Law may create an opportunity for India and “snitch lines” get a bad rap.
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. In this edition: BSA CEO Robert Holleyman steps down, Microsoft and Adobe sue Aussie radio stations, a look back on DRM’s past, and a quick check up on South ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. Last week EA ran into DRM problems with SimCity, IDC released a report on malware and software piracy and Microsoft established a new Cybercrime Center. Read on ...
The use of unfair competition laws to address the use of pirated software is gaining momentum. Businesses that pay for licensed software are at a disadvantage when their competitors use that same software but don’t pay for it. In addition to states ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. Last week ISPs implemented their six strike anti-piracy policies, vendors highlighted software piracy in India to no avail and Japan released the results of a ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. Last week the RIAA released a report on Google's anti-piracy algorithm, The Pirate Bay called out CIAPC for piracy and a Sony anti-piracy patent from 2011 ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. Last week Mega decided to accept Bitcoin, BitTorrent launched a new file sharing service and Adobe got into trouble over Australian pricing. Read on and don’t ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. Last week the powerful lobbying group, IIPA, recommended Thailand be removed from the USTR's Priority Watch List, the BSA conducted a study which found over 50% ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. Last week the WTO ruled Antigua could ignore U.S. intellectual property rights, Cypress Finance Minister calls for end to software piracy, Jordan sees a ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. Last week California accused apparel firms in China and India of software piracy, a Delaware woman was sentenced for copyright infringement and an anti-piracy ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. Last week Kim Dotcom launched his new service called Mega, the Balkans and Thailand decide to get serious about software piracy. Read on and don’t forget to ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software piracy and copyright infringement. Last week an internal Verizon document was leaked outlining its forthcoming six strike policy, sadly, Anti-SOPA activist Andrew Swartz passed away and the ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software license compliance and piracy, we hope you had happy holidays and a great New Year! The last two weeks in software piracy news included the end of the iOS piracy app Installous, a Chinese national ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software license protection, piracy and international copyright law. This week we cover FAST's defense of Trading Standards' budget, possible expansion of a private copying levies in Austria and Taobao and ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software license compliance and piracy. This week we cover the BSA's boast about the morality of informants, Microsoft and Autodesk sue a Chinese corporation and an update on the case of a Pirate Bay ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software license compliance and piracy. This week we cover an anti-piracy misfire, Microsoft's licensing mistake and the most recent delay to the Copyright Alert System. Read on and don’t forget to follow ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software license compliance and piracy. Last week Verizon & Time Warner outlined their anti-piracy plans, police took a 9 year old's laptop for piracy and Ethiopia discovered that its software piracy ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software license compliance and piracy. Last week saw China’s head of Intellectual Property say the country’s piracy problem is exaggerated, an iOS app’s piracy tweets of shame, and the BSA certified ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software licensing and piracy. Last week two big software piracy cases made their way through the courts, Kim Dotcom lost his new domain and the UK decided to examine Google's anti-piracy algorithm change. ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software licensing and piracy. Last week BSA partnered with Malaysia to fight piracy, Microsoft saw growth in Indonesia as piracy rates dropped and the BSA fined a firm in the UK. Read on and don’t forget ...
One of the thoughts we often hear from software vendors echoes the famous quote from Bill Gates on software piracy in 1998: “Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, people don’t pay for the software. Someday they will, ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on application usage management and software licensing. This week we cover Microsoft's choice to drop box sales in China, a Dutch court's copyright ruling that could have far reaching consequences for the EU ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on software licensing and copyright protection. This week we cover Massachusetts fining a Thai company for using pirated software, AT&T's anti-piracy document leak, the results of an early Third Strike ...
We investigate the US House Intelligence Committee's charge that Huawei uses pirated software. Last week, the US House Intelligence Committee released a report labeling Huawei a national security threat and possibly in violation of a number of US ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly update on intellectual property law and software licensing. This week FAST voiced concerns over the UK's Digital Economy Act, Thai police raided a coconut milk factory, Adobe conducted a raid in South Africa and the ...
Welcome back to V.i. Labs' weekly update on piracy, protection and digital rights management. This week Japan enacted tougher anti-piracy legislation, Adobe made efforts in India, and a Filipino group was praised for its progress against piracy. ...
Welcome to the latest software license protection and piracy update. This week the Chinese Government took a large step towards software compliance, Kim Dotcom of Megaupload plans a comeback and Tanzania joins Microsoft in combating software piracy. ...
Welcome to this another software licensing and protection update. This week Microsoft owns the headlines as they challenge state owned Chinese firms, speak out against piracy in Nigeria and see their software pirated at retailers in Malaysia.
Welcome back to V.i. Labs’ weekly software piracy and licensing update. This week Google decided no longer to suggest The Pirate Bay, the BSA weighs in on the Tran-Pacific Partnership and the Filipino Government tackles software piracy. Want to know ...
Welcome back to our weekly update where we filter and condense software piracy, licensing and protection news into easily digested summaries. We saw SIIA and FAST teaming up, Microsoft going to China, while the BSA is off in South Africa and finally ...
Today V.i. Labs launches the first in a continuing series where we scour the internet for the most interesting news on software piracy and the related topics of software licensing and protection. We understand everyone is experiencing an information ...
In only a week since release, over 3 million copies of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion have been sold, making it Apple’s most successful operating system release to date. Mountain Lion, along with a refresh to the entire Macbook line, was announced at ...
We have sponsored a white paper by IDC’s Amy Konary that she has titled, “Information Is Power: Combating Software License Misuse and Overuse with Intelligence.” It comments on the state of software piracy and discusses steps software vendors can ...
Google recently introduced the Google Transparency Report to shed some light on the “flow of information” related to their tools and services:
On April 24, the United States Department of Justice indicted members of the internet piracy group “IMAGiNE.” Although the group’s focus was movies, these indictments (which are rare) give us some insight to the into the piracy scene.
The 2011 BSA Global Software Piracy Study claims a $63 billion global piracy problem with 57% of users admitting they pirate software, but enforcement techniques like whistle blower campaigns and take down notices can yield bad PR. Software ...
The BSA issued its ninth annual global piracy study today, revealing that the commercial value of pirated software rose from $58.8 billion in 2010 to $63.4 billion in 2011. The report also finds that 57 percent of computer users admit to pirating ...
One of the best lessons you learn as a parent is to “pick your battles.” You only have so much energy and (emotional) capital to spend so it is important to make sure the battle is on a significant issue and that the outcome will yield positive ...
Are your customers using more licenses than allowed under the terms of their license agreement? Are there companies using pirated versions of your software? Just like chess, you need to make the right moves and think ahead to win these battles. Your ...
PC Magazine posted an article today titled, “To Combat Piracy, RapidShare Cuts Download Speeds for Free Users.” Noting that some software vendors are curbing piracy by offering services or benefits that could not be obtained by pirating their ...
I came across some interesting data in the SIIA Anti-Piracy 2011 Year in Review: SIIA received 197 reports of alleged corporate software piracy in 2011 Of the 197 reports, 46 (23%) were judged sufficiently reliable to pursue (under SIIA’s ...
FAST general Counsel, Julian Heathcote Hobbins confirmed panelist in leading industry webinar The Federation Against Software Theft is to take part in the V.i. Labs’ ‘License Compliance and Software Piracy Panel Discussion’ webinar taking place on ...
Learn more about Data Optimizer (formerly V.i. Labs Data Service) and how it helps software vendors streamline license revenue recovery.
This week a federal task force seized 150 websites accused of selling counterfeit goods in a sting timed with the unofficial start to the online holiday shopping season: Cyber Monday. While the sites involved were purveyors of tangible goods like ...
Yesterday, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on an interesting piece of legislation. The bill, known as SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, has caused quite a stir over implications of internet censorship and homeland security. I don’t ...
Piracy data can be a powerful tool for ISV sales teams to glean valuable market intelligence, especially in emerging markets. When a license is cracked or bypassed, ISVs lose the ability to track the use of those particular products – there’s a gap ...
We released the latest version of our flagship CodeArmor Intelligence product that now brings its powerful software business intelligence technology to Apple’s Mac OS. CodeArmor Intelligence 3.3 provides ISVs developing software for the Mac OS the ...
V.i. Labs was recently invited to address the topic of license compliance and revenue recovery for the global business community at IDG Connect. As many of you have read here, the progression from discovery to enlightenment across the scale of ...
Learn how to automate the process of turning unlicensed users into paying customers with CodeArmor Intelligence’s automated compliance capabilities.
We’ve discussed the issue of piracy by businesses here in the past, as well as the challenges facing ISVs when it comes to identifying unlicensed use. Last April, we recorded a podcast that compared various sources of software piracy leads.
Join Dan Thompson and Michael Goff for a conversation about unlicensed use of software as viral marketing.
Perhaps it's because I tend to be an optimistic, "glass half full" kind of guy, but I really do like this analogy quite a bit (you may recall reading the original post and Part 2). My original premise started with these thoughts:
Join Michael Goff and Vic DeMarines for a discussion about our recent announcement that more than $1 billion in revenue recovery opportunity has been identified by top customers since deploying CodeArmor Intelligence.
An interesting article appeared on Techdirt.com this morning. While we have insufficient knowledge of the facts in this case to comment on it (and it’s really none of our business to begin with), the blog post on Techdirt.com muddies the waters with ...
Join Dan Thompson and Michael Goff for a conversation on the differences among different sources for software piracy leads. Listen to learn: The differences between a reactive and proactive approach to acquiring software piracy leads The relative ...
Definition of Insanity Over the last six months I have visited a large number of software companies to discuss how they handle Software Piracy. If they aren’t ignoring the problem, they generally fall into one of two camps: Those that feel license ...
"Angry employees tattling on companies that violate software licenses" Network World's Carolyn Duffy Marsan recently reported on disgruntled IT pros who are blowing the whistle on their companies' use of unlicensed software. She notes that "in a ...
Join Dan Thompson and Michael Goff for a conversation on the differences between license overuse and overt piracy - and the different strategies that software vendors are using to respond to each type of piracy.
Software Piracy Panel Discussion We're getting excited for our panel discussion this Wednesday, February 16 at 11:00 a.m. EST (4:00 p.m. GMT/8:00 a.m. PST). We've had a great response so far and hope you'll be able to join the discussion.
A few weeks ago as I was getting ready to speak at a local HTCIA chapter in California, I started thinking about how little progress has been made in Software Compliance over the last 25 years. Having recovered over $130 million in compliance ...
Join Dan Thompson and Michael Goff for the third of three podcasts that address vendor responses to software piracy (listen to Part 1 on the "Discovery Phase" or Part 2 on the "Reaction Phase").
What are you doing on Wednesday, February 16 at 11:00 a.m. EST (4:00 p.m. GMT/8:00 a.m. PST)?
Join host Dan Thompson and guest Michael Goff for the second of three podcasts that address vendor responses to software piracy (listen to Part 1 on the "Discovery Phase").
Regular readers of our blog were likely not surprised to read PC Pro's story that, "A single licence for Avast security software has been used by 774,651 people after it went viral on a file-sharing site."
Join host Dan Thompson and guest Michael Goff for the first of three podcasts that address vendor responses to software piracy. In this podcast, we cover the "Discovery" phase and discuss how software vendors can first become aware that their ...
Join host Dan Thompson and guest Michael Goff as they discuss the recent New York Times article, "Chasing Pirates: Inside Microsoft’s War Room" and compares and contrasts the approaches discussed there with piracy business intelligence and the ...
Join host Dan Thompson and guest Michael Goff to learn more about the new Piracy Revenue Pipeline ticker on V.i. Labs' homepage and how it compares to the BSA's annual global piracy study.
You may have noticed a new addition to our website in the last couple of weeks - the Piracy Revenue Pipeline counter:
Go behind the scenes with host Dan Thompson and guest Victor DeMarines for more details on our recent announcements of CodeArmor Intelligence 3.0 and our partnership with Salesforce.com.
A recent article in the New York Times questions whether Microsoft is helping the Russian government to suppress dissent. It tells the story of a police raid of Baikal Environmental Wave - an environmental group that was protesting the government's ...
Many of the ISVs we work with use TRL to help defeat simple license key generators for their applications. TRL, previously known as Counterfeit Resistance Option (CRO), leverages Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) and public and private key pairs to ...
Recent news that LG Electronics' Russian branch is the target of a software piracy investigation brings to mind one of my favorite scenes from the movie Casablanca. We see the following exchange between Captain Renault and bar owner Rick during a ...
How to respond to software piracy once you realize your company's applications have been cracked?
EE Times' Dylan McGrath has reported on electronic design automation (EDA) vendor AWR Corp. filing a complaint in U.S. federal court against telecom equipment supplier ZTE. AWR alleges that ZTE has installed and used unlicensed versions of its ...
Piracy is a challenge for software vendors to address because they are unsure if they have a problem, can’t measure how much revenue they are losing, or don’t know how to identify the businesses using unlicensed software. Vendors tend to find ...
Most of you are probably familiar with the expression, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Stated more simply: make something sweet out of something sour.
ComputerWeekly had an article on the long-term effects of software piracy on the UK economy yesterday that raised an issue that ISVs sometimes overlook:
Wow - where to begin? The last seven days have been abuzz with software piracy in the news.
SoftwareLicensing.tv has a nice review today of our April webinar, "Converting Software Pirates to Customers."
Ars Technica has an interesting article by Nate Anderson, Rightsholders tire of takedown Whac-A-Mole, seek gov’t help. The article focuses on the content industries’ challenge of keeping up with the torrential (pun intended) flood of infringing ...
There's been a lot of commentary on the GAO's recent report, "Observations on Efforts to Quantify the Economic Effects of Counterfeit and Pirated Goods." Ars Technica reported that the "US government finally admits most piracy estimates are bogus," ...
We're honored and proud to have the CodeArmor platform named a 2010 CODiE Award Finalist for the Best Digital Rights Management Solution - it's a great way to start off 2010 after such a strong 2009!
Last week we announced some of our major accomplishments in 2009. Perhaps the most interesting is the number of ISVs now tackling their software piracy problems through piracy business intelligence.
Ready to play our annual year in review quiz? Take this quiz and submit your answers* to mgoff@vilabs.com - we will draw from the correct entries and award a $100 Amazon.com gift certificate! *Entries must be received by 12:00am EST on January 30, ...
We were in San Francisco at The Palace Hotel last week for a private luncheon and seminar on software piracy risks and strategies.
As frequent readers know, we do a lot of original research on software piracy to better understand and quantify the risks to software vendors. In July, we issued a report focused on a review of crack releases and piracy enablement approaches. We ...
Today we announced CodeArmor Intelligence 2.0 - here's a short three minute video that Vic did covering some of the aggregate data our deployed customers have shared with us along with highlights on some of the new features (including dynamic ...
OK, so forgive the title of this post, but how often do I get to talk about anti-piracy approaches from the gaming world that have interesting implications for the larger ISV community?
How big is the software piracy problem globally? How big is the impact on your company's bottom line? How does your company measure it? What are you doing to address it?
We have been continuing to gather and analyze data on software piracy since we issued our first reports last summer and are ready to issue the first part of our Software Piracy Risk Assessment Report.
For the last month (at least from my inbox perspective) spammers have been using the Yahoo! personal profile interface to send spam with cheap software offers (see image 1).
Rapidshare was fined $34M by a German Court as result of efforts by a music copyright watchdog group. Although it's a hefty fine, one only wonders what it would have been if it included pirated software files. V.i. Labs piracy assessments reveal ...
My colleague, Vic DeMarines, will be speaking on a panel at DAC (Design Automation Conference) on Tuesday, July 28. The panel, Fighting Piracy on the High Seas: Offense vs. Defense, is going to be led by the EDA Consortium's anti-piracy chairman ...
Andy Kessler has an interesting commentary on piracy on Forbes.com titled, "The Inevitability Of Internet Pirates."
This article in the Wall Street Journal illustrates the paradox that exists with doing business in China. On the one hand, their weak enforcement of intellectual property (IP) rights has resulted in high piracy rates for years with numerous examples ...
My fellow blogger, Vic, wrote an article for eWeek's Knowledge Center:
A few of us from V.i. Labs attended the Mass Technology Leadership Council's spring unConference this past Friday.
We're excited for our June 18 live webinar with Rich LaMagna, former Microsoft Director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy Investigations. Please join us and learn about the best practices for building an anti-piracy program to identify and recover revenue ...
The Business Software Alliance (BSA) reported the top 10 U.S. Industries with the highest reports of software piracy yesterday:
Today we announced the latest version of CodeArmor Intelligence that adds integration with Google Maps and enhanced gateway server filtering that uses rules to modify, delete or log data before sending it to the reporting interface. It uses regular ...
The TorrentFreak blog reported that the Dutch anti-piracy foundation BREIN has closed down several NBZ index sites (for example, http://bni-online.nl/). NBZ sites provide search and content index capabilities to allow sharing of content and ...
The BSA released its Sixth Annual Global Piracy Study today and we issued our reaction to it.
Three weeks ago the owners of the Pirate Bay - a bitorrent sharing site - were fined a large amount of money in the verdict of the Pirate Bay trial. This made a lot of people angry. Especially the people downloading pirated content.
More news on businesses using pirated (or unlicensed) software - this time it's from Turkey. According to the article "recent Microsoft research has revealed that public institutions and big companies, which invest millions of dollars in Turkey, use ...
I've talked to some very large software companies around the world in the last several months about software piracy and I've become keenly aware that their piracy problems are affecting their entire business ecosystem. I'm glad to see that Microsoft ...
Matt Asay has an interesting post on CNET's The Open Road ("The business and politics of open source") - he notes (my emphasis added) that:
The bus is getting ready to leave for the RSA 2009 Conference in San Francisco next week! We've been busy getting ready and look forward to seeing everyone there.If you're going to the conference, stop by our booth (#559) to see the new version ...
According to the BBC when the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) - enabling copyright holders to force Internet service providers (ISPs) to reveal details of users sharing files - came into effect on April 1st, Internet ...
This morning's news from the BSA about settling with a Nevada-based engineering company for $205,000 reminded me about a press release I saw a couple of weeks ago.
We're doing a webinar on April 16 with Alexander Duisberg from the international law firm Bird & Bird. As we've discussed here at Code Confidential, software vendors are looking at anti-piracy strategies as a way of maximizing their revenues. As ...
The BSA and SIIA have made lots of news recently about large settlements made on behalf of their members (for example, “Utah Business Settles with BSA and Agrees to Pay $250k” and “SIIA Reaches Six-Figure Anti-Piracy Settlement with Iowa ...
The Department of Justice announced a felony conviction from Operation Fastlink. From the description, the individual appears to be "cracker." These are individuals recruited by piracy groups to disable or remove licensing, copy protection, and ...
I was interested to see this stat in the SIIA Anti-Piracy Year In Review for 2008 (my emphasis): "Most cases pursued by SIIA represent relatively larger companies – the average number of staff is over 804 with average annual sales of nearly $90 ...
There's interesting news in the blogosphere on Microsoft's plans to leverage software piracy channels to its advantage. Mary Jo Foley has a great post on ZDNet about Microsoft's plans to make part of Office 14 ad-supported. She notes (my emphasis ...
This article on Ars Technica, "Having dominated sales, Nintendo eyes piracy to pad profits" got me thinking. The article starts off by stating:
We're excited to be working with the EDA Consortium on a webinar covering piracy trends, strategies and best practices in the electronic design automation industry.
New Solutions, Customer Adoption and Focus on Generating Revenue from Pirated Software Use will Drive Rapid Growth in 2009 WALTHAM, Mass — February 3, 2009 - V.i. Laboratories, Inc. (“V.i. Labs”), a leading provider of software protection and piracy ...
CodeArmor Intelligence has been nominated for Info Security Products Guide's Global Product Excellence award in the Intellectual Property Protection Solution category!
If you haven't already registered, be sure to sign up for tomorrow's webinar with David Goldstone, partner at Goodwin Procter.
The video of Vic's SoftSummit presentation, "Demystifying Software Piracy: An'Intelligence' Approach to Recovering Lost Revenue from Unlicensed Customers," is now available online. You may want to save it to your drive - it's a 90 MB file. You may ...
Our December Newsletter featured a 2008 Year In Review Quiz, and we are happy to announce that Ari T. from Tekla was selected as the winner from all of the correct entries! Congratulations Ari - enjoy the $100 Amazon.com Gift Certificate!
Symantec was awarded one the largest piracy judgments in its history - $12 million in damages based on verdict United State District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles against 9038-3746 Quebec Inc. and 9014-5731 Quebec Inc. ...
I am both a software engineer and a security researcher. I have over 15 years working on different areas of the information security spectrum, such as software engineering, researching reverse engineering proof of concepts, network security, ...
Software piracy seems to be one of those topics that everyone knows about, but no one ever talks about. We spend our time here studying it, have become experts on this topic, and have fine tuned our solutions to help companies implement the ...
I want to provide some more context on the free software piracy assessment service that we recently announced.
Although I am not a complete supporter of the WGA program as it was first implemented, Microsoft's latest tactic to warn Chinese users about using Microsoft software is not completely off base. In the latest coverage of this issue (see yesterday's ...
We worked with eWeek’s Brian Prince this week to demonstrate the trends we have seen with piracy group activity – see his article here. This included a walkthrough of some of the pirate software index sites that we commonly use for customer ...
We spend a lot of time with ISVs helping to determine the right anti-piracy strategy andwhere they should spend their time and resources to combat their piracy problem. In terms of technology, we believe that targeting the business users of ...
Congratulations to Dan from Minitab - the winner of the Garmin nuvi at SoftSummit! We had a lot of great discussions at SoftSummit - look for us to extend our free piracy analysis offer on our website. Details coming soon!
So I'm almost live blogging from SoftSummit (note to self: uploading posts with a photo is painfully slow when you're not on the 3G network or wifi). Vic's presentation was well attended and there were some great questions at the end. I've heard ...
We're at SoftSummit and are going to try doing some live blogging. If you're here, don't forget to stop by to schedule a free piracy analysis - the schedule is filling up, but we still have some open spots. Just stop by the table and ask.
Vic just did a video for Network World on combating piracy. He looks at the parallels between the ISV world and the piracy scene and discusses where ISVs can focus to combat piracy.
Next week (October 20-22) we'll be at SoftSummit in Santa Clara, CA and it's going to be a busy week. Here are the highlights to consider if you're going to be there:
We're excited about a webinar we're doing with Charles Kolodgy of IDC this Tuesday, October, 14 on Data Loss Prevention and .NET Code.
Interesting read from InfoWorld (Should you buy from Blackbeard the software pirate? - see my entry in the comments). The article discusses how one user seeking Adobe Photoshop software is tempted to download piracy because of the price point and a ...
"Mwaahahaha. I should rip copies of DVDs and make PDFs of comics to put online! Wait, what pirate should I be talking like?"
You may recall my post this summer about a legitimate business in the UK that was using pirated Autodesk software. Well, yesterday the Worcester (Mass.) Business Journal reported on a local company that paid the BSA “$80,000 to settle claims that ...
We received some great coverage on our CodeArmor Intelligence product and strategy announcement, including CRN, SD Times, Computerworld, and Dark Reading. As expected, there were a lot of comments to the announcement (check out Computerworld for ...
As a follow-on to our previous piracy analysis, we announced new data on the Time to Crack (TTC) for vendors in the PLM industry. We started with the PLM software, and will expand our research with the TTC estimates for the EDA industry.
I wanted to thank everyone for making yesterday's webinar ("Software Piracy Strategies: Targeting Unlicensed Customers and Lost Revenue") a big success!
In case you hadn't seen this yet, I wanted to let you know that we're doing a webinar with SIIA's Keith Kupferschmid, SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement. It's this Tuesday, July 29, at 2:00pm EDT/11:00am PDT.
Based on the trends that have been evident with piracy activity involving high value software vendors, we performed some initial analysis of crack release activity and group trends. This study focused on Electronic Design Automation (EDA) and ...
Here’s interesting news about a company using pirated Autodesk software to do business. ADT Workplace designs and installs commercial interiors and it looks like they used pirated AutoCAD to do their design work. ADT "paid an undisclosed amount ...
Cnet's News.com covered the story of anti-piracy firm MediaDefender mistakenly targeting a legit user of BitTorrent (Revision3) with a Denial of Service attack. Revision3 is "an actual TV network for the web, creating and producing its own original, ...
The BSA and IDC get a lot of heat on the methodology used to arrive at global piracy trends, but I thought I’d comment on some of the results with respect to our own experience and other external references. In particular, two points within the ...
The Department of Justice announced the sentencing of a cracker to 30 months in prison – read the full press release here. This case was part of "Operation Copycat" which has resulted in over 40 convictions. It appears that in this case that Mr. ...
Since this is my first post to the V.i. Labs Software Protection blog, an introduction probably makes sense: I'm the marketing manager at V.i. Labs and work with your usual blogger, Vic.
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) office annouced a new program for businesses to help protect against counterfeiting and piracy. The focus of the seminar appears to be drafting enforceable IP agreements. Although needed, when it ...
SIIA’s Anti-piracy division 2007 year in review report lists the top pirated software titles. They include some of the most popular and used software in both the consumer and business space. If I exclude Adobe Creative Suite and AutoCAD, the ...
After reading this recent article on the success of China's anti-piracy efforts, I realized how difficult it will be for specialized or high value software vendors to see the same gains. The article describes how "China had launched a crackdown and ...
China is the second largest economy in the world and still has high software piracy rates. In this Computerworld article there is a informative discussion of the benefits Microsoft has seen with its anti-piracy strategy. According to the article ...
Today V.i. Labs reached a significant company milestone. We just announced our new funding and our plans to expand our business. This is a significant event for us and was only possible because we were able secure new customers and demonstrate the ...
About 125 IT/Software developers took our survey at TechEd in June 07 on the risks associated with outsourced application development. Over 60% of those survey were from enterprise organizations and 12% with software vendors (see diagram below). ...
Rob Preston’s blog “Where Do You Stand On Intellectual Property Rights?” discusses the recent SIIA case where Knowledge Networks had settled an IP infringement claim based on evidence presented by a whistle blower that executives had distributed ...
A anti-piracy raid uncovers organized crime links. Further evidence of how piracy has evolved from a hobby to a an illegal business. Crime syndicates would not be interested in piracy unless it was easy and profitable. There have been other studies ...
Interesting post that describes how to subvert an anti-virus vendors' weak license enforcement to shut down the AV functions. Clearly mission critical applications like AV have consider better approach that does not introduce new vulnerabilities.
I constantly receive spam with "too good to be true" prices on high end software. Most likely a by-product of my piracy Web research. However when I visit some of these sites I am impressed with the legitimate look and feel of their on-line stores. ...
BSA/IDC's latest annual report is out and stills shows large losses attributed piracy. I think they nailed it in terms of true root cause for this ,
Another example of piracy aimed at high value software, in this case Rockwell Automation's software products which are worth as much as $11,325 retail. Link to the DOJ's release here (http://www.cybercrime.gov/barberConvict.htm).
After much preparation and due diligence, we just announced a new partnership with a very cool company, Internet Crimes Group (ICG). ICG was the only partner we could find that could penetrate and gather intelligence on the cracking community in ...
Interesting discussion on the value of an amnesty program to deter software piracy (http://www.makeshitbreakshit.com/2007/03/28/software-piracy-amnesty-day/). It would need to consider how software vendors who sell high value software applications ...
SIIA reported that on February 6th, Gad Zamir, 64, was arrested for software piracy. Zamir had been selling copies of Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise for $7,750 (the program retails for $25,000) and copies of Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 2 for ...
Michele Balistreri's “On software piracy” blog (http://briksoftware.com/blog/?p=15#more-15) discussed whether protection technology can be effective in combating piracy among other things. I do agree certain low dollar software titles, especially in ...
"Operator of For-Profit Software Piracy Web Site Pleads Guilty; Caused Up to $25 Million in Losses to Software Industry"
These two recent examples show how organized the business of software piracy is: http://sanantonio.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2006/09/04/daily25.html?jst=b_ln_hl http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2009456,00.asp From this it is very clear ...
Recent examples of intrusive anti-piracy approaches have perhaps cross the line of what's acceptable for piracy control. Consider Microsoft's latest legal issues surrounding its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program, Sony BMG's use of rootkits in ...
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