Applications ranging from common desktop software to high-end EDA software suffer enormously from piracy and unlicensed usage around the world

When copies of Microsoft Office® get pirated, the economic loss is enormous because although each copy may only be worth a few hundred dollars, the number of pirated copies is in the millions.  When copies of a high-end EDA software application get pirated, there won’t be as many copies, but the price tag per copy may be in the millions, so again, the economic loss is enormous.

Why defend against piracy?

Software publishers experience varying degrees of piracy, from as little as 20% to as much as 900%. In the extreme case, this means that for every dollar in sales these companies make, there are up to 9 dollars in unlicensed usage. The Business Software Alliance and IDC estimate that during 2009 average piracy rates reached 75%, and that $51.4B of unlicensed software was pirated in 2009 alone. While not all piracy can be converted to legitimate purchases, even adding an extra 10-20% to the top line can make an enormous difference to profitability, and some customers have told us they see a 50% gain when using successful piracy defenses. That’s a pretty big motivator.

The fundamental problem

Unfortunately, it’s not so easy to successfully defend against pirates. Some approaches are relatively strong, but degrade the user experience unacceptably. Others prove nearly impossible to integrate.  And most prove to have little resistance to determined hackers. Typical electronic licensing can keep honest users honest, but without MetaFortress anti-tamper protection, hackers simply patch out any calls they don’t like, thereby skipping right over any “required” licensing or back-end reporting.   

The anti-tamper solution

Fortunately, you can now use MetaFortress to automatically harden your existing licensing approach, making it very difficult, if not impossible, for hackers to remove. Many software publishers, particularly those within the EDA, CAD/CAM, and PLM markets, have long standardized on third-party licensing systems, and Metaforic technology is compatible with such systems. Moreover, MetaFortress is easy to apply (it’s an automatic build-step process), typically impacts performance <1%, and case studies show it outlasts alternative solutions by up to 100x.

Connectivity challenges

Some publishers require Internet connectivity for activation, or even requiring regular communications to an outside server (for either ongoing usage authorization or simply usage reporting). As mentioned above, these capabilities can usually be patched out by an experienced hacker with little trouble, unless protected by MetaFortress. Regardless, a pure pirate shop will prevent such connectivity as a routine measure, and even many “normal” businesses will protect their machines via firewalls or outright isolation ... or experience occasional connectivity outages. To this end, Metaforic also offers MetaSure, whose secure clock can be used to smoothly handle connectivity outages via hardened grace periods, and to handle zero-connectivity installations with pre-set usage limitations.

Grow your revenues now

Software application companies have long tried to protect themselves via electronic licensing and Internet activation, but have still been losing the anti-piracy battle. Metaforic’s revolutionary new technology has turned the tide for customers, and can do the same for you.

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Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries