The area of interest to me is software product keys and software
license enforcement from the viewpoint of the software publisher (or,
"manufacturer"). Of course, typical product keys issued to software
purchasers are probably familiar to virtually every computer user;
those sequences like FJ894-FDJK89-CAMHHZ-9034R.
As someone working in the field of software development, I already
understand how I would engineer a simple software key mechanism into
my product. I also understand that I could use a technology that is
perhaps more sophisticated such as product activation combined with
hardware fingerprinting. I also already know of commercially
available software license servers that support a wide variety of
software license models. (Macromedia comes to mind). "Node-locked",
"named user" and concurrent use licenses are a few of the models
familiar to me and I could readily guess how I would technically
engineer one of these into my product.
The technical understanding I have is practically useless to me as a
leader of a software manufacturer, because I am now concerned with
understanding the impact on my entire organization when I add a
particular kind of software key to my software. Each of the software
product key options (e.g., simple key that is shipped with the
product, vs. unlock-code issued after the user has registered the
product, vs. software product activation) undoubtedly carries somewhat
different implications for the company that adopts it.
To narrow the question somewhat, I am interested in focusing on keys
for perpetual licenses and upgrade licenses for single units of
product (potentially with multiple features individually enabled);
for my purposes I do not need to consider (at this time)
concurrent-user licensing or subscription-basis licensing.
The basic key schemes that I think would be covered by an intresting
answer would be:
(a) product key ships with the product itself
(b) the product is unlocked when user registers the product with
identifying registration information (trial until then)
(c) "product activation" (key and unlock code are separated,
hardware fingerprinting, separate user registration).
For me to decide on adding a particular kind of key to my software, I
need to understand its implications. For example, for the specific
kind of key under consideration:
* How must my company change organizationallly so that it can begin
issuing the software product keys, and sucessfully manage their
issuance and administration? What departments are going to be
affected and what will be their respnsibilities?
* What specific processes must or should be adopted to successfully
manage the keys? I'm very interested in the specifics such as "when
are keys generated", "what department is responsible for tracking
keys, " how is a lost key handed", and so on. Show me a view of the
key architecture and how it fits into the processes, please.
* If my company provides software to a distributor that rebrands or
translates the software, (and then the distributor is responsible to
replicate and resell the software), how may I include the distributor
in the organization and processes for software product key management?
* What kind of information is embedded in a "good quality"
(well-designed) software key? Product type, product version? The
distributor who has been entrusted with rebranding?
* How are product upgrades managed?, and how are multiple features
individually enabled using the key scheme? (Consider multiple
features and a product upgrade combined.)
(see note 1 below)
It is also very important for me to understand the costs and benefits
that I might typically expect from adopting a software product key to
my product, from the perspective of a small to mid-size software
manufacturer.
Please note that I've viewed the statistics from BSA (Business
Software Alliance) that reflect entire countries across the globe and
this information seems very uncompelling -- at least to the team that
I work with. As a leader in a smallish organization that must make
decisions I am much more interested in "how might I expect this to
impact Jane's Software Company" rather than "statistics for United
States" or. "Argentina." Are there case studies, industry averages,
industry averages that are specific to certain company profile?
Please note also that I am already aware of the fact that there are
some advocates and some opponents of software product keys and
software activation; I am not very interested in anecdotal or
emotional comments that arise from participants in this general
debate. I am much more interested in understanding real-world
objective experiences of those who have implemented product keys;
those defined processes that work; and objective data of high-enough
quality to be used as input to business decisions.
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[NOTE 1]
It seems to me that an "ideal" way of communicating organization /
processes would be a series of illustrations of "the lifecycle of a
key" including the product key architecture itself and how it fits
into the organization and processes and management infrastructure, for
each of several basic kinds of keys. The compnents of a well-designed
key might be presented separately for each type of key. |
