Software Copy Protection, Licensing and Anti-Piracy
Developing a software package is a costly process, so careful consideration must be given to how you protect that investment and receive the ROI you deserve. A 2018 study by the BSA found that 37% of all PC software worldwide is unlicensed, with a commercial value of over USD 46 billion.
Software piracy remains a big problem for organisations releasing software. It's not only time and money that's at stake - intellectual property in the form of software algorithms is at risk unless properly protected.
Software copy protection solutions from Microcosm provide a three-pronged defence against software pirates and give you the peace of mind that your company's reputation and investment are protected.
Prevent Unauthorised Use of Your Software
Unauthorised use of your software (ie software piracy) can be highly damaging both financially and in terms of your company's reputation. Software protection by dongles or using CopyMinder, our cloud-based intelligent software monitoring solution, helps protect your revenue stream and gives you the peace of mind that the only people using your software are those who have paid to do so.
Enforce the Terms of Your Software Licence
Our software copy protection solutions help you easily ensure that your software licence terms are adhered to. For example, you may wish to restrict which features of your software are made available or you may wish to configure some expiry conditions.
Examples of software-licensing models that you can deploy using our solutions include:
- One-off purchase
- Subscription-based licensing
- Limited software licence (eg limited by time, expiry date or number of executions)
- Network-based licensing
- Trial/Demo licences
Preventing Reverse Engineering (IP Theft)
Reverse engineering is the process by which a hacker is able to work out what your code is doing just by analysing the compiled code in the executables that you release.
Reverse engineering is a big problem with the increasing use of languages that compile to an intermediate form of machine code known as byte code. Languages such as C#, VB.NET and Python all compile to byte code which is then executed by a platform-specific virtual machine. This gives the advantage that developers only need to release one set of compiled binaries for all the platforms they support but the downside is that your application can be reverse engineered back to readable source code very easily.
Reverse engineering of native binaries is harder but is still achievable by skilled hackers with the right tools and experience.
Software protection solutions from Microcosm prevent reverse engineering both statically and dynamically at runtime. Our products employ a wide range of measures developed over many years including strong encryption and advanced anti-debug techniques.
Our Products
USB dongle-based software protection and licensing system
- Hardware-based security
- Driverless
- Multi-platform support
Software protection and licensing system with cloud-based intelligent monitoring
- Flexible licensing
- Intelligent monitoring
- Web-based administration