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[T1432]Types Of Software Piracy

by Joseph Jordan, Jos

Like electronic identity theft, computer viruses, and the spread of other computer crimes, software piracy is on the rise. The problem with software piracy is that software costs make this illegal activity appealing to the end user. After all, who is it going to hurt? Rich software companies? This article investigates software piracy as a whole and the impact that it has on the computer using industry.

The most vulnerable victims of software piracy are software businesses or independent programmers who create and distribute commercial software or shareware. We described shareware in another article, but because both commercial software and shareware require payment, they're the target of pirates who seek to make these kinds of programs free to use.

Depending on their binding legal agreements, licensing typically allows the use of a single program on a single computer. This set up is usually fine for a user who uses software at home on one computer. But in an environment where there are five, ten, twenty or more computers, buying a license for each computer can be down-right costly. So costly that the temptation to pirate a little software here and there can be pretty tempting.

Co-workers are familiar with this temptation and they're often the ones who "share" purchased software among those who need it. However the same temptation also prompts others to knowingly or unknowingly buy bootleg copies of commercial software or registered shareware.

As tempting as it is, it's still illegal and the punishments/fines for sharing commercial or registered software is too much for one to bear. In recent news, "Yahoo China loses music piracy case (AP via Yahoo! News) A court has ordered Yahoo Inc.'s China subsidiary to pay $27,000 for aiding music piracy, the company and a music industry group said Tuesday."1 Additionally, "EU lawmakers approve prison terms, fines for major commercial piracy (International Herald Tribune) EU lawmakers voted Wednesday for legislation that would set prison sentences and fines for large-scale commercial piracy, but exempt patents and copying carried out for personal use." 2

Fortunately, there are alternatives. Schools can research student versions of commercial software or ask for a school discount. Just because school rates aren't advertised, it doesn't mean that they aren't available. Freeware or open source software (also described in another one of our articles) is another alternative to pirating commercial-ware, as well as shareware. And using older versions of programs could additionally reduce the costs associated with commercial versions.

Up until recently, public opinion held little faith in freeware or open source software - often regarding it as low-quality knock-off's of better known commercial products. But if you take a good look at what's being offered at no cost, you may be in for a big surprise. The quality of today's freeware and open source software created a strong rift among the commercial community and it's literally driving the competition bananas! So much so, that even some well known software development corporations have joined the cause and built a few freeware open source products of their own!

If you can remember that there are hoards of alternatives to costly commercial software (and you make the effort to get it), you'll discover that you can keep up with the rest of the computer industry at a significantly cheaper cost than if you attempted to pay your way down the software aisle. Software piracy just isn't the answer.

Representatives from 9rays.net Inc and StrongBit Technology today announced an exciting partnership. In order to combat the ever-advancing underworld of crackers, and to meet many developers? requests to both companies, they have come together to form a new innovative product. The goal of creating a flexible, multi-layer, universal software copy protection and licensing system, based on a combination of encryption and code obfuscation techniques and aimed at prevention and protection. The new product will be able to combat the latest and future software threats with ease, including: reverse engineering tricks, cracks and illegal use. Now for the first time ever it will be compatible with different programming platforms and environments. While the announcement of the partnership just occurred today, the product itself has been in development state for quite some time Both project participants are planning to launch the beta-version in the near future.

StrongBit Technology- Specializing in windows applications copy protection and licensing systems plans to combine their famous protection techniques with 9Rays.net who currently specializes in .Net software protection and decompilation. Both groups are finally combining efforts in development of a collaborative, cross-platform, software copy protection and license management solution

Both 9Rays and StrongBit are known by their current anti-cracking tools using encryption and ?protection by obfuscation? principles in application protection and license management. Until recently these great products were always for different programming platforms or compilers. StrongBit EXECryptor is intended for protection of 32bit executable files written in Basic, Delphi, and C/C++. Spices.Obfuscator from 9Rays it is oriented to protection of .Net applications.

Based off of in-depth private scientific research in software reverse engineering, analysis, and cracks StrongBit (part of SoftComplete Development) developed an innovative approach to software protection based on various techniques including their renown code obfuscation method coined ?Code Morphing?. Professionals have used this technique as a complete solution in software copy protection and license management. The EXECryptor 2.x series that combines ?code morphing? obfuscation with program code encryption launched two years ago, in July 2004. As a result of some of the best protection schemes in the industry, today it has the reputation of ?uncrackable software protection? with an open challenge to crackers. Today it is at the top of software protection and licensing tools, with one of the longest standing uncrackable records to date.

The 9Rays? Spices.Obfuscator one of Spice.Net suite components is a .Net code protection tool that offers the wide range of technologies to protect .Net code and intellectual properties. Spice.Net comes with five components - Obfuscator, Decompiler, Modeler, Investigator and Documenter. Other features of this technology are automatic size optimization and additional options like assembly merging, adding managed resources, self-installation and encryption features. Thus, Spices.Net does the entire cycle of assembly processing ? obfuscation, optimization, and verification of the generated assemblies, with both a .Net Framework and Compact Framework versions and also a Console version.

About Allies:

1) 9Rays.Net is know for partnering with several groups of developers with each group offering its own unique product line. These high-skilled professionals have joined their efforts to achieve better marketing results and to provide the best possible quality product.

9Rays.Net has gained wide experience on the tools and components market, developing high-quality products for the following platforms: Microsoft. NET (Windows.Forms and ASP.Net), Borland Delphi, C++ Builder, ActiveX. The company's primary product focus is on development of .Net tools and components compatible with Visual Studio .Net, C# Builder, Delphi.Net and other IDE's for .Net Framework.

2) StrongBit is a SoftComplete Development division specialized in anti-reversal, anti-crack, and anti-piracy software protection private scientific research and development, creators of the famous EXECryptor Software copy protection and HardKey software license management products.
SoftComplete Development specializes in creating software protection & license management systems, fuzzy text processing and other developer solutions.
9Rays.Net
http://www.9rays.net/
StrongBit
http://www.strongbit.com

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Both Joseph Jordan & Softcomplete are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Joseph Jordan has sinced written about articles on various topics from Broadband, Travel and Leisure and Online Business. Joseph Jordan. Professional Internet Marketer. is the Internet largest digital Database, where thousands of, E-books, Software, Scripts are down. Joseph Jordan's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.

Softcomplete has sinced written about articles on various topics from Software. . Softcomplete's top article generates over 590 views. to your Favourites.