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The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Fri Aug 21 1998 - 17:16:05 ADT
Matthew James Gering (mgering@ecosystems.net)
Wed, 18 Mar 1998 10:53:14 -0800
> Anyway, we offered Bill G the prospect that instead of Word radiating
> the
> text you're working on to every spook on the block, it would only
> radiate
> a one-way function of its licence serial number. This would let an
> observer tell whether two machines were simultaneously running the
> same
> copy of Word, but nothing more. Surely a win-win situation, for Bill
> and
> for privacy.
>
>
I'm afraid there is a major flaw in that theory. License tracking and
compliance in a corporate environment is a bit more complicated than
that.
Put simply, licenses != unique serial numbers.
The gross majority of the time every copy of a title in a corporate
environment has the *same* serial number. This is because of network
software installation points, automated software distribution (e.g.
Microsoft SMS), and volume purchasing programs (e.g. MOLP you purchase
only license certificates. Disk sets are separate).
Once the stand-alone machine is no longer a significant market, there
are much more ingenious ways for license tracking/compliance in a
networked environment.
Coming from someone who has worked for Microsoft, they really place
little priority on copy/license protection schemes. There may be some
group playing with the ideas, but its quite remote from product
development.
Matt
The following archive was created by hippie-mail 7.98617-22 on Fri Aug 21 1998 - 17:16:05 ADT