Microsoft to offer code protection, validation to other software developers
Summary: Microsoft is planning to deliver on October 1 to third-party software developers a set of technologies that will allow them to add code protection and activation mechanisms to their own software.
Microsoft is planning to deliver on October 1 to third-party software developers a set of technologies that will allow them to add code protection and activation mechanisms to their own software.
When Microsoft first unveiled its "Genuine Software" initiative three years ago, company officials said they planned to license to third parties some of the same anti-piracy technologies that Microsoft was baking into Windows and Office. Instead, Microsoft has decided to provide external developers with a separate, parallel offering, said Group Product Manager Thomas Lindeman.
Microsoft will offer third parties a bundle of "Software Licensing and Protection Services" (SLP) components, which are based on technology it acquired in January 2007 when it bought Secured Dimensions, an Israeli company that developed software licensing and IP protection technology. Microsoft currently is testing SLP with a hand-picked group of Technology Adoption Partner program testers, Lindeman said.
Microsoft's SLP platform will be comprised of three elements, Lindeman said, any of which can be licensed individually from Microsoft. The three:
* Code Protector Software Development Kit (SDK): A toolkit to allow developers to obfuscate their code to prevent it from being reverse-engineered. Version one of the SDK will work with .Net managed code; a forthcoming version also will support native Win32 code. The toolkit also will allow developers to mark specific features inside their code as "licensable entities" which they can control with various kinds of digital licenses. Microsoft plans to make the SDK available for download, as well as to include it as part of Visual Studio 2008.
If developers want code protection for non-Microsoft code, such as Java, "I'll partner with someone or find a way to get that covered," Lindeman said.
* SLP Server: A product that will allow ISVs to host their own servers and create software licenses -- machine-based, time-based (for software subscriptions and trials), user-based and/or feature-based -- for their products. The server will generate a key, which users will use to activate their software, via a digital license. SLP Server will come in two versions: Standard and Enterprise.
"You will be able to turn on different features and different SKUs for different markets without having to go back and touch the code," Lindeman explained.
(In terms of activation, the SLP products and services will allow developers to set their own licensing policy. I asked Lindeman whether he didn't simply mean "set their own DRM policy." He said Microsoft prefers the term "licensing policy," as "DRM is really a thing of the past.")
* SLP Online Service: An option allowing partners to do all their license management "in the cloud." Microsoft is planning to deliver three levels of service (Basic, Standard and Enterprise) to partners on a yearly subscription basis. The company plans to offer all Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Premium subscribers a subscription to the SLP Online Service Basic Edition.
Microsoft is encouraging developers to take the next step, and do not just activation, but also Genuine Advantage-style validation. But the new SLP offerings are not "Genuine Advantage" for third parties, Lindeman said.
"We are encouraging ISVs to think about doing validation like we do with Genuine Advantage. They can do that or their own thing," Lindeman said.
Lindeman hinted that Microsoft might be considering make some sort of "Open Genuine API" (application programming interface) available to third parties, but had no further details to share.
Any third party software makers out there interested in giving Microsoft's anti-reverse-engineering and/or software activation and licensing technologies a try?
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Talkback
Now even a small developer..
Say what?
Registration?
Now product activation, that's a different story. Had my share of horror stories with that. Not from Microsoft how ever but from Intuit.
people keep talking and talking
Just FUD and BS.
The only issue I have had was handled free of charge by MS.
But back to the point. For years and years, I've had to type impossibly long keys into QuarkXPress (on the Mac) and call them up to activate it, or put dongles into serial or USB ports to assure that I paid for the software I am using.
So now small developers can use something without having to shell out huge dollars. If it works, they will use it. If not, they won't.
Funny how people like the 'free market' system until someone makes a choice they don't like...
WGA is nothing more than user harrassment...
If it would just INSTALL, RUN and do it's thing and then leave me the hell alone, I would not care.
It's plain old bullshit. Period.
You're right
Not BS, I've been there
As for my experience I had a tax software program that activated. I changed some hardware then went to use the software and it assumed I was pirating. So I call the company and had to fax them a photo copy of my receipt and scanned image of all six sides of the box the software came in and the CD in it's case. Then I had to phone back after 3 business days and finally got my new authorization code with warning that I am not to swap any hardware out my system if I expect this software to work. They said they will not renew the authorization. I stopped buy their product after that and today you can buy it with out product activation.
It's not the false positives that bother me
One would hope that a small developer using validation would take care of their paying customers should there be a problem. In fact, I don't think they could afford not to.
re: It's not the false positives that bother me
Heaven help us...
Yes, I will test it.
Re: Yes, I will test it.
If they can't see your code they can't laugh at it. That's an improvement, isn't it?
:)
A Mild Critique and Then Champagne! There's Gold in Them Thar Customers
say.
While false positives would be a concern, I'd be also concerned that I'm now
deciding that, due to license monitoring tactics, my product is Windows client
bound. I know that the argument is made today that since Windows are the most
technologically advanced desktop and server operating systems (in a couple of its
SKUs) and, when counting all the flavors of Windows (advanced and otherwise -- I
saw some folks working with Win98 the other day [not because they don't know
better, but because the money is small and has to go elsewhere]) installed base
hits about 95% of personal computers, its an easy decision to say my products and
my customers are XP Professional/Vista Professional/Server 2003/2008 users and
that's the way it's going to be forever.
Well nothing could go wrong with that and there's no need to worry about
competitors who can sell to Windows and the other os users who can't even look
at my product. Oh, and these new monitoring tools that will convert all my
pirating customers into gravy train passengers, they don't cost me a penny. Or will
there be some licensing fees, so Microsoft can get an ongoing cut of my success?
Youre a software developer too?
Please stop trying to judge
Delusions of grandeur
One of these days we're going to find out No_Ax is a nym for Ballmer, posting anonymously ala Whole Foods CEO.
Certainly delusional enough to be him. No grasp of practicalities and absolutely no clue what business customers are actually implementing.
That either means he's posting from the mental ward, smokes too much weed or he's Ballmer.
A question...
after 'IP' protection comes 'code' protection!
But there is no need to protect FOSS since the code is out in the open, so there is no 'protection tax' for M$ to collect.
No one wants to protect something thats useless.
RE:No one wants to protect something thats useless.
So why bother?