Country-Specific Licenses

In an increasingly globalized world where digital goods are distributed across national borders, not only do opportunities grow, but so do the challenges for software manufacturers. International trade offers tremendous growth potential, but how can markets with different pricing structures be protected from abuse? This is where CodeMeter’s new licensing option comes into play: country-specific licenses.

Regional Price Disparities

A common issue in international software distribution is the price disparity between different countries. After analyzing the market and setting regional prices, you may face the question: How do I prevent licenses from low-cost regions from being used in high-price markets? Simply relying on contractual agreements is often not enough. To provide technical protection for your distribution markets, CodeMeter has been offering the option to bind licenses to specific countries since version 8.10.

Country List ISO-3166-1

With the new licensing option, you can precisely specify the countries where a license should be valid. This is based on the ISO-3166-1 country list, currently consisting of 244 countries. This restriction is encrypted and embedded directly into the license, for example, via the command-line tool CmBoxPgm or the High-Level Programming API (HIP). When the license is used, CodeMeter matches the operating system‘ s country settings with the permissions stored in the license. If there is a violation, such as attempting to use the license in an unauthorized country, an error message will appear. However, the user will not be informed of which countries are allowed – only that the license cannot be used in the current country. In CodeMeter applications like WebAdmin or cmu, it will simply indicate that there is a country-specific restriction, without revealing which countries are permitted.

Export Restrictions

In addition to price differentiation, country-specific licenses also provide a way to enforce legal regulations and embargo restrictions. If exports to certain countries are prohibited, you can embed a list of excluded countries in the license. If a user activates the license in one of these countries or in an undetectable location, access will be denied at runtime.

While an administrator could theoretically change the country settings of the operating system, this is not a foolproof protection mechanism. If it is later discovered that the software was used in a restricted country, it suggests intentional misconduct. This either gives you a strong negotiating position with customers who have violated geographical distribution agreements or demonstrates that you have taken all necessary measures to comply with export restrictions.

Supplementary Measures

Country-specific licenses are an essential part of enforcing export restrictions through technical means. In KEYnote 43 (Spring 2022), we reported on the option to commission geo-blocking for CodeMeter License Central instances hosted by Wibu-Systems. When combined with measures in your e-commerce system and additional checks within your software, you can effectively prevent licenses from being used unlawfully in prohibited regions.

Moreover, it is possible to integrate checks directly within the application itself. The feasibility of these checks depends heavily on the specific application and its technical environment, such as the ability to perform online validations. Our Professional Services team is available to assist you in designing and implementing such solutions.

With country-specific licenses, CodeMeter offers an effective and flexible solution to meet the challenges of international software distribution while ensuring compliance with legal requirements.

 

KEYnote 48 - Edition Fall/Winter 2024