Addressing Secure, Flexible Software Licensing In A Complex Environment

ISVs today must address many questions in your product development and delivery strategies as the software licensing landscape has become increasingly complex. Let’s take a look at some of these questions you face:

• Should the product be sold as one unit or should several variants be created, each with different features?
• Is the license perpetual or should it be sold in time-limited subscriptions or usage-based units?
• Should limited trial licenses be made available?
• Is the license bound to a specific PC or can it float in my customer’s LAN?
• Which system platforms should be supported?
• Is the license safe on virtual machines?
• What about cloud or mobile apps in the future?

Because of these increasing complexities, many ISVs are turning to 3rd party licensing security experts for help in developing a secure licensing strategy that meets their needs not only for today but also provides the flexibility to enable them to adapt their product to meet new customer requirements as they evolve in the future.

For example, take a look at one of our customers, Faceware Technologies, Inc. Faceware is the pioneer in video-based facial animation. Their hardware and software represent complete solutions for the interactive entertainment, film, video game, television, and commercial markets. Their products were used to deliver exceptional facial recognition in Forbes list of top ten grossing games in 2014.

They turned to our CodeMeter secure licensing and protection platform for several reasons. First, they wanted to protect their revenues by eliminating counterfeit copies from hitting the market and protect their intellectual property from reverse engineering. They knew that CodeMeter protected software had never been compromised in global hacker’s contests.

They also were looking to introduce new business models that would enable trial licensing and pay for time and features. This licensing flexibility enabled them to introduce a “lite” version of their product which allowed them sell their software to independent filmmakers and smaller studios that typically couldn’t afford the high end, fully featured version. And with confidence in security, they were able to launch into new markets, including Russian and China, where they previously had concerns.

One of the key takeaways from their success story is that with a robust, flexible and secure licensing and protection platform like CodeMeter, they could focus on what they do best – create award winning products that could reach more markets.

If you would like to read the details about how CodeMeter helped Faceware to achieve their security and licensing goals, please download the case study. And, if you would like to try CodeMeter, just request a fully functional evaluation system.