A follow-up to my previous Piracy post found at http://mandersoconsulting.com/blog/files/Pirated_Software.html
One of the reasons I gave to the reason people pirate was laziness. That’s accurate to a certain degree, but it only goes so far. Some developers that put out software which require an activation scheme, or DRM software, or a license server, have done so to protect their software from being stolen. And I could go into the whole “pirating software is/isn’t stealing” bit, but that’s tired. The point is, the developer put restrictions into the usage of their software so they could get paid for their work. That’s fair. But that crosses the line too often.
Case in point, Brady. Brady makes label printing software and hardware for scientific applications, mostly labs. They sell the label printer, they sell the labels, and they sell the software to run the printer. To use this label software requires a license key, but they sell multiple copies of their software, in different editions. There’s BradySoft Standard, Network (which allows the sotware to communicate with a license server) and Ultimate. These products have different feature sets, but all do the same basic job, print labels. And the licensing scheme is abysmal. When upgrading to a new computer, you need to verify you have the right software for that particular printer, and then you have to verify you have the right license code for the software. Brady makes this more complicated, by not putting the version of the software on the license sheet. Granted, this example would be less complicated if the software and licenses were better organized, but its label making software! It shouldn’t be this complicated!
Another example would be Adobe. A colleague purchased an upgrade to Adobe Master Suite CS4 from his version of Web Design CS3. At least, that’s what the Adobe rep told him he purchased. Not when you go to install master suite though. It only wants to upgrade from a previous Master Suite. And looking on Adobe’s website, the upgrade path is bizarre.
These developers need to take another look at their product line, and make some changes. The licensing is too complicated, there are too many versions, and the customer is becoming the pirate. Look at Apple. They have one version of an operating system (two if you count the server), no serial number to input, and a devoted customer base. That’s how software should be sold.