September 29, 2009 – Palo Alto, CA – Nalpeiron, the world’s leading Hosted Software Licensing and Software Copy Protection platform, today introduced www.softwarelicensing.tv – a website dedicated to covering “both sides” of the software license management industry.

The website covers news, views and reports about the consequences of software piracy along with the industry of developing and using software copy protection and licensing technology.

“The developers and users of software license management are totally underserved by current reporting and related website resources – this new website is step forward in bringing useful, detailed and unbiased information on the topic of Software License Management to the market,” said Jon Gillespie-Brown, founder and CEO of Nalpeiron, and publisher of www.softwarelicensing.tv.

“The tone of this new site will be objective – we are encouraging the participation of various thought-leaders in our category to collectively provide a balanced and useful commentary that our visitors will appreciate.”

Software developers and publishers looking for the views, news, challenges and results of using software licensing technology will be able to get much more useful and detailed information than ever before.

The site includes videos, podcasts and articles that cover the core questions that application developers ask every day, but find little useful content on the Internet to help them make tough decisions about how to protect their software.

The website will include a section entitled ISV Viewpoints, which will include podcasts and videos with CxO-level executives within software developers and their experiences choosing, using and living with licensing technologies. Softwarelicensing.tv will also include featured articles from other industry players with the latest on what they are doing to control their IP and combat piracy.

Another section called Vendor Updates keeps readers up to date with the latest technology in the market. Finally, a detailed knowledgebase of articles and FAQs about the industry will be presented, along with the latest software licensing and piracy news from around the world. Being able to listen to and review what their peers are doing and how that has affected their businesses will be invaluable in educating and informing CTOs and CEOs of software businesses worldwide.

The press tend to present a limited viewpoint when it comes to reporting about DRM and related technologies, mostly reporting the complaints of users about the restrictions, rather than discussing the important needs of the software community that is weathering the financial problems on top of rampant piracy.

“It’s time for more detailed reporting and discussion on our niche so the industry can make better and more informed decisions about software licensing. This website is an inventive step toward that goal,” said Mr. Gillespie-Brown. “We are happy to contribute to a useful dialogue about our industry, and we hope this inspires a spirit of openness and collaboration that will ultimately benefit the entire industry.”

Related posts:

1. Software licensing Industry still consolidating!

September 1, 2009 – Palo Alto, CALIF – Nalpeiron, the world’s leading Hosted Licensing and Software Copy Protection platform, today announced its continued growth and expansion following another record breaking year to-date. Thus far in 2009, Nalpeiron has helped more than 1,000 independent software vendors (ISV’s) to outsource their application licensing infrastructure. Among those 1,000+ customers are some marquee names within the technology industry, including Thomson Reuters, Symantec, Asyst and Texas Instruments.

Coming off the recent introduction of the sixth version of Nalpeiron’s Hosted Licensing Platform that enables ISV’s to save costs and drive new revenues essential in today’s economic environment, the company’s growth has continued domestically as well as internationally. Nalpeiron’s most recent global expansion includes growth in Europe with the establishment of a German sales presence.

"Nalpeiron’s adoption of a hosted SaaS-type approach in a market dominated by older technology and stagnant growth is the primary driver of this excellent performance," said Jon Gillespie-Brown, Nalpeiron’s founder and CEO. “Today’s software ISV’s need solutions that enable them to focus on their core business and to easily and quickly outsource non-core activities like software license management. We give our customers an effective way to reduce operational costs, while driving new sources of revenue."

Nalpeiron offers ISVs the ability to drive down costs, increase sales and re-capture lost revenues due to casual piracy – all with an "out of the box" solution that can be up and running in 24 hours. In addition, Nalpeiron’s customers can leverage extensive trial marketing and piracy tracking technologies to drive instant sales growth and maximize potential revenue streams.

"This is a very powerful and compelling value proposition for Software CEO’s and one that can lead to near instant ROI and a "bump" in revenues just when it’s needed in a down economy." Gillespie-Brown continued.

These benefits along with enabling customers of rival technologies such as FlexLM to switch painlessly to a lower cost, more feature-rich outsourced solution, has convinced some of the world’s largest software publishers to make the change. This is particularly true when it comes time to renew the costly fees paid to these vendors which can be cut in half by moving to Nalpeiron.

Nalpeiron’s growth and expansion is set to continue as the company prepares to release a number of new products including a technology to allow users of Aladdin and SafeNet dongles to switch to low-cost flash drives instead, saving 75% of the cost and adding greater benefits to the end user.

About Nalpeiron

Nalpeiron makes it easy and affordable to build licensing capabilities into Windows and Mac software. We do this by giving developers a straight-forward licensing software development kit (SDK) which connects to a web-based licensing "server farm." Developers add a few snippets of code to their application, include a Nalpeiron "licensing .DLL" with their product, and ship their product. The result is software that is licensed and protected the way you need it to be. Unlike all the other software licensing providers, Nalpeiron provides this as an on-demand web service, with low up-front costs and a pay-as-you-go licensing model. For more information, please visit http://www.nalpeiron.com/info/

Related posts:

1. Downturn spurs on software pirates

The worldwide PC software piracy rate rose for the second year in a row, from 38 percent to 41 percent, because PC shipments grew fastest in high-piracy countries such as China and India, overwhelming progress elsewhere.

While emerging economies account for 45 percent of the global PC hardware market, they account for less than 20 percent of the PC software market.  If the emerging economies’ PC software share were the same as it is for PC hardware, the software market would grow by $40 billion a year. Lowering global piracy by just one point a year would add $20 billion in stimulus to the IT industry, says the report.

The monetary value of unlicensed software broke the $50 billion level for the first time. Worldwide losses grew by 11 percent to $53.0 billion in non-adjusted dollars, although half of that growth was the result of the falling U.S. dollar. Excluding the effect of exchange rates, losses grew by 5 percent to $50.2 billion. This compares to a legitimate PC software market of $88 billion in 2008, and a personal computer market of $244 billion.

“We are continuing to make progress against PC software piracy in many countries, which helps people working in the U.S.-led global software industry. That’s the good news,” said BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman.

“The bad news is that PC software piracy remains so prevalent in the United States and all over the world,” he added. “It undermines local IT service firms, gives illegal software users an unfair advantage in business, and spreads security risks. We should not and cannot tolerate a $9 billion hit on the software industry at a time of economic stress.”

The lowest-piracy countries are the United States, Japan, New Zealand, and Luxembourg, all near 20 percent. The highest-piracy countries are Armenia, Bangladesh, Georgia, and Zimbabwe, all over 90 percent.

The highest-piracy regions are Central/Eastern Europe (67 percent) and Latin America (65 percent). The lowest regions are North America (21 percent) and the European Union (35 percent).

Related posts:

1. Software licensing Industry still consolidating!
2. Software Licensing and Software Piracy Website Launches to Report on the Industry

New Suite of Revenue Enhancement Tools Boosts Conversion, Revenue & Profit
Nalpeiron, the leader in hosted software licensing solutions that maximize revenue for developers and publishers, unveiled a new suite of tools that delivers what every software developer and publisher needs: a scalable, customizable approach to software licensing that increases conversion rates and dramatically increases revenue.

The company’s new ActiveMarketing Plug-in Suite™ is at the heart of the Nalpeiron Licensing Service™ – a set of systems built for the sole purpose of creating and driving new revenue streams with power, flexibility and an absolute minimum of effort.

Nalpeiron’s ActiveMarketing Plug-in Suite™ is made up of two primary components: TrialMaximizer™ and OverdraftTracker™. TrialMaximizer™ lets companies gather their trial users’ details, then actively and powerfully market and sell their products to them throughout the course of their trial using email campaigns and HTML advertisements.

Most importantly, TrialMaximizer™ lets companies target their prospective customers at the exact point in time when prospects are actually using the company’s product enabling sales to focus on “hot” leads and marketing to get the messaging out at exactly the right time within the trial period. The reason 98% of trials don’t convert to dollars is because both sales and marketing don’t have the “technology” to talk to the right prospects at exactly the right time. OverdraftTracker™ allows flexible configurations of product licensing, whereby customers can be allowed to activate beyond the EULA limit – this shows the ISV where there is hidden demand for more licenses. Once in this ‘overdraft’ mode, automatic marketing starts and sales leads are generated, which drive the customer to purchase extra licenses.

New Economy = New Rules
Today’s economic climate requires big changes for companies to survive. Nalpeiron’s Licensing Service allows companies to cut costs immediately upon implementation, while paving the way for greater long-term revenue generation. Nalpeiron not only gives companies an effective way to stave off piracy, but it also gives them the means to increase revenue opportunities throughout the sales cycle, from trial to purchase to post-activation overuse.

“The economy has hit everyone hard, and the software industry is no exception,” said Jon Gillespie-Brown, Nalpeiron’s CEO. “Companies are having to do more with less, and Nalpeiron’s approach to licensing allows companies to cut costs by outsourcing to our hosted service, while at the same time growing revenue through increased conversion rates.”

Implementation is Seamless, Results are Immediate
The Nalpeiron Licensing Service can be fully deployed in a matter of days. Nalpeiron offers free set-up and support, as well as complimentary PDF tutorials that outline how Nalpeiron is unique – and how you can put Nalpeiron to work for you, immediately impacting your bottom line. For more information, visit www.trialmaximizer.com, or call 888-800-8818.

About Nalpeiron
Nalpeiron is the leader in hosted software licensing solutions, offering software developers and publishers the industry’s most robust suite of tools that reduce costs and increase revenue. As the traditional software licensing industry has continued to age and consolidate, Nalpeiron represents the future of software licensing – a hosted service that can be implemented quickly, managed easily and continually adjusted to meet the evolving needs of its customers.

For more information, visit www.nalpeiron.com

John Snedigar
Public Relations
Faultline Communications
Palo Alto, CA
Phone : 408-705-7518

Acresso has acquired Intraware.

Acresso Software (Acresso), a privately-held company and an investment of private equity firm Thoma Bravo, LLC, announced today it has completed the acquisition of Intraware Incorporated (NASDAQ: ITRA), a provider of digital delivery and entitlement management services. Intraware is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Acresso.

SafeNet (Vector capital) has completed it’s bitter takeover of Aladdin systems.

Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd. (NASDAQ: ALDN) today announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by an investor group lead by Vector Capital, a leading private equity firm specializing in the technology industry, in a transaction valued at approximately $160 million.

Vector now own both SafeNet and Aladdin i.e. the whole “dongle” hardware DRM market!

Commenting on the announcement, David Fishman, Partner, Vector Capital, said, “We are very excited about adding Aladdin to our portfolio of outstanding technology companies and believe that placing Aladdin’s DRM and Authentication assets under common management with those of our portfolio company, SafeNet Inc., a global leader in information security, makes considerable strategic sense and will greatly benefit all stakeholders. Aladdin is an exceptional company, with significant potential and a strong commitment to its employees, partners and customers worldwide. We understand Aladdin’s industry and business well, and look forward to working collaboratively to ensure a smooth and expeditious transition.”

So what does all this mean for you the “customer” – well it means less choice, less competition and greater control in the hands of the largest players in the Industry.

For Nalpeiron, who have already weathered our only major competitor Microsoft, and continued to double our growth year on year it’s good news in many ways.

More and more customers of these large players are joining the only viable independent alternative, Nalpeiron, and also making the change to an “outsourced” model with compelling features, pay as you go pricing and a total “hosted” solution out of the box in 24 hours.

The great thing is that our service is now totally unique and there is “clear blue sky” between us and the competition.

Also, so many customers are looking to save costs in these tough times and they are moving away from expensive inflexible dongles ($30-40 each) to Nalpeiron where they can get far more for far less. License costs run as low as $1 – a huge saving over Vector’s offerings from SafeNet and Aladdin.

As for Acresso, they are a mixed bag of Installshield and Macrovision and now they have yet another totally different technology platform in the mix but there appears no clear strategy with all three product areas being so different and totally unconnected.

Acresso’s pricing and support policies have also driven many new customers to Nalpeiron where they don’t have to pay the license “tax” of a % of revenue every year to Acresso and can pay way less for better features and do that “as they go” offering better cash flows as well as savings in overall annual cost to the ISV.

Of course it will take a while to see what happens but the challenge of merging different cultures from different countries (US and Israel) will be interesting to watch for Nalpeiron!

Related posts:

1. Ex-Safenet CFO gets prison term- what next for Software Licensing top guns?
2. Software Licensing and Software Piracy Website Launches to Report on the Industry
3. Microsoft SLPS software licensing service has been terminated!

The economic downturn could presage an upswing in piracy next year, despite ongoing legal campaigns by the Business Software Alliance, Microsoft and others.

"We’ve seen an increase in piracy during past recessions," said Victor DeMarines, vice president at antipiracy software vendor V.i. Laboratories Inc. "It’s very cyclical."

You may want to start thinking about and making provisions for how you handle any additional activity in your area and specifically your product.

Is it attacked yet and if so what are you doing about that? Also, if not have you made any preparations to slow these pirates down?

It’s unlikely you can beat a concerted attack on your products but you can isolate its availability and make sure only the best crackers can beat you not just any school kid.

The best protection is a compelling product and price point but it makes sense to any extra precautions you can to defend your revenues now otherwise you could suffer a DOUBLE downturn, less revenues and more piracy!

We advocate going on the attack and trying to win more customers from your potential based via better marketing automation using the licensing system – we have launched such an initiative called "TrialMaximizer", se it at www.trialmaximizer.com

See the full article here: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9122898

If you deploy this toll (with permission) to your end users you could make life a lot easier for yourself, as installing security software needs to install in admin mode this utility could help save setting complex installer procedures, user could run this and it would stop the UAC hassles and get the job done…

If you like it check out their site but make sure you alert your end users to the risks of switching off UAC!

TweakUAC for Windows Vista.

TweakUAC^™ is a free software tool that you can use to quickly turn UAC (User Account Control of Windows Vista) on or off, or to make UAC operate in the quiet mode. This software is FREE, no strings attached.

http://www.tweak-uac.com/home/

I don’t think it’s very scientific but it is a valuable argument, who will pay and who will not and why?

I also think the basic concept is sound – unfortunately people will avoid paying if a free/ripoff alternative is easily available.

The easy way to fix the conundrum in any event is to make your software easily available and to protect it will a user friendly but robust licensing solution and let the power of fully functional trials (rather then cracked software) do the viral marketing for you!

Here’s what Peldi says:

I don’t like generalizing, but here it goes. I believe there are 3 main categories of software users when it comes to purchasing software versus stealing it: “those who’ll buy”, “those who might buy” and “those who will never buy”.

I the pie chart below I refined it a bit to 5 categories, and since I don’t know how big they really are, I intentionally made all the pieces the same size, except for the yellow one, which I believe is the biggest one:

Let me describe each piece before discussing how I approach each one.

• At one end of the spectrum are those who will never spend money on your software. This category includes actual criminals who will steal your SW to repackage it and sell it, high school kids who like to show off their hacking skills, and also very legitimate and respectable entities like the Free Software Foundation.
• Then there’s a piece of the world population who simply cannot afford to spend money on your software, or at least not a lot. These people probably don’t feel great about using cracked versions of your software, but they do it because they need it and cannot afford what you are charging for it. In other words, they have bigger problems to deal with.
• I think the majority of people in the world fit in the yellow (gray?) area in the middle. They’ll use pirated software if it’s easy to get, but will pay for it otherwise. The more expensive the software, the more these people will shift towards the red pieces.
• Then there’s a piece that only pays for software because they fear getting caught stealing it. I think this pie includes a big chunk of businesses too.
• The last piece is the nice guys, the honest people who pay for what they use, pay all of their taxes, etc.

In the end its about getting the maximum amount of the "pie" for you for all your hard labor with the minimum hassle to both you and your customers…we think a hosted licensing solution is the answer!

By Tom Lamoureux, KPMG

See this link for an interesting article on SandHill.com.

http://www.sandhill.com/opinion/editorial.php?id=170&page=1

U.S. President George W. Bush Monday signed into law a bill designed to increase protection of intellectual property (IP) such as software, films and music by raising penalties for infringement and creating a national "IP czar."

So reports the NY Times and about time if you ask me, we need greater protections and clearer messages to people that piracy is a crime and we shouldn’t do it…

There will be no convincing some people but the average "Joe" should be clear it’s not OK, especially with a recession coming we need all the value from our IP we can get.

The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2007, or PRO-IP Act, creates a high-ranking IP protection overseer, appointed by the Senate and reporting directly to the president. The position’s first appointee will likely come from the next U.S. administration. The U.S. Department of Justice will also form a new division dedicated to enforcing intellectual property protection.

Now don’t get me wrong, I also agree with the new business models coming out that let you have less restrictive DRM on video and music but that’s more of a practical user friendly matter than the belief I should not pay. I admin when I was kid i copied my favorite songs onto compilation tapes but hey I did actually buy the original music to do that…to me this is fair and reasonable.

I don’t want this act to encourage the bad side of DRM and silly court dramas over single users and their iPods but I do think that people should be given a strong message particularly in critical areas for the economy and jobs like software protection.

Nowadays there are plenty of models where you can get software and services for free and that’s really great but where businesses need to or choose to charge for their efforts this needs to be protected in my view.

I also think that this act should be used against the big web sites and auctions that proliferate counterfeit software and get away with it for a start along with many of the other key distribution points that are obvious for anyone to find.

Clearly piracy is going to tough to beat in any meaningful way but small businesses and consumers should be made aware that their actions do affect their Country and the software business as a whole when they are tempted to cut corners and copy software.

Also, the onus should be on the software publisher to take action too and provide user friendly copy protection models and ways to buy their products.