The Web is not Just a Dongle

For years, high end applications (like Drafting, 3D and Business-specific) included little parallel, serial or USB dongles that plugged into the back of your computer and contained some extra information or code that let the expensive program you just bought know it was ok to run. The idea behind it was that while software is easy to copy from computer to the computer, the little piece of hardware was not. They were an early form of Digital Rights Management (before the current round of DRM using firmware coded asymmetric keys) that was enforced through a piece of hardware. So if you needed to run the program on more than one computer you would be forced to buy another license and get another dongle as opposed to semi-illegally using the software on multiple computers at the same time.

I say semi-illegally because the only behavior that this actually stopped was companies that obtained the software legally to begin with. For software pirates there was usually a crack that obviated the need for the dongle in the first place and they wouldn't end up paying for the software at all.

Dongles have fallen out of favor for a number of good reasons - they are cumbersome, they take up ports (or don't pass-thru correctly half the time), they get lost and broken easily, and honestly - you can't trust software makers to not screw up hardware (just like you can't trust hardware makers to not screw up software - how's that video editing software that came with your camcorder working?)

The idea behind them, however, is not necessarily awful - give users something extra besides just the magical bits that make up your software to try to keep them honest.

As fast connections to the Internet have become ubiquitous over the past decade companys have frequently tried to use the Internet as a dongle like protection.

Some of the earlier attempts at integrating the Internet as a security measure were to use it simply to phone home upon activation of a piece of software (See Windows XP). The user would enter a serial number and then the software would connect and activate that serial number in an online database, which in theory would prevent you from using it on more than one occassion. However as computer fail and break all the time, there had to be some leniency in the activation process for multiple install other you quickly had the makings of an internet flash mob that could drag your company's name through the mud (See: TurboTax Activation Fiasco )

The Activation fiascos - there have been a number of them, even Windows XP's relatively lenient and painless activation raised some serious ire in it's day - are telling because they essentially tried to transfer literally all the facets of the hardware dongle to Internet. Of course all the problems that made dongles obnoxious to begin with came along for the ride.

The essential problem with any DRM is that you are often only hurting the people who are trying to use your software legally. The people who pirated your software have hacked versions which put a couple of JMP calls that route around the DRM checks.

The power of the web however, is that you can do a lot more than just use it as a dongle. Take a high-end complicated the 3d program. What if instead of using an activation scheme, you created a community of help, tutorials and forums that was accessible only through an account where you had to enter you serial number to register?

What you'd be offering the people who actually buy your product is an added service instead of just another layer between them and using your product. Turn each page of your F1 help into discussion forum where people can post questions and comments and suddenly you've added value to your software that is accessible only to those registered members.

Suddenly you've turned the game upside down - you're making the pirates work harder to get up to date information and tutorials and adding value for your paying users. The web doesn't just have to be a dongle but can be an opportunity to make your software more valuable and better.