Software manufacturers across the globe are faced with the constant battle of software piracy, but just how effective are they’re attempts to stop the pirates?

As you are probably well aware, the main form of software protection in recent years has been the good old CD Key and Activation method. However, most of you will probably know about the vast amount of Key Generators, Patches and cracked Serials that are available on the Internet. In fact, if you spend long enough looking, you will probably be able to get any software you like for absolutely nothing, and this is what the software manufacturers are trying to stop.

Windows Vista was one of the first of many to try a new method of anti-piracy. This method still involves a unique CD Key, however the CD Key only grants you permission to use Vista for 30 days, at which point you must go online to activate your copy. When your software contacts the Microsoft servers, Microsoft will be able to tell whether or not you are using a “cracked” copy of Vista or a legitimate one. Yet even this method has been thwarted by pirates, by “stopping the clock”, which effectively means your 30 days will never run out.

So where do software manufacturers go from here? Well according to one Dhillon Andrew Kannabhiran, founder of security company Hack in the Box, the next step is “Software rental”. By placing software on online servers, and allowing users to “Buy time” with which they can access the software with login credentials, it is possible that pirates could be stopped once and for all. Ofcourse, this method would mean that the software would have to be interfaced with through the Internet, and it would no longer be sitting on our desktop ready to launch.

Could we really live with no software sitting on our computers? In my honest opinion, I can’t see this migration being a huge success.

 We will just have to wait and see.