Distributed Software and License Key Management “an Initiative to Stop Software Piracy”

It is really a boon for computer users that they get some software free with the operating system. But what if this software was not given free and would have cost thousand dollars. This would have given rise to the bug called “software piracy” but not to worry the bug is still in the market and is the major concern of software developers. The major reasons of piracy include the high cost of software and it is also the business of some unethical people who have chosen piracy as their jobs. Various software companies are inclined towards the research of techniques to handle this problem of piracy. Many defense mechanisms have been devised till date but the hobbyists or the black market leaders so called “software pirates” have always found a way out of it. This paper identifies flaws in the existing defense mechanisms – the static defense mechanisms and identifies the impossibility to prevent the duplication of digital data. The paper presents a dynamic defense mechanism and makes it difficult to pirate. Furthermore it also enables a fine grained control over distributed software. In this methodology the organization can not use the software on the number of computers, exceeding the number of license purchased but it provides an ethical way for optimal uses of that software in the network of the organization by dynamic software and license management which morally and socially build an environment for the prevention of software piracy. KeywordsEnd User License Agreements (EULAs), Electronic software distribution (ESD), Electronic software distribution and Licensing (ESDL), Distributed software and License key management, Byzantine agreement protocol, Election Algorithms