My head swims at the thought of intelligent people thinking that the reasons listed to circumvent the law in digital piracy are valid. The thought that comes to me is that those that pirate digital products believe their wants supersede the wants of those who take the time and effort to develop programs, games, music, etc. The very people who develop the games, music, etc. are the people that digital pirates may actually discourage to continue in creative development. Let’s look at this more closely to see if there is a solution lurking somewhere underneath all of this.

There are articles everywhere about why digital piracy is necessary.

•  We need to have things saved for future generations. It is part of history. We cannot lose our heritage because of copyright laws.
• We have the right to expect that anything downloadable that we purchase will work on any form of media WE chose.
• The cost is exorbitant and everyone should have access regardless whether they can pay or not, especially those in developing markets.
• Everyone should have access at the same time. Release globally, not regionally.
• Piracy is really a marketing tool and companies should be happy about their pirated copies. It makes more people want to purchase the product.

I agree that we should preserve our history/heritage. I can see the argument for both selling based on the market’s ability to pay and new releases being simultaneously released everywhere when possible. Providing advanced copies for trial is a great marketing tool

Let’s look at possible ways we can stay within the law and meet the wants of the customers that are identified in the above “causes” for digital piracy.

1. First, Historical records: Set up a place where historical copies can be placed. Determine a timeframe for placing digital products in the “historical vault”. Determine how people will access the products for study and historical occasions. Perhaps companies will be more willing to participate in this type of program if they are shown the need of placing a copy of their product in the vault.
2. Markets: What would it really take to market products based on each market’s ability to pay? How much crossover would there be to purchasing in the less expensive market? Or should there be a mean in which the product would be the same price across markets?  Would there be differences in products for each market? This may take a lot of work to implement and maintain.
3. Global release of products: First question is: why aren’t companies releasing globally now? Is it a question of economics? Is it too difficult for a company to launch a new release in so many markets at one time? From the answers to these types of questions, a path to global releases might be found.
4. Piracy is a marketing tool: Trial releases are a marketing tool used by many companies. Perhaps each new product or update could have a trial release for a reduced price. If you like it and want to have it forever, pay an additional amount for the “forever” release. Would customers be willing to pay for the “forever” release after paying for the trial and deciding to keep it? Since licensing programs are already available for updating versions and making trials into “forever” licenses, would a trial give the customer what is needed to pay for digital products rather than pirate them?
5. Wanting each application to work on whatever platform a customer is using. This is more difficult to provide. Platforms are evolving so quickly and fading off so rapidly these days, it is very difficult to provide access across all platforms. It could also add to the expense of the digital product to work with multiple platforms to fill this request.

As I look at the logical direction to reduce digital piracy based on the reasons given for piracy, I see that there are those who will come up with the thought that digital products should just be available to everyone, period.  In the current world environment, that does not seem to be a plausible solution. However, we can begin to discuss the reasons many give for piracy.  And, we can work together to find a solution that would make digital media affordable to those who need and want to use it as well as reward those who develop, create, and make digital media available. There are two sides – piracy is against the law so creating better laws and ways for distribution just makes sense.

What do you think?

In discussions about software and other digital piracy, the numbers show that piracy is greater in foreign markets than in the US. Many articles discuss the reasons and excuses for such high percentages of pirated software and other media. However, in the State of the Union Address given Tuesday, President Obama stated that America has brought trade cases against countries that do not play by the rules, such as China. This reference to trade agreements opens up the matter of digital piracy to a bigger discussion, trade agreements.

This is business. We have agreements made and signed. Therefore, we as well as our partners in business need to live by those agreements. That includes stopping software and digital piracy.  It also means that we work together to that end. This assertion begs the question, “How can we work together to reduce software and digital piracy? “ It does not seem that the status quo of shutting down pirate shops and websites, and fining companies is reducing the percentage of pirated software and digital goods at a very effective rate. Pirate websites and shops are just started up again under a new name. Is there a better strategy? Do the trade agreements that we have with foreign countries provide an avenue to help stop software and digital piracy?

But in the end, it does not matter what the reason. It does not matter whether a country has enacted anti-piracy laws or not. Software piracy still takes $50 to $100 billion dollars of revenue each year.

Recently, I read a white paper released by IDC that identifies not only the software companies that take a hit when software is pirated, but also partners within the same ecosystem.  Additionally, the paper states that there are other ways to “help” violates come into compliance that will, not only bring in revenue but also make loyal customers.  Some of these customers are not even aware of the use of unauthorized software usage within their company.

With just a few percentage points, a lot of money can be put back into the software companies which will help them to continue to develop and innovate for future enhancements. We need to protect our software to keep from having to do remedial work with customers. But we also need to take steps necessary to help retain our current customers, invite new customers, and keep our bottom line secure so that development companies can be successful in bringing innovative, create ideas to technology for all of us to use. 

How has software piracy affected your company?

Read the entire white paper.

Everyone is moving very quickly to cloud based computing, social networking, and online purchasing. There are regulations in place to safeguard users and customers’ information. As we review the breaches and the data that was compromised, some sensitive information was encrypted and some was not. But, even information encrypted can eventually be accessed if that is the only safeguard in place.

Below is a listing from the dark Reading article that identifies the companies breached and the data that was taken.

Ten Breaches of 2011 identified by dark Reading

1. Comodo – Credentials – registered nine SSL certificates for seven high-value domains
2. RSA – SecurID tokens compromised
3. Epsilon – customers’ names and email addresses of high profile companies
4. WordPress – Source code and application programming interfaces – probably no customer info
5. Play Station – Hardware – took down playstation for a month and probably customer info including unencrypted credit card info
6. Citibank – information on approximately 360,000 customers
7. Cyworld – names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of 35 million customers as well as encrypted info
8. Tricare – SSI, addresses and phone numbers of 4.9 million military service personnel
9. Facebook – researchers gained access to 3,000 profiles estimating that 80% of Facebook users could be compromised
10. Steam – Accessed database with user information including encrypted credit card information

These are the breaches that we know about. How many more are there? It is no wonder people are paying to have their credit cards and accounts tracked for suspicious activity with companies that also provide a limited amount of insurance for breaches.

What can be done to keep data and access to sensitive information safe? This question is huge considering that at least one of the largest security companies was hacked and customer access, sensitive data was taken. I think it is beginning to be apparent that nothing is entirely safe from those who really want it, whether it is hard information or online. But we can be proactive to make our online data as secure as we can. The steps to this process have not really changed since my entry on safe guarding data. Let’s review.

1. Security must be considered and planned in the design stage of software development and cloud based data storage and access
2. Buy in and priority for security at the highest levels of a company whether software development or consumer companies
3. Identification of “sensitive” or proprietary information that needs to be safeguarded
4. Identification of today’s threats and a projection of tomorrow’s possibilities (This has expanded greatly with the introduction of Stuxnet.)
5. Both the software and consumer companies institute a security program, with education for all employees including responsibility and accountability at each level of the company
6. Look at dual authentication for licensing and data security. They could save you embarrassment and help retain your bottom line.
7. Consider hiring some hackers to identify your company vulnerabilities. They think outside of the box.

Good luck to us all. We need it in the present environment.

Read dark Readings article Ten Big Breaches

Read how SmartDongle USB hardware key can help secure your programs and data.

As I looked at the pictures I thought that sometimes bad things happen when people do not prepare. This sentiment was echoed in a blog that came to my attention. Here is the link: http://gizmodo.com/#!5707655.

The blog headline says that a single pirated software license was used 775,000 times. I’m quite sure that if any software product that we sell was pirated that many times we would have a sinking feeling. Avoid going under. Use the SmartDongle to license your software.

Meteorologists generally define four seasons in many climatic areas: spring, summer, autumn (or fall) and winter. These are demarcated by the values of their average temperatures on a monthly basis, with each season lasting three months. The three warmest months are by definition summer, the three coldest months are winter, and the intervening gaps are spring and autumn. Spring, when defined in this manner, can start on different dates in different regions. In terms of complete months, in most North Temperate Zone locations, spring months are March, April and May (Summer is June, July, August; autumn is September, October, November; winter is December, January, February). The vast majority of South Temperate Zone locations will have opposing seasons with spring in September, October and November.

Astronomically, the vernal equinox (usually 20 March in the Northern Hemisphere, and 22 or 23 September in the Southern Hemisphere), should be the middle of spring (based on the angle of the sun and insolation) and the summer solstice (usually 21 June in the Northern Hemisphere and 21 December in the Southern Hemisphere) should be the middle of summer (because the sun is at its highest), but daytime temperatures lag behind insulation by several weeks because the earth and sea have thermal latency and take time to warm up.

Some cultures, such as those that devised the Celtic and East Asian calendars, call the spring equinox “mid-spring”, but others (especially in the USA and sometimes in England) regard it as the “first day of spring”. For most temperate regions, signs of spring appear long before the middle of March, but the folklore of 21 March being the “first day of spring” persists, and 21 June as the “first day of summer” is common in the USA. In South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, spring begins on 1 September, and has no relation to the vernal equinox.

In South America, the Tupi-Guarani calendar, from the former inhabitants of what is presently Brazil, counted 365 days, plus a fourth part of a day, needing no extra day every four years. The beginning of the solar year was marked by the rising of the M25 Constellation in the horizon, which occurs between June 5 and June 11 in this part of the world. For these native peoples, the four seasons were clearly identified by the solstices and equinoxes. The trajectory of the Sun throughout the year was divided into “The New Age” (Ara Pyau) and “The Old Age” (Ara Ymã). Ara Pyau was spring and summer, and Ara Ymã was autumn and winter. This calendar, which had no graphed or written form, marked activities such as hunting, fishing, planting, harvesting and religious rituals.

In East Asian Solar term, spring begins on 4 February and ends on 5 May. Similarly, according to the Celtic tradition, which is based solely on daylight and the strength of the noon sun, spring begins in early February (near Imbolc or Candlemas) and continues until early May (Beltane).

The phenological definition of spring relates to indicators, the blossoming of a range of plant species, and the activities of animals, or the special smell of soil that has reached the temperature for micro flora to flourish. It therefore varies according to the climate and according to the specific weather of a particular year.

Article from Wikipedia.

”I cannot tell a lie”

Did George Washington as a young boy really chop down a cherry tree? The story of the cherry tree chopping is attributed to Mason Locke Weems who it seems was a pastor and a bookseller. The story goes that George received a new hatchet and wanted to try it out. So he did on a cherry tree in his father’s orchard. When asked by his father, the boy replied, “I can’t tell a lie, Pa, you know I can’t tell a lie. I did cut it with my hatchet”.

Weems believed that America around 1800 needed a story with a hero. What better story after the war of independence than hero in the man that became President of the United States. So he wrote about George Washington.

Although we might want to believe the story that as a boy the General of the Army that won our independence from the British and our first President is true, it seems that the incident is a fabrication that Weems used to sell his book. But in the end, as the article states: “The answer lies in the heart, which does not always distinguish between fact and fiction but always knows what it cherishes.”

Read the full article by Mary Trotter Kion

Using Code128 Barcodes Without Generating Check Digits

There are many different barcode symbologies. One of my favorites is Code 128. I like it because it is dense. By that I mean that a lot of information can be displayed in a single barcode. The problem with Code 128 is that each barcode must have a check “digit”. That makes it difficult to use that symbology in producing barcodes with something like Word. Even computer programs that produce barcodes must include the non-trivial algorithm to choose the correct character for the check digit. We solved this problem for a customer who printed documents using PostScript. We created a Code 128 font that includes code to calculate the required check character. Everybody is happy.

Using Custom Fonts in pdf Documents

One of the services that we perform is to create custom fonts with signatures and logos. These are TrueType fonts which can be scaled to any size. When printed, the logos and signatures look great. A problem sometimes occurs when users want to produce a pdf file of their document. Ordinarily the fonts contain permissions which forbid their inclusion in pdf files. Without the font, the documents don’t come out looking anything like they were intended. For our customers we can modify the fonts to specify that the font CAN be included in a pdf file. That means that the resulting document, when displayed, looks just like the creator expected. It’s easy if you know how.

Mobile Software

Customers are a very mobile society with not only a computer at home but iPhones, Tablets, and dongles to connect to the internet almost everywhere. That means that they need to have a software license that travels with them. Customers only need one license that they can use on multiple computers. A very simply answer is a USB key.

The USB key not only allows licenses to be mobile, it also allows software to be secure. Licensing information is placed on the dongle so that only one copy of the software can be used.

News Travels Fast – Good and Bad

We are in the age of instant information or disinformation. Through social media people are connected daily – instantly. Messages are circulated very quickly. Masses of people are using social media to get their message out. Take the national election in 2008 or even local elections. A note on any social media went “viral” very quickly, especially the gaffes.

Then there is the aspect of networking with people you trust. I want to know which software works best. I just ask my social network. If my immediate group doesn’t know, someone in another group connected to my friend will.

Social media is now the hot marketing tool. Companies are not only placing pages on Facebook, they also have blogs. Have you read the entries on those blogs? Information and opinions are freely given to anyone who will read them. Issues with products are discussed and recommendations are given. Just a few, dissatisfied customers can wreak havoc on a product. The marketing and sales departments know this. They use the media.

If you want a product that your customers will purchase and recommend to their friends, ask them what they want. Give me what I need and I will tell all my friends about your product on Facebook or any other media that I use. This affects the bottom line of your company and increases customer satisfaction, which leads to new customers as well as repeat customers. So ask your customer and keep asking how they like it. Your bottom line will show it.

ICANN, NOR, and ISOC announced February 3, 2011 that all of the IP addresses available for IPv4 have been allocated.  While it probably doesn’t affect most of us, it will has been approaching for a long time and we all knew it would happen.  If you want to become the next AOL of the world you might encounter some problems.  There are basically 2 kinds of IP addresses. There are permanently assigned numbers and there are dynamic numbers.  The dynamic numbers are reused, and will continue to be available.  Permanently assigned numbers are dished out in blocks, and many companies have large blocks of numbers that are still available.  The problem is that no more companies can obtain blocks of numbers.

The long term solution is to change IP addresses from 32 bits to 128 bits.  With only 32 bits (the IPv4 version) there aren’t even enough numbers to have one per person on the earth.  With IPv6 (128 bits) there are enough numbers to count everything interesting on the earth.  Over a period of years the existing gateways, bridges, switches, and routers that only use IPv4 will decrease and before long everything will will be IPv6.  Don’t worry about outgrowing IPv6.  It doesn’t have 4 times as many values as IPv4, it has enough numbers for 4 billion countries to each have 4 billion companies that each have 4 billion employees that each have 4 billion devices, and each of those devices can have a unique IP address.  That’s a lot.