SOFTWARE DONGLES
Jan 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Doug Eisengrein
I remember the days — now long-gone for me — of seeing CDs lying around on studio desks next to coffee stains and ashtrays, with the word “Warez” scrawled on them in thick black marker. Most of the kid-in-a-candy-store installers on such discs would have names ending in “[k]” (for “krac,” or some other misspelling of choice). Or, I'd receive an e-mail from “an associate” containing an unassuming URL that pointed to a Webpage with a menacing skull and crossbones graphic and links to all 26 letters of the English alphabet. Those links lead to an amazing wonderland of globally effective software serial numbers for just about any commercial software imaginable, from $50 cheapies to $5,000 enterprise editions. Yet another scenario: I'd see requests pop up in ICQ or audio IRC channels, brazenly asking, “Does anyone have a working serial for…?” Of course, these things are still happening; while I've moved on from this behavior, it's still abundant and blatant.
The file-sharing controversy led to music-industry big-wigs cracking down on (or completely shutting down) companies such as Napster, closet servers and even private computers found to be storing lots of seemingly innocuous yet illegal content. Similarly, software manufacturers have taken giant steps to combat the surprisingly organized Warez scene. Not least among these strong-arm methods are “dongles” — small, typically USB-based hardware “keys” that resemble flash drives but that serve a very different purpose: powerful software encryption. Dongles' tasks range from simple copy protection in the form of storage of serial numbers or registration keys that get served up on application startup, to storing snippets of encrypted code needed for the software to run at all. The idea is simple: duplicating or hacking a separate piece of required hardware is far more difficult than either copying a piece of dongle-free software or installing it on more than the legally allowed number of computers. Don't have the dongle? You can't run the software. The results are apparent: What I have seen over the past few years are fewer kracs floating around as more software manufacturers move to dongles to protect their financial interests.
Case in point: I reviewed two products from the same software manufacturer over the past two years. The first piece of software uses a standard license entry to run, while the other, released about a year later, came with a “universal” dongle (one that can be shared by other yet-to-be-released software packages by the same manufacturer). It appears as though the company is planning to use dongle encryption permanently, and the said products cost only about $200 each — a comparatively small price. Another case in point: At the NAMM music trade shows over the past few years, I've witnessed many software manufacturers' sales reps floating around the conference halls proudly sporting IMSTA (International Music Software Trade Association) T-shirts, with the message: “Buy the Software You Use.”
Given the fact that an unknown number of software manufacturers have been collectively ripped off millions of times — just like the myriad musicians and labels who've been robbed blind via file-sharing channels — why am I making a fuss about this justified security measure? Shouldn't I instead be pointing a damning finger at the faceless millions who steal software? Being a programmer myself, I fully support proper, legal use of software. However, my dongles are now clogging more of my USB ports than I care to mention… but I'll mention them anyway. One of my Mac's USB buses holds a 4-port hub, with another hub plugged into that, and yet another hub plugged into that! All of these excess peripherals are for — you guessed it — USB dongles, and all are required for my Mac to run my studio. It's getting to the point that, just like on a pack of smokes, the software boxes will need a warning label: “Caution! This box includes a highly protected software product that is known to the Software General at IMSTA to be hazardous to your USB buses. Manufacturer makes no explicit guarantee that the product you are about to consume will not result in another aggravating trip to the computer store, another $25 from your wallet or a tangled array of annoying little boxes connected to the rear of your computer. This product has also been linked to fractured installation CDs flying from studio windows and possible suicidal thoughts. Please use with caution.”
Software-protection dongles have actually been around since about 1980. But with all the dongle-spawning my own computers have endured in just over the past five years, I've had only one software package move away from dongle encryption. At this rate, new Macs and PCs will need to start including something like 20 USB ports instead of the requisite three or four. Better yet, I simply need to purchase stock in a hub manufacturer, wait a few years, sell my shares and move to Belize on my new private jet and spend the rest of my days drinking mojitos under the tropical sun. Yet, all of my hubs are not the worst of it. I recently recorded some weekly live gigs on a laptop, on which my DAW of choice (which needs its pacifier — I mean dongle) resides. I also use this same DAW on my studio's G5, but I own only one copy. That's okay; it's not illegal to install the software on two different computers, only to use both at the same time. One week, once my laptop rig was all set up, the mics were in place, and I was ready for a sound check, I couldn't launch my (legally acquired) DAW of choice. Why? Because the dongle was securely seated in its hub back at the studio. Something's gotta give!
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