| The year is 1981. IBM has just released the | | | | position. But how will they play catch-up on their |
| Personal Computer; a low cost machine it hopes | | | | lost revenues? How can they now make all their |
| will create a winning brand. Several models are | | | | customers compliant? |
| produced in quick succession accompanied by an | | | | A London analyst who specialises in intellectual |
| ad campaign featuring a Charlie Chaplin figure. The | | | | rights issues says "the paradigm we have at |
| message is clear: It's cheap and it's cheerful. | | | | present where the license chases the product |
| The growth vector for the product turns out to | | | | doesn't seem to be an effective mechanism for |
| be a software application called a spreadsheet. Its | | | | compliance by itself." |
| many early forms - VisiCalc, Multiplan, Lotus 1-2-3, | | | | In other words trying to push a license into |
| along with WordStar word-processing and of | | | | everywhere the software has gone without the |
| course games all help drive hardware sales. | | | | ease with which the software got there in the |
| Nobody seems to question the rapid and | | | | first place will prove difficult. But that's not all. |
| promiscuous spread of these programs by | | | | An account manager for a hardware firm in the |
| copying onto 5.25" floppy disks and passing them | | | | US says "It can be difficult to keep the licensing |
| from person to person. | | | | nailed down. The hardware changes, the software |
| That was then. This is now. Harsh fines and jail | | | | moves on, departments, even companies, merge. |
| sentences are threatened to anyone involved in | | | | The picture is always changing" |
| doing what came naturally back in the early '80s. | | | | Demand has always fuelled innovation in |
| It's a Very Bad Thing to copy software without | | | | Information Technology. Fluid, dynamic, |
| having a license to do so. They say 'this stuff is | | | | competitive, the elements of IT constantly move. |
| ours, we want to be paid for it', and of course | | | | Suppliers apply different strategies at different |
| they're right. | | | | times for different reasons: Market share, volume |
| But here is a problem. Software's binary | | | | shipments, profit. Licensing is a big weapon in their |
| information is a kind of digital DNA, always | | | | arsenal. Then new technologies emerge, legislation |
| wanting to replicate. It's what has made and | | | | changes, big players go bust and others are |
| sustained the digital revolution. When transmitting | | | | created. It's hard to see how a static and legalistic |
| information, whether from one disk to another or | | | | document can cover all this. |
| over the Internet, errors can be corrected, faint | | | | There are also the licensing arrangements that |
| signals regenerated as new, and even lost | | | | software manufacturers employ. Licenses may be |
| portions of messages recreated. This is the | | | | priced according to whether they are academic, |
| essence of the digital world, and replication is its | | | | charity, large volume, product upgrade, |
| big trick. | | | | competitive upgrade, client server, thin-client, or |
| One of the things most of us did with our first | | | | one of several other types. On top of that there |
| computer was to copy something. In our early PC | | | | are the popular service add-ons of maintenance |
| vocabulary COPY was the most popular word. | | | | and technical support. |
| Doing it was so easy and so immediately | | | | Of course if we all started afresh that would |
| rewarding. It did nobody any harm - did it? The | | | | make things easier. But as that's impossible we |
| user got the software and the manufacturer got | | | | must do two things; look at new software in |
| their product widely distributed. | | | | terms of correct quantity and correct type of |
| But a company has to make money, not just gain | | | | license. That's the easy part. The not so easy |
| market share, and at some point in time a shift | | | | part is to look at what your company already has |
| occurred. It's as if the manufacturers decided to | | | | and see what licenses, if any, are missing or |
| play the soccer off-side rule and grab the high | | | | incorrect. |
| moral ground at the same time - nearly every PC | | | | 'The biggest criminal gang in history' is about to be |
| owner in the world was suddenly wrong-footed. | | | | disbanded. |
| And no one after all can disagree with their | | | | |