Violating License agreement using Remote Desktop

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mario Berberian
  • Start date Start date
M

Mario Berberian

Hello,

We develop software application and sell single copy per workstation.
Recently we noticed that there are some witty clients that buy just one
license of the product, install it on Windows Server 2003 and use more that
one copy of the program on different PCs via Remote Desktop violating our
license agreement.

How can we detect whether the started application has been run through
Remote Desktop?

P.S.: In most cases the logged Windows accounts running our program doesn't
have Administrative rights.

Thanks in advance
 
Make your application detect another running instance of itself.

--
Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

:
| Hello,
|
| We develop software application and sell single copy per workstation.
| Recently we noticed that there are some witty clients that buy just one
| license of the product, install it on Windows Server 2003 and use more
that
| one copy of the program on different PCs via Remote Desktop violating our
| license agreement.
|
| How can we detect whether the started application has been run through
| Remote Desktop?
|
| P.S.: In most cases the logged Windows accounts running our program
doesn't
| have Administrative rights.
|
| Thanks in advance
|
|
 
Maybe I have to explain the problem further, because this solution doesn`t
resolve our problem.
The client can run as many instances of the program as he wants but just on
the PC that has that licence.
Take for example the Microsoft Office Package. If I`ve bought it I could run
many copies of it on my PC but if somebody use my Office programs via Remote
Desktop he violates the licence agreement with Microsoft.
How can I prevent those remote users run our software product remotely?

Thanks in advance.
 
Mario said:
How can we detect whether the started application has been run through
Remote Desktop?
Click to expand...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/sysinfo/base/getsystemmetrics.asp

See SM_REMOTESESSION value.

I will note that this might not be quite what you want to do, anyway.
Should *one* user be prohibited from running your program remotely? People
do that -- I access both my home and office computers over RD every day and
would be quite annoyed by a piece of software that refused to run that way.

Another approach might be checking that all instances of your application
are being run under the same Windows user account. While that leaves the
possibility for multiple terminal services users logging in with the same
account, the defaults don't make that easy and the security implications
should discourage most businesses from doing that.

I am sure there's an API that can uniquely identify remote sessions and
enable you to distinguish between one user running several instances of the
app over RD and several users running it, even if they are logged in with
the same account -- but that might take some research to find.
 
Hello to you too!

I don't understand how this violates your lic agreement. Is it specifically
stated in your agreement that someone can't use RD? And, why not? If
they're RDing into their workstation, then no one else can use that
workstation, so only one user is still using the software from that
workstation. If I buy your program, and install it on my workstation (with
an appropriate lic agreement of course), shouldn't I be able to use it even
if I log in via RD from a sailboat in the British Virgin Islands?

Isn't your gripe with client who buys one copy and then installs it on a
bunch of computers, regardless if they use RD or not? But then, that
doesn't really have anything to do with RD, right?

I don't have any answers but I also don't see how RD is the problem.
ron
 
Thank you guys for all your suggestions.

I want to go further in the problem because it seems to me it`s a crucial
problem for commercial software products.

Ron,I guess you didn't catch my idea.
When you have Windows 2003 Server (not XP Pro), you can log into that server
with more than one remote connections. The XpPro doesn't allow this. This is
the point where the user can violate the licence agreement.
Take a look at the following situation:

John buys 1 copy of our program and he is allowed to install it on 1 PC
only.
He installs it on Windows 2003 Server (thats not a problem) - PC1.
Lets say Emilly has a computer PC2 and George has one too - PC3.
The problem comes when Emilly and George log into the server simultaneously
using Remote Desktop and start using our program. Both PC2 and PC3 log into
PC1.
If only 1 person logged into the server (PC1) uses our program thats OK, but
I'm talking about the situation when more than 1 person logs into the server
and uses the program installed there (two or more persons are using one
purchased copy of the program).

I believe there are lots of software companies also facing the same problem,
and still wonder what solution have they found.

Best Regards.
 
Mario said:
Take a look at the following situation:

John buys 1 copy of our program and he is allowed to install it on 1
PC only.
He installs it on Windows 2003 Server (thats not a problem) - PC1.
Lets say Emilly has a computer PC2 and George has one too - PC3.
The problem comes when Emilly and George log into the server
simultaneously using Remote Desktop and start using our program. Both
PC2 and PC3 log into PC1.
Click to expand...

So - if the process is already running - why doesn't your application check
for this and refuse to run?
Also - is the wording of your license agreement in question? Did you
license it per computer/CPU or per user? Is that clear in your license
agreement? If you licensed it per computer - thanks - I will be running it
multiple times if I want - because you licensed it per computer.. (BTW -
yes - they can (unsupported and likely also breaking some agreement) make
Windows XP accept multiple Remote Desktop connections.
If only 1 person logged into the server (PC1) uses our program thats
OK, but I'm talking about the situation when more than 1 person logs
into the server and uses the program installed there (two or more
persons are using one purchased copy of the program).
Click to expand...

Again - this is a coding issue - the process itself runs on the server -
therefore if the application detects it is already running (no matter the
user context) then iot should refuse to run if that is what you wish your
licensing to be.
I believe there are lots of software companies also facing the same
problem, and still wonder what solution have they found.
Click to expand...

Likely better coding to check for already running instances of the
application.
 
Hi Mario

Okay, I didn't know that Win2003 Server allows you to have more than one RD
working. How inconvenient for you...and nice to know from my point of view
without having to do any research. Thanks.

Okay, so it needs to happen within your ap. You need a file in your
database that everyone has to go through in order to obtain access to your
program. Said file's job is to count the concurrent users, then compare
that number to the number of licenses purchased, and the first (and
subsequent) user that logs on that's beyond the licenses they've bought is
kindly told to wait until one of the existing users logs out (or purchase
more user licenses--a marketing spiel!). It's gotta happen within your
program though as it sounds like you want the program to be multi-user, but
just want to be able to limit the users to the number of licenses they've
bought (thus being unable to bounce someone out just because another
instance of the program is already running).

Good luck!
ron
 
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