Dynamics NAV 2013 licensing. Easier to pirate?

Alex_Chow

Does anyone think this new perpetual licensing allows people to pirate the license easier?

In the old licensing model, you had the ability to really customize the module you want to use for your company. So even if you got your hands on an end user license, you may have a hard time using because the modules purchased are specific to that company, not yours.

With the perpetual licensing, it allows dishonest people and companies to torrent a license uploaded from a disgruntled employee somewhere and start using it right away with full functionality.

Pirating may not be that big of an issue in US and Europe, but I see this as a huge issue when selling licenses in Asia.

davmac1

I used to sell an older ERP package that only used signed agreements. I believe they estimated at least half of their installs were illegal in the USA.
Most were installed by dishonest resellers.
I don't think the national USA character has improved since then.
If it is that easy to pirate, I think we will end up with a lot more illegal installs, unless Microsoft imbeds a feature that requires license completion via the Internet to their own servers, where they can verify the license has not been registered before.

matttrax

I guess technically it probably is, but there are still a number of drawbacks.

1) You couldn't add anything to the license
2) A partner might (should) look at you funny when the name on the license has nothing to do with the company. I understand there are parent companies w/ different names and the like, but still.
3) If you lose that license somehow, you'd better hope you can find another one with the same user count and objects assigned to the same range
4) Forget about upgrading

I highly doubt it will be an issue here is the US, but who knows about other places.

ppavuk

This should not be a big issue for US/Western Europe. But, some partners/customers in Eastern Europe/Asia must be happy with new licensing. Hopefully MS will resolve this in next builds. Some sort of activation is absolutely necessary on certain markets.

Alex_Chow

ppavuk wrote:

This should not be a big issue for US/Western Europe. But, some partners/customers in Eastern Europe/Asia must be happy with new licensing. Hopefully MS will resolve this in next builds. Some sort of activation is absolutely necessary on certain markets.

I would add to every country as well, not just certain markets.

Alex_Chow

matttrax wrote:

I guess technically it probably is, but there are still a number of drawbacks.

1) You couldn't add anything to the license
2) A partner might (should) look at you funny when the name on the license has nothing to do with the company. I understand there are parent companies w/ different names and the like, but still.
3) If you lose that license somehow, you'd better hope you can find another one with the same user count and objects assigned to the same range
4) Forget about upgrading

I highly doubt it will be an issue here is the US, but who knows about other places.

Having travelled to Asian countries and working with Asian companies, the 4 points you listed are not a concern...

ppavuk

I just meant that in US/Western Europe most customers does not choice pirated software, but in some certain markets it is a good old tradition

Alex_Chow

ppavuk wrote:

I just meant that in US/Western Europe most customers does not choice pirated software, but in some certain markets it is a good old tradition

Now, it's a lot easier to pirate Dynamics NAV.

In the end, Microsoft is shooting itself in the foot with this simplified licensing model. It will hurt Microsoft and it will hurt the legit partners.

karuchua

does this mean u get all the modules in nav 2013 but the only difference is the users?

matttrax

I am probably over simplifying and someone can correct me if I am wrong.

You buy users, they get access. There are no longer BE users at one price and AM users at another. They are all the same price (ignoring limited users, etc.)
You buy "advanced" access for a set price.

Personally, I don't think it would lead to lost sales. The companies that are going to pirate an ERP system were probably never going to buy it in the first place.

davmac1

Back in the day (non-Navision), it was common to take over abandoned users with illegal licenses.
Sometimes, the users had no idea they were fake, or just accepted a deal that was too good to be true to save money.
I think Internet based registration should be required and the licensing system should not allow duplicate registrations. There should be some limited use exceptions for testing - we should always test with a customer's license, and the user needs to be able to setup test databases.

matttrax

davmac1 wrote:

I think Internet based registration should be required and the licensing system should not allow duplicate registrations. There should be some limited use exceptions for testing - we should always test with a customer's license, and the user needs to be able to setup test databases.

I agree. For test databases I don't think it would be too bad. When you register it it does something like Cronus and you can only post to a certain date range.

Testing with the customer's license is the challenge. I always thought it would be great if the partner licenses allowed you to load the customer license along side it and you could toggle back and forth.