EDA Consortium Conducts Multi-Faceted
Investigation into EDA Software Piracy
SAN JOSE, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- The EDA Consortium
(EDAC) Anti-Piracy Committee is conducting an on-going
investigation into EDA software piracy on multiple fronts.
"Until recently, many EDA vendors considered the
software too complex to use without significant technical
support for piracy to be a major concern. Advances in
EDA software and access to fabrication have resulted
in increasing concerns about software piracy,"
said Scott Baeder, Chairman of the EDA Consortium's
Anti-Piracy Committee and Senior Architect at Cadence
Design Systems, Inc.
The EDA Consortium is working with multiple companies
in the anti-piracy field to investigate EDA software
piracy from multiple aspects. One aspect is availability
- what software is available and where. Using a carefully
chosen sampling of EDA products from various EDAC member
companies, an investigation was conducted for EDAC by
Arxan, Inc. into pirated EDA software availability and
download activity on the internet. This will be followed
by a more detailed investigation into how the "cracking"
is being done, which could lead to improved software
protection. Initial results have been interesting both
from the standpoint of what is being pirated and the
audacity of the pirates.
Another aspect of the investigation is focusing more
on detection and identification of unauthorized use.
A recent webinar conducted by V.i. Labs, Inc and EDAC
presented this approach, which has been successfully
used by EDAC members and others to re-coup revenues
that would have been lost through piracy, both intentional
and inadvertent. (Recognizing there are cases where
the end user may not be aware they are using pirated
software.) A third aspect of the investigation, conducted
for EDAC by S.A.F.E. Inc., bridges the other two approaches,
looking at both the potential software vulnerabilities
and the extent of the revenue loss to EDA vendors. This
investigation looks at different categories of EDA software
as well as different types of piracy, both intentional
and unintentional.
In addition to the ongoing investigations, Mr. Baeder
recently presented an overview of EDA software piracy
to ICAF - Industrial College of the Armed Forces - which
may have an interest in any national security implications
of software piracy.
As the investigation proceeds, interim results have
been presented to the EDAC Board of Directors and members.
When the investigations are concluded, final reports
will be made available to EDAC members.
About the EDA Consortium The EDA Consortium is the
international association of companies that provide
design tools and services that enable engineers to create
the world's electronic products used for communications,
computer, space technology, medical, automotive, industrial
equipment, and consumer electronics markets among others.
For more information about the EDA Consortium visit
www.edac.org.
About Arxan Technologies Arxan Technologies Inc. is
a leading provider of application hardening solutions
designed to protect software applications from tampering
to minimize risk and maximize profitability. Our advanced
software protection solutions secure enterprises, ISVs
and digital media providers against unauthorized use,
malware insertion, piracy, and reverse engineering of
intellectual property. Our products defend, detect,
alert and react to attacks through a threat-based, customizable
approach that is proven, easy to use and non-disruptive.
Arxan supports a full range of application protection
needs, from commercial software to military grade assurance.
The government relies on ADS Systems to deliver a best-of-breed
anti-tamper platform to protect critical program information.
Founded in 2001, Arxan Technologies has offices in Bethesda,
MD, San Francisco, CA and West Lafayette, IN. For more
information, please visit www.arxan.com.
About V.i. Laboratories (V.i. Labs) V.i. Labs is the
first company to offer Piracy Business Intelligence
and Software Protection solutions that enable companies
to recover revenue and protect their software intellectual
property by detecting, reporting, and preventing the
misuse of their applications. Its patented CodeArmor®
platform allows software vendors and enterprise organizations
to harden their applications against theft and tampering,
and to gain business intelligence on the unlicensed
use of their software to uncover new revenue streams.
V.i. Labs is privately held and is headquartered in
Waltham, Mass. For more information, please visit www.vilabs.com.
About S.A.F.E. Corporation S.A.F.E. Corporation is
the leading firm providing software and services for
detecting intellectual property theft, measuring software
IP, and comparing software source code and object code.
CodeSuite has been used by law firms for IP litigation
cases around the world. CodeSuite has also been used
by tax attorneys to track changes through multiple generations
of programs in order to do accurate IP valuations. The
corporate headquarters is in Cupertino, California.
The information supplied by the EDA Consortium is believed
to be accurate and reliable, but the EDA Consortium
assumes no responsibility for any errors that may appear
in this document. All trademarks and registered trademarks
are the property of their respective owners
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