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Technology Stocks : Aladdin Knowledge Systems (ALDN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IPOJunkie who wrote (266)	6/16/1998 11:14:00 PM
From: Doren	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 351

Hi all, I'm new to this thread. I've been aware of Aladdin for 4? years. I have a dongle installed on my computer. Aladdin is based in Israel so they are subject to instability if tensions in the middle east heat up. I own no stock. I am a design senior at UCLA. I have one more quarter after which I will begin investing. Dongles (hardware keys) are usually used on software that costs in excess of $1000 dollars. I don't believe that multiple dongles are compatible. This means that if you use more than one you must shut down your computer install the dongle and then reboot. I have a software crack for the software I'm using but the software doesn't work correctly with the crack. Most of the software works but certain modules don't work. This seems to usually be the case. DONGLES ARE HARD TO BEAT BUT KLUNKY AND EXPENSIVE SOLUTIONS. Our department uses licensee managers to protect against piracy. I use Softimage on NT at UCLA. Softimage won't start up if the network licensee server is down. Other software (such as Quark) also won't run if the server is down. Most of this software is easy to copy and use. Serial # are easy to get. THIS SOLUTION IS EASY TO BEAT. Cubase uses a CD as a protection device. You can load the software onto any computer but it will only run if the CD is in the CD drive. To my knowledge there is no way to copy the CD. There is a working crack available for this system but I believe that the technology will advance to the point where it will be virtually impossible to crack the software. I estimate that 50% of Photoshop users use hot software. This is not limited to individuals. I know of one large web design firm that was recently caught using hot software. Most professionals would convert to copy protected software within 6 months of its delivery. There were rumors that Photoshop 5.0 (the new version) would be dongle protected. I believe the next version will be. Perhaps the next version of Illustrator (due soon). This could become a huge business. Sooner or later a cheap easy fix will be developed. The CD solution could be it. Doren UCLA Design