http://www.pcmag.com/
Prague-based Avast Software makes very good antivirus protectionavailable for free. Why, then, would anybody pirate a license for their paid Pro edition? Well, there are a couple features only found in the Pro edition and in Avast Internet Security 5.0.
Pro users get Script Shield protection against Web-based script viruses as well as added protection from the product's "virtualization sandbox." Apparently those bonus features were enough to tempt the pirates. Or perhaps they just couldn't resist the challenge in the product's name.
Avast's researchers noticed right away when 14 user licenses, issued in 2009, showed up connecting for signature updates from many more than 14 locations. They decided to wait and see just how far it spread. "We made a decision to see just how 'viral' this one license for Avast Pro Antivirus could be," said Vince Steckler, Avast chief executive. "Now we are in the process of converting these pirates over to legal products."
Using geolocation of the IP addresses from which the pirated installations connected, Avast tracked the pirates to over 200 countries. Steckler joked, "The list contains about every country you have heard of, and some you haven't." Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, and Spain topped the list for biggest numbers of pirates, followed by the U.S. Perhaps most surprising were the two licenses connecting from Vatican City.
Steckler also pointed out the danger of going to shady warez sites for your security protection. These sites have been known to distribute programs with malicious code grafted on, so your supposed security protection could be subverted from within.
Having learned all they could from allowing the illegal licenses to spread, Avast moved to shut them down. Those using pirated licenses got a popup warning from Avast giving them two choices: Pay up for a valid license or switch to Avast free edition. If even 1 percent convert to paid licenses the exercise has surely been cost-effective for Avast. Even if none of them pay up, Avast has potentially gained hundreds of thousands of users. Arrr, that's crafty!
_________
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2373907,00.asp
_________
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2373907,00.asp
