Why the same serial number, Autodesk?

April 2, 2006 8:03 AM

Since the dawn of recorded time, you can use a certain easy to remember serial number¹ to install any Autodesk product. This number is widely known and used by the "try before you buy" crowd². Why would this be so? Any conjectures on why Autodesk hasn't plugged this hole? ¹I won't post the actual #, lets say it starts with a multiple of 100 and then has a bunch of digits in sequence. ²Or so my friends tell me.
posted by skree to computers & internet (10 comments total)

Probably the same reason that Adobe doesn't try too hard to keep people from "trying" Photoshop, or drug dealers give out samples. The first taste is free, then you get hooked on upgrades.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:11 AM on April 2, 2006

I saw a head honcho from Corel speak in an interview stating that the he/company doesn't mind that there are people out there who aren't paying for their software. His rationale was that they were the people who couldn't afford it anyway, and that, as kirkaracha point out, if they learn to be unable to live without the software, they'll eventually pay for it when they can, and when they need to.
posted by Robot Johnny at 8:15 AM on April 2, 2006

I don't know about Autodesk but I do know some guys who own a software company and they deliberately left security holes like this open in their product. They viewed piracy as the cheapest and sincerest form of marketing they had.

Very often, products that take this approach will take a value-added approach, whereby certain important features of the product rely on, say, an online verified account.
posted by unSane at 8:20 AM on April 2, 2006

It can be argued that Microsoft got themselves into their commanding monopoly position in exactly this way -- tacitly encouraging piracy. But now that they're a monopoly, they have no reason to encourage it anymore, and thus are making it increasingly difficult to copy Windows and Office.

As they continue to tighten down licensing, it'll be interesting to see what happens. This would be the perfect spot for the 'clenching fist and grains of sand' quote, but I'm too lazy to look it up and get it right. :)
posted by Malor at 8:24 AM on April 2, 2006

Tarkin...
posted by dmd at 9:34 AM on April 2, 2006

You can install AutoCAD with the serial code you suggested; but I have to activate my installation within 30 days--much like Windows XP.
posted by vaportrail at 12:44 PM on April 2, 2006

Also- Autodesk is a founding member of the Business Software Alliance so I would not assume this is an intentional loophole.
posted by vaportrail at 1:01 PM on April 2, 2006

Back in the day (2000ish), my mechanical engineering friends used autocad internal development builds. No serials at all. I assume someone in the ME dept. interned at autodesk.
posted by ryanrs at 3:32 PM on April 2, 2006

John Walker, founder of Autodesk, has written a great deal about the company at his site fourmilab.ch. I don't recall this specific issue being mentioned, but he does discuss the hardware lock required to use certain older versions of AutoCAD, including why it was originally introduced and why they stopped using it. This bit is particularly interesting:

It is rare in business to be able to definitively answer a hypothetical question about financial results. One of the few benefits of our Dark Night Of The Soul in 1986 was that we learned the answer: None. Sales did not go up or down when we introduced the lock, and sales did not go up or down when we discontinued it. I know of nobody who predicted this result; certainly I did not.

posted by IshmaelGraves at 4:05 PM on April 2, 2006

There's no inconsistency between leaving opening a security loophole and being a member of the BSA.

The point of the loophole is to develop enthusiasm for the product among those who can't afford it, and the point of the BSA is to make sure those who can afford licenses buy them.

Note that Microsoft didn't start making it harder to run unlicensed versions of Office until they dropped Office to a more-or-less consumer price point. (And Microsoft still has the vast intentional loophole of the Student and Teacher Edition, which permits a super-cheap license without any verification of the necessary student / teacher status.)
posted by MattD at 6:02 PM on April 2, 2006