Software licensing using IPv6 addresses?

[Jeroen Massar]

On 2011-10-17 23:06 , Brian E Carpenter wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I remember that some software licenses used to be enforced by relying
> on the user's static IPv4 address. Obviously this is a broken technique,
> but has anybody seen it used with IPv6 addresses?

Although it is a broken technique (just alias the IP on the host or
change the MAC etc), the primary reason why folks use IP addresses or
MAC addresses in their license files is not because it can't be spoofed,
it is because the moment that some audit comes by or more likely some
kind of support event happens, that that license can be declared invalid
easily.

As such, it is just a policy enforcement similar to car registration
plates, which are easily dubbed too, just watch out for a care of the
same make and color and order your custom plates and speed for free
forever, till you get pulled over and need to show registration papers.

To answer the original question: yes it has been used, both for fixing
the 'server' IP address on a certain IPv4 and/or IPv6 address but also
the prefixes that clients might use. For this though from what I have
seen it was mostly a /48 not a /128, this to allow that license to be
used one on server per the policy (as written in text in the license),
but allow it to be moved inside the organization, but thus disallowing
the license to be 'transfered' to another organization.

As or the text in the draft, possibly something along the lines of:

 Software licenses can be bound to IP addresses. These tend to be
 primarily of use for policy enforcement as IP addresses can easily
 be aliased on the local machine and thus replicated through a network.
 Technically it cannot restrict re-use that way. Using a on-line
 registration check with a per-server generated UUID is a better
 technical measure, but not always possible for non-internet-connected
 hosts.

In the end one makes it too difficult for the customer or it can be
bypassed anyway, having a piece of text ala:
 'thou shalt only use this once'
is the best legal protection one has, but indeed not always enforceable.

Greets,
 Jeroen