Fully Licensed provides Product Activation for the masses --------------------------------------------------------- Berlin, Germany, December 3, 2002. Fully Licensed, a German software company announced today the release of a copyright protection scheme that binds the use a software application to a single computer, thus effectively blocking software piracy. In 2001 the company gained international attention for their analysis of Microsoft's Windows XP Product Activation, unveiling in detail what information is being exchanged during the activation of Windows XP between Microsoft's servers and Microsoft's customers. Just like Microsoft, Licenturion Product Activation (LPA) binds the use of a software application to different hardware components of a computer. Unlike Microsoft, LPA targets the needs of power users who need to modify their hardware configuration on a regular basis. LPA tolerates such modifications without sacrificing its robustness. Also unlike Microsoft LPA provides full transparency to end-users. The information transferred to the Licenturion server in the course of the activation process is completely documented to encourage independent review by anyone interested and to prove that the end-users' privacy is fully protected. "When we analyzed Microsoft's much criticized approach, we quickly discovered that consumers really want to know, what's going on during the activation process. Our own technology is somewhat similar to Microsoft's approach, just transparent and much more user friendly." says Matthias Kunze, CEO of Fully Licensed. LPA, which is being offered to the software industry in the US, can be easily integrated with any Windows application. LPA is based on Fully Licensed's "Asymmetric Keys" technology, which is also available separately as a secure drop-in replacement for product keys, serial numbers, or unlock codes. "The tricky part is to prevent pirates from writing key generation programs. You do not want anyone else to be able to generate valid product keys, serial numbers, or unlock codes for your product." explains Thomas Lopatic, CTO of Fully Licensed. Licenturion Product Keys are based on digital signatures and public key cryptography to put a definite end to this threat. In spite of this unparalleled level of security the employed cryptographic algorithm produces product keys that consist of only 36 letters, whereas applying classic public key algorithms to this area would result in a length of more than 80 letters, which is unacceptable with respect to end-user convenience. Beta versions of Licenturion Product Activation and Licenturion Product Keys as well as further technical details are available from Fully Licensed's web-site at http://www.licenturion.com. About Fully Licensed GmbH ------------------------- Fully Licensed GmbH develops and distributes copyright protection and license management technologies. The company's mission is to be an independent and unbiased mediator between software vendors and software users. The company combines known-to-be-good ad approaches with the latest results of academic research the company and can therefore offer the most advanced copyright protection technology, which is currently available. Fully Licensed GmbH also provides a secure and flexible infrastructure for online licensing and online distribution of software. It integrates software watermarking, automated code obfuscation, license enforcement and license management, while preserving the end-user's right to privacy. Contact ------- Thomas Minkus tminkus@licenturion.com New York office 205 W 123rd Suite 5 New York, NY 10027 Tel (212) 531-4579 Web http://www.licenturion.com German office Fully Licensed GmbH Rudower Chaussee 29 12489 Berlin Tel +49 (30) 6392-6712