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Is there life after the trial?

Read: 10645 Comments: 2 Rating: 8

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Which Dr.Web features become inaccessible once the 30-day trial expires?
Are updates discontinued or will all the security features be disabled?
A question from a system administrator to Doctor Web's support service

Indeed, users often ask this question. Therefore, let's see if life exists after the trial and why our products work exactly as they do.

So, in principle, there are three routes we could take once the trial ends:

  1. The product keeps operating normally; only license expiry notifications are displayed.
  2. All product features work properly, but the anti-virus doesn't get updated.
  3. Once the trial license expires, all anti-virus security components are disabled.

If we were to go with the first option, the outcome would be quite clear: users would ignore the notifications unless they occupied half the screen.

If we take users into account, the second option looks attractive. At least the anti-virus databases, which were current when the license expired, would provide some protection until a new license is purchased. But, in reality, some users go months or even years without noticing their anti-virus hasn't been updated. And only a miracle protects their computers from modern malware—or one doesn't. And who is responsible in the end? No, not the fella you just thought about.☺

That's why the third option is the only reasonable choice. Alas, only this way can Doctor Web draw users' attention to the fact that they need to renew their license.

#trial #Dr.Web

The Anti-virus Times recommends

  • The superficial approach, taken by users who are reluctant to delve into details so they can draw the correct conclusions, inevitably results in flawed logic and bad decisions. Several years ago in the EU, some politicians attempted to push the European Parliament into passing a populist law that would obligate anti-virus developers to keep their applications operational even after a license expired. The rationale behind this was that since a user has paid for the software and not only its updates, they should be able to use it as long as they wish. Does that make sense if modern malicious programs rarely live longer than 9 minutes?

    It makes us wonder if the people behind this initiative had any understanding whatsoever of information security.
  • Illusions that have been acquired or planted (in our case, by legislative officials) are as harmful and dangerous as a deliberate lie. And as far as this initiative is concerned, such illusions should be treated as lies because this was an attempt to legalise a security illusion by disguising it as an obligation to users on the part of developers. Fortunately, it was rejected.
  • An anti-virus is not a static thing, not just a piece of software that needs to be installed and then will operate on its own. An anti-virus is constantly being developed, and this process requires a lot of resources and funding. And an anti-virus comes with various services.
    INCLUDING virus database updates!
    INCLUDING SOFTWARE UPDATES!
    Releasing updates is a complex technological process. It costs money. If a company were to provide updates to all of the users who bought its product at least once (and how many people would renew their license if renewal became optional?), it would have to either make honest users bear the costs or go broke.
  • Virus databases are also a dynamic phenomenon. Their format changes periodically. So should a developer have to maintain all of their database versions indefinitely? They could do that for around five years. But what about 20 or 50?
  • New threats and new operating systems give rise to new technologies. Let's assume that you bought an application and are authorised to use it indefinitely. Sure, go right ahead. But what will you do if another Windows update is released and your software becomes incompatible with it? Will you demand that the manufacturer provide you with a new version for free?
  • To learn how much time you have until your license expires, just click on the Dr.Web agent icon in your system tray.

    #drweb

    And one small life hack: licenses for two or three years cost considerably less than a one-year license.

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