EDA Consortium conducts multi-faceted investigation into EDA software piracy

SAN JOSE, USA: The EDA Consortium (EDAC) Anti-Piracy Committee is conducting an on-going investigation into EDA software piracy on multiple fronts.

“Until recently, many EDA vendors considered the software too complex to use without significant technical support for piracy to be a major concern. Advances in EDA software and access to fabrication have resulted in increasing concerns about software piracy” said Scott Baeder, Chairman of the EDA Consortium’s Anti-Piracy Committee and Senior Architect at Cadence Design Systems, Inc.

The EDA Consortium is working with multiple companies in the anti-piracy field to investigate EDA software piracy from multiple aspects. One aspect is availability – what software is available and where. Using a carefully chosen sampling of EDA products from various EDAC member companies, an investigation was conducted for EDAC by Arxan, Inc. into pirated EDA software availability and download activity on the internet. This will be followed by a more detailed investigation into how the “cracking” is being done, which could lead to improved software protection. Initial results have been interesting both from the standpoint of what is being pirated and the audacity of the pirates.

Another aspect of the investigation is focusing more on detection and identification of unauthorized use. A recent webinar conducted by V.i. Labs, Inc and EDAC presented this approach, which has been successfully used by EDAC members and others to re-coup revenues that would have been lost through piracy, both intentional and inadvertent. (Recognizing there are cases where the end user may not be aware they are using pirated software.)

A third aspect of the investigation, conducted for EDAC by S.A.F.E. Inc., bridges the other two approaches, looking at both the potential software vulnerabilities and the extent of the revenue loss to EDA vendors. This investigation looks at different categories of EDA software as well as different types of piracy, both intentional and unintentional.

In addition to the ongoing investigations, Mr. Baeder recently presented an overview of EDA software piracy to ICAF – Industrial College of the Armed Forces – which may have an interest in any national security implications of software piracy.

As the investigation proceeds, interim results have been presented to the EDAC Board of Directors and members. When the investigations are concluded, final reports will be made available to EDAC members.