Contact Us Blog Register Login
PreEmptive -
  • Home
  • Products
    • Application Protection
      • Dotfuscator for .NET
        • Overview
        • Features
        • Compare Editions
        • Xamarin Protection
        • Videos & Resources
        • Pricing
        • Downloads
      • DashO for Android & Java
        • Overview
        • Features
        • Videos & Resources
        • Pricing
        • Downloads
      • JSDefender for JavaScript
        • Overview
        • Features
        • Pricing
        • Downloads
      • PreEmptive Protection for iOS
        • Overview
  • Support
    • Product Support
      • Dotfuscator for .NET
      • DashO for Android & Java
      • JSDefender for JavaScript
      • PreEmptive Protection for iOS
    • Resources
      • White Papers
      • Glossary
      • Videos
      • Submit Support Request
  • Solutions
    • App Protection Solutions
      • Mobile App Protection
      • Desktop & Server App Protection
      • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
      • Security Development Lifecycle
      • Mobile RASP
      • PCI Mobile Payment Acceptance Security
  • Company
    • About
      • Why PreEmptive?
      • About Us
      • Careers
      • Blog
    • Contact
      • Contact Us
      • Submit Support Request
    • Legal

Changes are coming for US Copyright – Should Developers Even Care?

June 19, 2019 4398 Views Christy Hofffman


I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Sebastian Holst, PreEmptive’s Chief Strategy Officer, to talk about his most recent trip to Capitol Hill where the topic of the day was copyright protection for small businesses – and for development shops in particular.

Q1: You’ve just returned from another one of your trips to Washington DC. What was the occasion?

I was part of a Congressional Briefing Panel along with Robert Kasunic, Director of Registration Policy and Practice, U.S. Copyright Office and Keith Kupferschmid, President and Chief Executive Officer, Copyright Alliance. The Briefing was organized by ACT | The App Association in cooperation with The Intellectual Property Promotion and Piracy Prevention Caucus.

Briefings are like "mini-lectures" for Congressional leadership and their staff.

I know that’s a mouthful – basically Congressional Briefings are an effective way to communicate with policymakers. They’re like a mini-lecture on a specific topic – this one focused on two related topics; simplifying Copyright Office processes to hopefully increase registration and, the topic that was most interesting to me personally, discussing the implications for developers of a Bill recently introduced into both the House and the Senate, The CASE Act of 2019. It would create a kind of “small claims court” for copyright infringement claims.

Q2: Why would a Copyright Small Claims Court be important for developers?

Today, infringement claims are only heard in Federal Court. It’s a complex, expensive and lengthy process. The CASE Act promises “an alternative dispute resolution program for copyright small claims” that would not require a lawyer or a physical court appearance. …but today it’s just a Bill.

Q3: You’ve been making trips like this since I’ve been at PreEmptive. How did you get involved?

Well, even before I joined PreEmptive – who obviously have a stake in protecting developers’ Intellectual Property – I had been immersed in Digital Asset Management and related standards – even sitting on the W3C Advisory Committee when XML 1.0 was being hammered out in the late 90’s. I’ve been focusing on structured content – its uses and value – for decades.

But in terms of actual engagement – and even some influence – over US legislative and regulatory policy – all credit has to go to ACT. They were the organizers of this week’s briefing – but I’ve been working with them for over a decade now – and their work on behalf of their 5,000+ members – all US development shops – has been amazing to watch. If you represent a US company developing software, get in touch with ACT. They can offer a variety of ways that you can get involved – there’s no set amount of time commitment required and no fees. It’s always a win-win deal – participate when and where it makes sense.

Q4: ACT sounds like a great resource. What are some other concrete examples of ACT events or activities?

Every person and company will be a little different I suppose.

Working at PreEmptive is kind of a unique situation. Not only are we a development company ourselves, our thousands of clients and many many thousands of users are also all developers who – based on the simple fact that they use our app protection software – also care about these same issues. We are, like any company, always focused on our clients’ needs and wants – and so we track issues around risk management, IP protection, and compliance as part of our core business. Our users span industries and jurisdictions and so we have a unique view into the state of app protection in general and IP protection in particular.

As CSO – understanding these trends is actually in my job description and so, in this way, I’m able to serve as a very unofficial voice of a much larger development community.

The most interesting example of this was when I testified before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Intellectual Property – this was an on the record testimony in front of elected officials. The entire thing was, to be honest, just a very cool experience.

Swearing in and Congressional testimony on Copyright in the "age of apps."

One activity available to every ACT member is the ACT Fly-In. I’ve attended probably ten of these – they consist of a day of training and then a series of briefings with Senate and House staff (and sometimes the Representatives or Senators themselves) on timely issues. It’s a crash course in US civics as well as important tech issues of the day.

Q5: Any closing thoughts you’d like to share?

Just stay tuned – we (PreEmptive) will be putting together updates and even training as The CASE Act comes up for a vote. No matter what the political climate, protecting Intellectual Property is always popular with all parties (a close second to children). This Bill has bipartisan support and will almost certainly be passed in the not too distant future. We plan to help with outreach to make it as easy as possible to layer US Copyright Protection practices on top of the actual app security technology and practices that we license. In the end, we see this as a part of our core mission – to help secure our clients’ work – and in particular – the VALUE our clients create.


Start a Free Trial

Tweet
Share

Categories

  • Dotfuscator

  • Dotfuscator CE

  • DashO

  • Press Releases

  • Mobile Protection

  • Risk Management

  • Support Corner

Latest Blog Posts

Protecting C# Applications That Use Dynamic Types



The dynamic type in C# provides flexibility that is not available in other statically-typed languages. Since its introduction in C# 4.0 (.NET 4.5), we have worked with customers who wanted to know more about how dynamic types are impacted by the obfuscation process.

Read more

Non-Traditional Attack Vectors: Three Questions Every CISO Needs to Ask



Malicious actors — like any thieves — live by a simple rule: If the front door is locked, break the window.

It’s why threats like fileless malware and crypto-jacking have seen substantial gains over last few years. It’s why — despite increasing employee education and IT training — hackers are still hooking phish by developing more sophisticated and authentic-looking email spoofs. Cybercriminal communities, meanwhile, continue to grow on the dark web, allowing attackers to share info, purchase exploit kits and identify potential targets.

What does this mean for CISOs? That typical defense efforts are being outpaced as familiar attack vectors are replaced with non-traditional threats. But it’s not all bad news; here are three questions every CISO needs to ask to help close the doors, bolt the windows and leave hackers out in the cold.

Read more

Q&A With PreEmptive CEO Gabriel Torok



Gabriel, you have been in the security industry for over 2 decades. You have seen many different tools and services. Why create a company around something as specific as obfuscation and in-app protection?

Our customers build a lot of really innovative apps that enable their users and customers to do new and cool things. These apps frequently run on untrusted client computers/devices and they control access to customer’s sensitive data or critical devices.

And after all the effort of designing, building, debugging, and deploying their applications, the last thing they want is for an attacker to steal their work or use it to look for vulnerabilities to break into their system.

Long ago, we built a Java code optimizer, but it became clear to us that our customer cared more about the obfuscation effects of the optimization than the actual performance improvement. That is when we really began to focus on app protection. First with Java, then .NET, Android, iOS, Xamarin, JavaScript, etc.

Read more

The Secret to Effective In-App Protection



Gartner calls In-App Protection “crucial” in their July 2019 Market Guide for In-App Protection In-App Protection. The guide’s summary advises security and risk management leaders to “take due care in protecting their application clients” in order to avoid “security failure.”

This raises the question – what constitutes “due care?” Obviously, no development organization looks to recklessly expose their applications or sensitive data to attack or compromise. On the other hand, over-engineered (or poorly engineered) security controls can quickly lead to excessive development costs, performance and quality issues, and, ultimately, unacceptable user experiences. While terms and terminology may vary, there is broad consensus on how to best define “due care” for any given application/user scenario.

Read more

Symbol Renaming: App Security’s Maginot Line?



If you don’t follow application security closely, you might think of application obfuscation and symbol renaming as being synonymous – and with good reason. Many platforms and languages, like .NET, Java, and JavaScript have popular obfuscators that do little else--our own Dotfuscator Community Edition for .NET and ProGuard for Java are good examples. However, obfuscation is far more than symbol renaming – and in-app protection is far more than obfuscation. Much of this expansion has been driven by new security requirements, shifting attack vectors, the rise of mobile and IoT computing and, lastly, the growing recognition inside regulations and legislation of the exposure that can result from inadequately protected software.

Read more

preemptive logo

767 Beta Dr. Suite A
Mayfield Village, OH 44143

Tel: +1 440.443.7200

solutions@preemptive.com

Latest Blog Posts

Protecting C# Applications That Use Dynamic Types

December 4, 2019
Read more

Non-Traditional Attack Vectors: Three Questions Every CISO Needs to Ask

November 5, 2019
Read more

Q&A With PreEmptive CEO Gabriel Torok

October 31, 2019
Read more

The Secret to Effective In-App Protection

October 16, 2019
Read more

Symbol Renaming: App Security’s Maginot Line?

October 3, 2019
Read more

Twitter

RT @dinodaizovi: It's great to see more cloud services advertising encryption at rest by default. That's just table stakes, however. It tur… Dec 05 • reply • retweet • favorite

Copyright © 2019 PreEmptive

  • Home
  • Contact Support
  • Blog
  • Contact
Scroll to Top

PreEmptive uses cookies to improve the functionality of our website. By using this site, you agree to the use of cookies.