“Amnesty” and “anti-malware” are not two words generally paired together, but the popular program Malwarebytes recently changed that. In response to the rising number of pirated copies and sales of counterfeit copies of their program, the company rolled-out its amnesty program.
Under this, user accounts that have been flagged will be asked where they got their copy of the program license and whether or not they purchased it. Those who respond that they bought their copy are being given a lifetime license for Malwarebytes; the rest are being given free 12-month trials of the program.
Malwarebytes founder Marcin Kleczynski -- who formed the company in 2008 while still in college -- has attributed the rise in problems to the program’s outdated license key algorithm. He describes the ease with which the old algorithm could be pirated as “very simple” and has stated that the goal of the amnesty program is to “collect data from our users” to help build the new licensing algorithm.
In response to the comments of paying customers in regards to the leniency of the amnesty toward those who pirated the program, Kleczynski stressed the number of accounts that the company has to go through and that the best these pirates can now get is a year’s access.
You can view Malwarebytes FAQ for the Amnesty Program here and leave a comment with your thoughts on the situation below.
- Keegan "HornetSting" Gallick.