Electronic delivery of software
Brian K. Hart · 2002
The University of Pittsburgh offers central software license and delivery services in three key areas: general site license and volume discount programs, licensed software for a distributed faculty desktop computing program, and a licensed software pool for student use in campus computing labs. The site license program covers some 500 software titles from 35 publishers. An addition 200 titles are licensed under concurrent license programs for the faculty computing program.Delivery of software under University license and other programs has historically required the duplication of media, which was then delivered to the end user. Rapid growth in the number of programs and software titles available under these programs resulted in the duplication or purchase of more than 45,000 CD's annually. Anti-piracy efforts by major software publishers have resulted in restrictions on the duplication and distribution of many software titles, particularly as programs have been extended to include distribution to students. Newer software agreements may not permit the physical distribution of software media.Past attempts to develop electronic software delivery mechanisms have met with limited success due to limitations of available technologies. Drive mapping methods were limited by client setup requirements and low user enthusiasm. Web-based methods often involved domain restrictions in order to prevent access by unauthorized users. The development and implementation of the University's central directory and centralized user authentication (LDAP) services, allowed for the implementation of a robust system providing user access to no-cost software packages based on affiliation and independent of the point of network attachment.This paper describes a web-based five campus system for electronic software distribution in detail and describes the system's ability to provide remote access to license-metered software titles available to faculty for remote use.