Marketplace Applications to Use Live ID as DRM for App Sharing

According to WMPowerUser, Microsoft has opened the doors for application sharing with apps purchased from Marketplace for Mobile when the Microsoft-operated app store launches later this year. The report states that users will register the application at purchase with their Live ID. Users can authorize the application on up to five handhelds, and applications can run simultaneously on five devices, allowing for easy sharing between family members.

Locking applications with a Live ID authorization may be a better and simpler way to handle DRM and piracy than the current system. Currently, developers tie users in with a registered user name and/or serial number, which can be easily disseminated or cracked in various Windows Mobile cracking communities. With a Live ID, a single purchase can be used on five handhelds, reducing the desire to pirate. Piracy is also curbed with the Live ID authentication, which may be harder to crack.

The buy once, use on five model has been used before, in particular with iTunes. Apple's digital content system allows a user to authorize five different computers to play music, movies, and TV shows. Although iTunes will allow applications for the iPhone to be registered to five computers, thus far it doesn't seem that Apple is limiting the number of handhelds can be authenticated on a single PC. This means that I can have ten or twenty iPhones connected to a single PC or Mac to share the same application license.