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Concept
Software protection dongle
Summary
A software protection dongle (commonly known as a dongle or key) is an electronic copy protection and content protection device. When connected to a computer or other electronics, they unlock software functionality or decode content. The hardware key is programmed with a product key or other cryptographic protection mechanism and functions via an electrical connector to an external bus of the computer or appliance.
In software protection, dongles are two-interface security tokens with transient data flow with a pull communication that reads security data from the dongle. In the absence of these dongles, certain software may run only in a restricted mode, or not at all. In addition to software protection, dongles can enable functions in electronic devices, such as receiving and processing encoded video streams on television sets.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary states that the "First known use of dongle" was in 1981 and that the etymology was "perhaps alteration of dangle."
Dongles rapidly evolved into active devices that contained a serial transceiver (UART) and even a microprocessor to handle transactions with the host. Later versions adopted the USB interface, which became the preferred choice over the serial or parallel interface.
A 1992 advertisement for Rainbow Technologies claimed the word dongle was derived from the name "Don Gall". Though untrue, this has given rise to an urban myth.
Efforts to introduce dongle copy-protection in the mainstream software market have met stiff resistance from users. Such copy-protection is more typically used with very expensive packages and vertical market software such as CAD/CAM software, cellphone flasher/JTAG debugger software, MICROS Systems hospitality and special retail software, digital audio workstation applications, and some translation memory packages.
In cases such as prepress and printing software, the dongle is encoded with a specific, per-user license key, which enables particular features in the target application.
Official source
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