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 Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2006 11:25 pm Post subject: A different License scenario |
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Hi,
I have been evaluating your product most of today. Great job!! I am now trying to figure out how to implement the following scenario:
1) The license is for a Windows service. I didn't see anything that would stop this, unless there are dialogs displayed that I do not know about?
2) I would like a default X number of days on install, without the user or me doing anything. No correspondence with me or the web 
3) I have two different client types that connect to the service and each one has a counter. Tyep1 is a User Interface. Type2 is another Windows Service on another PC. So I have two different custom variables. I saw the approach of adding the custom info on the product name field (ie. myproduct ui=5;srv=2). Is this the best approach? Can I read the values back when I validate a license key? A user may want to upgrade and increment srv to 3 at a later date, so I have to know what the current value in that key is.
4) I would consider my software suite to be on the expensive side (>$3K USD), a limited veritcal market which is known for piracy. My competition in the market uses all sorts of crazy stuff like usb dongles, parallel port keys, calling home every week, etc. I understand because a few pirated copies is more than my car!!. Is the Product name field the only one I can add stuff too? How long is that field?
5) I want the ablility to "move" the license to another machine. If that means the user needs to goto a web site and enter some info, then fine. But how am I sure that the first copy is really gone? Is there some kinds of removal key? |
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Infralution
Joined: 28 Feb 2005
Posts: 5027
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| Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 8:04 am Post subject: Re: A different License scenario |
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| Quote: | | 1) The license is for a Windows service. I didn't see anything that would stop this, unless there are dialogs displayed that I do not know about? |
You can use it to check licenses for services - but your code obviously won't be able to show the LicenseInstallDialog if the license is not present
| Quote: | | 2) I would like a default X number of days on install, without the user or me doing anything. No correspondence with me or the web |
You can do this using the EvaluationMonitor class.
| Quote: | | 3) I have two different client types that connect to the service and each one has a counter. Tyep1 is a User Interface. Type2 is another Windows Service on another PC. So I have two different custom variables. I saw the approach of adding the custom info on the product name field (ie. myproduct ui=5;srv=2). Is this the best approach? Can I read the values back when I validate a license key? A user may want to upgrade and increment srv to 3 at a later date, so I have to know what the current value in that key is. |
Yes this is a good approach. You can read the values back when you validate the license key.
| Quote: | | 4) I would consider my software suite to be on the expensive side (>$3K USD), a limited veritcal market which is known for piracy. My competition in the market uses all sorts of crazy stuff like usb dongles, parallel port keys, calling home every week, etc. I understand because a few pirated copies is more than my car!!. Is the Product name field the only one I can add stuff too? How long is that field? |
Yes the ProductInfo field is the only field. There is no limit on the size of the Product Info that can be generated - however the longer the product info is the longer the generated keys are. The License Tracker database has a limit on the size of keys that can be stored. This effectively limits the product info to about 100 characters. Rather than putting a lot of stuff in in the Product Info (and generating really long keys) you may be better off shipping the additional information as clear text (or allowing the user to enter it) and then simply putting a checksum (using the EncryptedLicense.Checksum function) in the product key. The CustomLicensedApp sample illustrates doing this.
| Quote: | | 5) I want the ablility to "move" the license to another machine. If that means the user needs to goto a web site and enter some info, then fine. But how am I sure that the first copy is really gone? Is there some kinds of removal key? |
To remove a license you simply delete the ".lic" file. As explained in the FAQ (http://www.infralution.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5) ILS does not directly support license activation. If you want to go down this route you would have to implement the mechanism yourself. If you have a $3K product and piracy really is a major problem a license activation scheme might be worthwhile. However, personally I think that dongle solutions are much less annoying for the end customer. A good middle ground is to embed the company name (or a checksum of it) into the license key and then display the company name prominently on displays and printouts. This does not stop a company installing multiple copies of your software but does discourage key sharing between companies.
Be aware that if your product is worth this much and is attractive to pirates then it will almost certainly be cracked within days regardless of what licensing scheme you employ (simple license key, product activation or dongle). So choosing the scheme that is least annoying to your legitimate customers is probably the best approach.
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