John Writes:
> Whatever you end up using, you should not just shut off the license.
> Instead put the product into a demo mode, for say 30 days.
> This allows the
> customer to deal with the issue in a reasonable period of time by
> contacting you and yet be able to continue to have the
> software function in
> the meantime (with perhaps a prominent, but friendly reminder
> of being in
> demo mode for n more days always displayed).

This is good advice and you see this with software from MPE vendors too.

Another system I have seen lately is a license server.  This system takes a
registration key (a base) and then calculates a hash based on several
identifying characteristics of the PC.  This hash is sent to a server to see
if the license is valid.  There are several degrees of strictness you can
enforce:

- A computer must register to a license and contact the server, if the hash
doesn't match, the software goes into demo mode.  The license server would
have a way to delete old computers to allow new ones to register.
Concurrent use would be controlled well this way too if that is an option.
A standalone computer would install the license server locally and one
server on a standalone network would be the license server.

- The computer generates a hash and sends it to the license server on every
start (and stop if no crashes ;-) ).  The license server could do some
analysis to see how many unique computers are using the software.  If too
many are used in some period of time, the license server can start some
escalation process.  Maybe first start putting users in demo mode, then
contacting the sys admin and finally contacting the vendor.

Yes, all this can be defeated, there are firewall issues etc, but I think
since Wirt's product is meant to do communications, it should be doable.

Mark

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