Re: Uniquely identify my computer

From: Ken Halter (Ken_Halter_at_Use_Sparingly_Hotmail.com)
Date: 05/12/04 

Date: Wed, 12 May 2004 10:38:55 -0700

Debbie wrote:
> Rich
> Playing the devil's advocate here.
> Wouldn't you like to know that others are not getting for free the same
> software that you have paid for.

That's a good point... similar to a situation I was in a while back. I
tried and tried to get a PO for a certain control library. Just before
it was signed, the author gave up and released the stuff as freeware.
I'm thinking that he ticked a lot of people off that recently paid $750
for the library (but I got over it when I got it for free <g>).

> Its like saying honest people have to pay and then have to tolerate people
> who do not pay and use copied software because it is just too much trouble
> or whatever the reason to protect the honest people.

Protecting your app against the casual pirates seems like the best way
to go. There's nothing fool proof enough to protect it against all
hackers. It *is* the honest people that really have to deal with the
protection so make it as easy on them as possible. (I need a bit more
work on my protection scheme to make that happen but it's fairly smooth)

WinZip is a good example of a great program with minimal protection
that's easy to deal with. You register the program to get rid of the nag
screen and they email you a license key. Of course, there's nothing
keeping people from simply supplying that key to all of their friends
(or posting on a crack/serials site) if their friends don't mind the
registered owners name popping up everytime they launch the app.

> You guys are correct, there is really no 1 solution here.

You might want to start with something like this. Since the source comes
with it (and it's free), you can modify its behavior at will.

LicenseKey
Featured in the July-2001 Visual Basic Programmers Journal.
http://www.killervb.com/Classes.aspx 

-- 
Ken Halter - MS-MVP-VB - http://www.vbsight.com
Please keep all discussions in the groups..

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