Technically the backend license servers allow it and return a large validity timestamp, BUT...
The market publisher console will not allow you to upload an APK that's free and requests the com.android.vending.BILLING permission. In practice, this means that free apps cannot use the LVL, because you won't be able to upload them. (Marco: This change was made very late in the development of the license service. For a long time during development, it was indeed possible to use licensing with free apps. The reference you found in the docs was probably an artifact from this that that we just missed before publishing. I'll submit a change to remove it to prevent confusion.) -- Trevor Johns Developer Programs Engineer, Android http://developer.android.com On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 6:14 AM, MarcoAndroid <[email protected]> wrote: > @rojorshi: here's the link you were looking for I think. Seems you > should be fine for free apps. Just search for the word 'free' in this > link: http://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/licensing.html > It looks like you won't be able to upload a free version with the LVL > permission in it... if your app is already available as free. > > But it also says it returns LICENSED for free apps in table A-2. So > what situation would this be then? > > > On Feb 3, 6:01 am, rajorshi <[email protected]> wrote: > > I had developed a game intending to publish it as a paid application > > using the Android LVL with the default ServerManagedPolicy licensing > > policy. Now, the powers that be have decided that we have to publish > > it as a free app. For some reason I do not want to remove/disable the > > license checks. My question is: how does the licensing service handle > > free apps? Will checks always fail or always pass? Is there any way I > > can make the license service accept any installation of my free app as > > licensed? > > > > I found the following on free apps in the official documentation, but, > > it doesn't help me much. > > > > "Only paid applications published through Market can use the service. > > [...] Licensing is currently for paid apps only, since free apps are > > considered licensed for all users." > > > > I would have assumed that checks will fail, but, I remember reading > > somewhere that for free apps the licensing server will return a very > > large validity timestamp (long.MAX) ensuring that the license is > > always valid for free apps. Unfortunately, I have lost the link to > > that source. > > > > Note: > > 1. The problem is not as crazy as it sounds. It's just that I am not > > able to explain my use case further without giving away some > > proprietary information. > > 2. I had posted the same question on StackOverflow but did not get any > > response. Hence, posting it here. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "Android Developers" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
