On 02/01/2010, at 7:10 PM, Benjamin Jansen wrote: > On Jan 1, 2010, at 11:26 AM, Todd Blanchard wrote: > >> I put the customer's database ID into their serial number so I can track any >> key back to the purchaser. I also encode date of issue into the key. If >> the key isn't used to authorize the software within three days of issue, it >> won't be accepted. > > For the user, this is no better than requiring activation or other invasive > DRM. What happens when you go under? All your users are no longer able to > reinstall your app, because you aren't around to give them a new key. I avoid > purchasing products with such activation schemes, because there is a > significant risk that I'll lose the ability to use the product down the road, > for no good reason.
I personally don't buy this argument. If the company that makes the app goes bust then you're in a very bad situation whether or not the app uses a phone-home scheme. The likelihood that this will happen is very, very low in my experience. That said, I find "aggressive" DRM such as that used by Adobe extremely offensive and annoying. I've personally had to spend at least an hour on the phone over the years dealing with their ridiculous DRM. Their system locks the software to your hardware and prevents multiple installations. The activation is invalidated if you clone your hard drive to a new computer, etc etc. This is totally user-hostile. This is very different to a single phone-home activation the first time the software is installed. Many apps do this and it doesn't bother me at all. In our case, we are using Aquatic Prime and in order to make things easier for the user, we give them a simple license code made of random words and a number like so: gosling-banana-tanker-wood-7943 The app then contacts our server and downloads the Aquatic Prime license file, which is stored in the Application Support folder. This is much easier for the user than wrangling with the license file manually. The license file won't expire and can easily be transferred between computers, is backed up by Time Machine etc etc. -- Rob Keniger
