On 2 Jan 2010, at 09:35, Rob Keniger wrote: > > 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. > This sounds like a great approach to me. All the flexibility of the AP licence file plus an improved user experience. Sounds as if this should be a part of the AP repository.
CocoaFob is good too, but as the amount of information encoded in the licence increases so does the licence code. Jonathan Mitchell Developer http://www.mugginsoft.com
