On 11/14/99 12:38 PM, Nicolas R Cueto <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Is there a way of "copyrighting" a standalone?
>
>I was thinking of inserting an "if the short date is x then quit" line
>so that, after a trial period, the stack/standalone would no longer
>start up. Are there other/better/politer ways of controlling access?
>
>Thank you.
>
>--
>Nicolas R Cueto
>Takakura JHS/SHS
>Nagoya, Japan
>
I don't know what the copyright situation is in Japan, but there are
international agreements about this kind of thing, and in the U.S.,
creative works are automatically copyrighted the moment they are
committed to permanent form--i.e., written to disk. I would imagine it's
similar there.
For limiting use, I'd recommend against a trial period. After that date,
honest users won't be able to try your software at all, and dishonest
users will just set the clock back if they want it that badly. More
often, programs come with a limited run time--after running for x
minutes, they quit, requiring the user to re-launch them to continue.
Server programs, like WebStar, which don't require user interaction to be
useful, sometimes require you to answer a simple math question each time
you run it demo mode. This prevents you from (easily) writing an
AppleScript to restart the program every half hour or so, to keep the
demo going.
geoff canyon
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
