Hi,

Sorry for this really off-topic question, but I hope you guys can give me
any advice. I have a program that I'm going to commercialize in three modes:
individual, group and site licenses.  This program can be downloaded from a
web site and can be used for 60 days . After this period, users will need a
key to 'unlock' the program to continue using it. When a user buys the
program, he gets the key and once the key is entered, the program will be
registered to that user and this information will appear both in the splash
screen and in the about box of the program. So far so good.  As for site
licenses, the process will be quite similar. However, I'm not sure how to
deal with group (e.g 5, 10, 15, .) licenses. For example, the program is
intended to be used by research groups (e.g. organic chemistry). Consider a
research group with 20 members. I can think in two scenarios:
(1) The director of the group buys just one license and distributes copies
between their students.
(2) He buys a group license. A group license is much cheaper than buying
individual copies.

Point (2) will be the ideal scenario. As for point (1), I could implement a
protection system in the program to limit the number of computers that can
use a key at the same time in the same network. Another option would be to
lock the program to a specific computer. However, I believe these solutions
will bring me many technical problems, particularly on the client side.
Do you know of any other alternative to deal with group licenses? I don't
need to implement a very sophisticated method. I know that if people wants
to use the program illegally, they will do it anyway despite of the
protection system implemented. This is particular true in the academia.
However, program will be also used in pharmaceutical companies where I think
they have more restrictions on the software they can use.

Thanks for your views on this subject.

Regards,
Carlos

======================
Carlos Cobas
www.mestrec.com
Santiago de Compostela
======================


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