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Money really is the root of all evil. It absolutely amazes me the lengths people will go to make money any way they can, even if it means taking it right out of your pocket. If you produce software titles with resale rights, you need to get pretty creative in order to protect your profits. The hardest part is enforcing the structure you have so carefully put together, to ensure that you are the only person who sells the program itself. There are quite a few methods and tricks to use that offer some security for your software titles with resale rights, but none of the ways that would make your clients happy are guaranteed to stand up against today's highly intelligent hacker.
Take for instance, you could make your executable installers corrupt themselves if they are copied from one computer to another. The problem with that is it could malfunction and corrupt itself without being moved, or the client could have purchased a new computer. In either case, the client with a legitimate need for an additional copy will be disgruntled that they have to ask for one, and there is no way for you to verify that they aren't just trying to take advantage of you.Unless you had some kind of online registration system, which would check to make sure each registration code is only currently in use by one computer. But even that isn't foolproof, because the client might not have Internet access, and the easiest thing to hack is a registration code. So what is effective at protecting the program part of software titles with resale rights, from being sold by individuals? The only effective ones I have seen require an Internet connection or verification through telephone. Some have used pretty innovative ideas, such as letting the client choose a special pass code they input that into the server when they purchase the software. Then at installation, they are asked for that pass code and the dynamically generated registration code, and the program sends that information to the server to be verified. Once a pass code and registration code pair have been confirmed as “used” within the server, no other computer can use them. Also during install, a dialog pops up that asks the user to report any instance where they were sold the software by anyone besides you, and gives the option to set up a new pass code if they changed computers. To prevent that feature from being abused, put a limit on how many times they can request a new pass code, and then charge for anything above that. |
