MuShoo

Does anyone have any thoughts on ways to go about licensing applications built with Max? Ideally something that could allow for a 'demo mode' until registered. I've been thinking about going with Kagi (www.kagi.com) but I have no clue how to integrate their licensing kit into Max.

My other thought was to try and set up something myself, with a mysql database or a flash server or something that queries a web-based database to check a user's info against, but this requires a network connection whenever the software is launched.

Any ideas? Anyone want to convert the Kagi SDK to a max external? :D

Does anyone have any thoughts on ways to go about licensing applications built with Max?  Ideally something that could allow for a 'demo mode' until registered.  I've been thinking about going with Kagi (www.kagi.com) but I have no clue how to integrate their licensing kit into Max.

Any ideas?  Anyone want to convert the Kagi SDK to a max external? :D


licensing

Do you want to pay someone to convert the Kagi SDK to a max external?

On Aug 17, 2008, at 3:59 PM, mushoo wrote:

> Anyone want to convert the Kagi SDK to a max external? :D

San Francisco, CA
Work: 857-544-3967
Email: bthrew (at) gmail (dot) com
Web: www.barrythrew.com


> Do you want to pay someone to convert the Kagi SDK to a max external?

I might, depending on what they charge. And if it'll actually work.

I think they have a Java SDK, or at least they were working on one.

I was vaguely interested in embedding the Kagi registration module at one point, but decided to go for a separate demo version that doesn't unlock.

I think they have a Java SDK, or at least they were working on one. 

I was vaguely interested in embedding the Kagi registration module at one point, but decided to go for a separate demo version that doesn't unlock.


Yeah, that's my fallback plan. I don't really like it because if someone buys it and puts it on bittorrent, I have no way to stop it. :/

Yeah, that's my fallback plan.  I don't really like it because if someone buys it and puts it on bittorrent, I have no way to stop it. :/


True, but you have pretty much no way of stopping it anyway if they're determined enough. You just wind up in an arms race.

The trouble with an unlockable demo is that it gives the cracker a nice before-and-after scenario that they can run a difference checker over.

Nowadays I'm in the "copy-protection is (mostly) pointless" camp, but there are always little tricks you can use to track where the torrented copy originated.

If you want to get serious, you probably need to look into hardware dongles, or annoying one-machine-only stuff like keying the app to some hashed combo of MAC address and/or partition table inspection, or irritating little phone-home schemes as you suggest.

That's a lot of effort to go to and to maintain. How many do you expect to sell?

The other thing you'll probably find is that a lot of the piracy seems to be on the Windows side. That's one of the reasons I've not bothered to do a Windows version of my app...

"The other thing you'll probably find is that a lot of the piracy seems to be on the Windows side. That's one of the reasons I've not bothered to do a Windows version of my app..."

Interesting thought - I wonder if having a windows version would mean the windows users are more likely to offer up the mac version as well? If you're not selling a windows version now, wouldn't you still make more money from it if 50% of windows users pirated it? You're still making money from that other 50%, which you aren't currently.

I suppose that's kind of a good angle for me to look at it from: If somebody doesn't want to pay for it, they're not going to. They'll either pirate it or just not buy it, and either way a draconian licensing method isn't gonna help much.

Though, I did kinda want to learn how to build my own hardware dongles. :P

Interesting thought - I wonder if having a windows version would mean the windows users are more likely to offer up the mac version as well?  If you're not selling a windows version now, wouldn't you still make more money from it if 50% of windows users pirated it?  You're still making money from that other 50%, which you aren't currently.

I suppose that's kind of a good angle for me to look at it from:  If somebody doesn't want to pay for it, they're not going to.  They'll either pirate it or just not buy it, and either way a draconian licensing method isn't gonna help much.

Though, I did kinda want to learn how to build my own hardware dongles. :P


Well, the KRM packages must be used "as-is" -- they can't be modified in any way. Perhaps one of the KRM development kits we have available will work with what you are trying to do:

KRM can only be configured for one product, but maybe you could have multiple KRMs, one for each of your plugins?

Well, the KRM packages must be used "as-is" -- they can't be modified in any way.  Perhaps one of the KRM development kits we have available will work with what you are trying to do:

Adam for Kagi
registrationModule@kagi.com


Quote: MuShoo wrote on Tue, 19 August 2008 02:28

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> If you're not selling a windows version now, wouldn't you still 

> make more money from it if 50% of windows users pirated it? 

> You're still making money from that other 50%, which you aren't 

Yeah, but I have to balance that against the time and effort required to port from OS X's excellent virtual MIDI environment to Windows' crappy one, factor in the time and effort required to document and support the Windows version across both XP and Vista, and to maintain two somewhat different versions. I'm not getting a whole lot of requests for a Windows version either, so it's really unlikely I'll ever do Windows for this particular app (not a plugin).

Quote: MuShoo wrote on Tue, 19 August 2008 02:28
----------------------------------------------------
> If you're not selling a windows version now, wouldn't you still 
> make more money from it if 50% of windows users pirated it?  
> You're still making money from that other 50%, which you aren't 
> currently.

Yeah, but I have to balance that against the time and effort required to port from OS X's excellent virtual MIDI environment to Windows' crappy one, factor in the time and effort required to document and support the Windows version across both XP and Vista, and to maintain two somewhat different versions. I'm not getting a whole lot of requests for a Windows version either, so it's really unlikely I'll ever do Windows for this particular app (not a plugin).


Licensing