Joe Kaplan

I've been working on a package of externals and am getting to the point where I'm starting to think about how I want to distribute them.

When I initially conceived the project I imagined a community of contributing developers sending in patches that leverage these objects, and then distributing them as bpatchers in a main application.

But as I start to think it through, I'm not finding a good way to restrict usage of the externals to an application that I manage and control. Anyone who downloads the patch or even the standalone, can pluck out the objects and use them in their own patch.

There are a few reasons I care about this:

1) The externals communicate with a server I will host, own, and operate. I can build authentication protocol into the objects, so security is not a driving concern. But I would still like to have some curatorial control over how the resources are used.

2) Collecting patchers that use these objects from contributing developers and distributing them as bpatchers in a single host app seems like a better way to build and grow a cohesive community around this usecase than having individuals distributing their own freestanding applications on their own. It would create some thematic cohesivness, and give us more content, which will help us collectively engage with a general audience.

3) I have put a lot of effort into these externals and would like to explore ways to monetize this work some day (especially if I or a contributing developer makes something that catches on with a general audience). Keeping close control over how they are used seems necessary, especially in the beginning.

So... is it possible to link my externals to a particular patch? So that people who use the patch (as a patch or as a standalone) can't just pull out the .mxe files and build a competing solution on my own network?

It's possible that what I'm looking to do here goes against the grain of how the Max ecosystem is designed to operate. So I'm starting to reconsider my 

I'm curious to get some input from this community on the three points above. Thanks!

But as I start to think it through, I'm not finding a good way to restrict usage of the externals to an application that I manage and control.  Anyone who downloads the patch or even the standalone, can pluck out the objects and use them in their own patch.

There are a few reasons I care about this:
1) The externals communicate with a server I will host, own, and operate.  I can build authentication protocol into the objects, so security is not a driving concern.  But I would still like to have some curatorial control over how the resources are used.

2)  Collecting patchers that use these objects from contributing developers and distributing them as bpatchers in a single host app seems like a better way to build and grow a cohesive community around this usecase than having individuals distributing their own freestanding applications on their own.  It would create some thematic cohesivness, and give us more content, which will help us collectively engage with a general audience.

3) I have put a lot of effort into these externals and would like to explore ways to monetize this work some day (especially if I or a contributing developer makes something that catches on with a general audience).  Keeping close control over how they are used seems necessary, especially in the beginning.

So... is it possible to link my externals to a particular patch?  So that people who use the patch (as a patch or as a standalone) can't just pull out the .mxe files and build a competing solution on my own network?

It's possible that what I'm looking to do here goes against the grain of how the Max ecosystem is designed to operate.    So I'm starting to reconsider my raison d'etre.  I'm curious to get some input from this community on the three points above.  Thanks!

Hello!
I've been working on a package of externals and am getting to the point where I'm starting to think about how I want to distribute th

managing-distribution-of-externals

I've never seen someone monetizing externals. And without even knowing what they can do, I'm loosing interest after reading this. No offense. Maybe there's a better chance to make money if you create an application and target the "general audience"? You can definitely find ways to make your externals run exclusively in your application.

there were a few... but guess how famous they became.

 It's possible that what I'm looking to do here goes against the grain of how the Max ecosystem is designed to operate.    So I'm starting to reconsider my raison d'etre. 

Managing Distribution of Externals