Stuart McLachlan
stuart at lexacorp.com.pg
Sat Apr 25 16:10:04 CDT 2009
Apart from Registration keys etc, the first thing that I do to discourage piracy with this sort of is application put the organisation's name on all menus and reports. If the Tennessee branch has "Michigan Branch" appearing on their form letters etc they will be encouraged to get their own copy. With an MDE FE, it's a simple matter to embed the name in a Function which is used as the source of a text box on all forms/reports etc. -- Stuart On 25 Apr 2009 at 8:59, Rocky Smolin wrote: > Dear List: > > Susan Harkins and I are working on a project together It is a relatively > small application and database for the Toys for Tots organization - tracking > parents, children, donors, and volunteers. We were contacted by the head of > a Michigan chapter after he had gotten bids from $2500 to $10,000 for a > custom database - well out of his budget range. So we decided to put > together an application for him, speculating that perhaps other Toys for > Tots chapters around the country would find the application valuable. He's > up and running and very happy, has provided us with a nice endorsement, and > will post a notice to the TFT bulletin board for us when we get a web page > up. Which should be in a couple weeks. We have priced the product at $400. > > We think, given the tight budgets and the fact that they're a charitable, > volunteer organization, that there is a risk that copies of the application, > which we have named Toy Track, will get passed around to other chapters even > at a relatively low cost of $400. > > So we would like to find a way to implement some copy protection but don't > want it to be a burden on either us or the user. Some approaches would be > > 1. have the app 'phone home' to be activated, sending the hard drive serial > or somehow tying it to a machine. Problem here is that the license will be > for the chapter - front end would go on each client - so they could > legitimately run multiple copies of the app. And we'd have the expense of > creating and maintaining the web site. > > 2. Date bomb - this would require re-registration from time to time. Like > #1, it would involve an interactive web site - more effort and expense that > we think we want to put into copy protection - or a phone or email response > with a 'key' that would extend the license. Or we send each user a fresh > copy before their copy expires. Still doesn't stop them from forwarding the > new mde to someone else. > > 3. Run with the CD in the drive. Nah. Too easy to rip a CD. Don't think > we'd get any protection there. Plus we'd have the whole product and shipping > hassle, and software delivered electronically versus on a hard copy medium > is free of sales tax in California. > > 4???? > > Any ideas will be welcome. Hopefully the discussion will benefit others on > the list who are facing similar problems. > > MTIA, > > Rocky Smolin > > Beach Access Software > > 858-259-4334 > > www.e-z-mrp.com <http://www.e-z-mrp.com/> > > www.bchacc.com <http://www.bchacc.com/> > > > > > >