Stuart McLachlan
stuart at lexacorp.com.pg
Sat Apr 25 16:18:53 CDT 2009
I see from a quick google that Toys For Tots is a US Marine Reserve foundation. "Over its 14 year life span, the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation has supplemented local toy collections with more than 55.5 million toys valued at more than $284 million; plus has provided promotion and support materials valued at over $3.2 million" How about approaching them with a bulk licencing deal - that way you can provide a copy to every chapter and not have to worry about copy protection. -- 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/> > > > > > >