[AccessD] Copy Protection Needed

Rocky,

    For some additional working ideas, two of my sample db's mentioned below, might be of interest to you:

    (a) LicenseLock
    (b) TrialSet

    These are available at Rogers Access Library. Link -
http://www.rogersaccesslibrary.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=45 

Best wishes,
A.D. Tejpal
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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Rocky Smolin 
  To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' 
  Sent: Saturday, April 25, 2009 21:29
  Subject: [AccessD] Copy Protection Needed


  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