Yes, Another Post About App Licensing Management

http://asp-software.com

The only thing I am finding there is a search engine for ads.

Unfortunately, there is not going to be a registered version since I’ve not found not found any e-commerce site to provide a plug and play solution for handling product registration and sales. All the sites I’ve seen so far are a hodgepodge of services from different companies assembled on one site and they still expect you to write the registration algorithms and system. If I could do that I wouldn’t be bothering to use their service in the first place.

Lets look at this Kagi page as an example:

http://kagi.com/features/software-licensing

  1. License Code List - not an option as I am not writing a registration system - I expect them to provide this and a way to add it to my program.

  2. Real-time license codes - that is not an option for the same reason above and due to the fact I am not providing a web site - i expect them to do that.

  3. 3rd Party - does not add much confidence to their business model when one of the links is to a company no longer in business or not offering the service and Kagi doesn’t yet know about it. In any case this is not an option because that requires a new set of skills that I expect them to handle.

Every e-commerce site I’ve found so far is like this or are even worse - a complete rip according to other authors.

Sorry, I but am not studying software encryption, software registration, php, css, xhtml, and any of the other overhead that bloats this into a project so large its not worth even pursuing - I’d being losing money as it takes away from regular work. So far all I have seen are page after page of technical data that is far more complicated than Xojo.

In the end none of these services really provides any protection, especially sense they expect their small time software engineer client to write their own registration algorithms that probably any 14 year hacker can probably beat while eating a piece of pizza.

[quote=151303:@art ouette]http://asp-software.com
The only thing I am finding there is a search engine for ads.[/quote]

Sorry. http://asp-software.org

Even the most sophisticated scheme will be broken by the same moron. Yet it never prevented a whole industry to thrive. Microsoft, Adobe, and others enjoy healthy sales, in spite of universally available torrent versions of their best sellers. As for small fish like me, I have been around for over 25 years, and still have to enjoy the honor to see my software posted on the torrent sites. At the box office of pirates, only the most famous get the podium. Small is beautiful, it spares you the indignity of celebrity.

Seems you are fearing the boogy man snatches your software the minute you sell a copy, as if someone was waiting for you out of the convenient store to steal your chocolate bar. You seem so scared you are going to give up entirely all idea to market your software. What is it exactly you are afraid of ?

I agree with Michel.
A person can sometimes be too cautious - which can result in a severe case of procrastination.

If you wait for your piece of software to be perfect; to be bug free; or to be hack proof - then I am afraid your software will remain vaporware. At the end of the day, there is no such thing as a secure piece of software. If someone wants to crack it and then release it publicly - they will do exactly that. It may take them a little bit longer, but they will achieve it nevertheless.

I would suggest making your app secure enough to prevent the casual user from simply copying and sending it via email to their friends. This will deter the honest people who become tempted. Otherwise, you will become sucked into the quagmire of procrastination.

Get the software out there making sales for you, and then you can increase the strength of the security over time via updates. Always better to lose a few sales, than make none.

I am perfectly willing to keep the app for myself as I now have a competitive over the tens of thousands of other users on the site, even pros who have been there for years. If I am going to take take time away from that business and other business (which costs me money) to release the software to others then I expect that the money gained from the application will outweigh that lost revenue.

To make it worth my while I need a service to take care of the app licensing and sales for me. I was interested in Xojo as it seems easier to use, not because I also wanted to work on inept home brew software licensing schemes and working on the various other aspects of sales such as setting up a web site, integrating a shopping cart, etc. If I have to do that myself then I’ll just keep the app for myself, which I can already do with rb or rs.

Not really. Its more of “what’s in it for me”. So far I see no way to gain any financial rewards since I’ve not found any service to effectively market and sell the application for me with my work being limited to slightly altering my app such as using a plugin or module from the marketing site. I’d also take care of promotion, but that’s easily handled via a forum on the site the app is used for - I’ve already received requests for it so that is really a moot point.

I loose sales from taking time away from my regular businesses to work on possibly releasing the app to others so any marketing company needs to provide a reasonably secure way to sell the app under a plug and play scheme. Writing this response; for example, cost me money.

Ok - sorry for offering advice.
*muted

[quote=151355:@Richard Summers]I agree with Michel.
A person can sometimes be too cautious - which can result in a severe case of procrastination.

Otherwise, you will become sucked into the quagmire of procrastination.

Get the software out there making sales for you, and then you can increase the strength of the security over time via updates. Always better to lose a few sales, than make none.[/quote]

Yup, I like that. The proscrastination bit applies to me, I have two “freebies” out there, one is a time locked “beta” that I update every few months and keep meaning to release as a chargeable item. When I find time…, keep getting sidetracked by shiny object syndrome.

Have set a target that the SaaS and the two programs are released commercially by end of Q1 '15. As you rightly say, I would rather lose a few sales than make none.

That is not true. Art could simply issue licences which enable certain additional features in his software, why does he need Apple to let him do anything, this could all be his own system.

I will never cease to wonder why some people ask anything when not only do the already know better, but would not hear of any kind of advice, and on top of it, end up saying that they will keep the program to themselves if the world does not conform to their wishes…

Muting this stupid thread.

[quote]I will never cease to wonder why some people ask anything when not only do the already know better, but would not hear of any kind of advice, and on top of it, end up saying that they will keep the program to themselves if the world does not conform to their wishes…

Muting this stupid thread.[/quote]

Nothing stupid about it at all. it is simple economics.

As I have said several times before I operate other business interests which generate income. For one of these enterprises I’ve developed an app which allows me to have a competitive advantage over other site users. I am looking for a complete cross-platform (Win & Mac) DRM service by a third party who will handle all the licensing, sales, hosting, etc…, whereas all I have to to do it utilize a plugin or module from them. If I have to take my time to do all this myself I loose money from my other business enterprises. I appreciate the time everyone spent giving your advice, but it does not change the fact I’d be loosing money if I had to do all of this work myself and then maintain it. For instance, if I have to stop "X’ times a day to handle software license emails from customers then that throws a serious monkey wrench into my ability to send out orders of physical products for other business enterprises, thus I’d be losing money messing around with handling the emails (i.e. not shipping out a $100 item via USPS to handle a $10 app order email makes no sense).

Show me a service that offers what I want and I’ll gladly take a look. If none exist then my three platform Xojo desktop license is worth much less as I have no cost effective and reasonably secure method to actually market the software. The only really useful thing, without a way to market the software, is a is a single desktop license for the Mac and because I was looking to replace a png plugin that I now use in rs and rb. Those are the economic facts. A company meets my needs and gets my business or they don’t and I go elsewhere or cut my loses and kill the project.

I will currently keep the program for myself because it will allow competitors on the site to more effectively compete against me. Once again, I have to ask what is in it for me financially should I decide to effectively license this competitive advantage to other users. So far I see I will invest a large amount time marketing an app with some type of licensing involved that will likely end up as shareware thus return less financial reward than keeping it for myself

Sorry, but I can’t change the facts.

Another strategy I’ve considered is using the application as way to drive traffic to my user account on the site which will convert into some non software sales. In this scenario I’d offer a trial version that does everything but save and open existing documents, which is highly valuable in itself as it still allows users to generate content for the site. If honest users would like to make a donation then then will be directed to a site such as the above mentioned nstarsolutions whereas they download the full version from the a secure link and are able to now save and open documents. The full version does not actually have any license registration system so yes it will likely soon find its way on various software sharing sites, but then even with a registration system it likely be there anyway. In any case this allows honest users to pay without much hassle and I don’t have to be bothered. If there are not enough honest users then I can discontinue updating it and they can make an app themselves.

So I really have to decide if a three platform Xojo license is worth it - especially now that the prices have doubled in cost for features I will never use - I already have enough features I will never use such as the entire Linux feature.