copy protection

[kee nethery]

On Jan 9, 2005, at 5:33 PM, Byron Turner wrote:

> Indeed a loss of only 1/3 doesn't sound too bad, but this was a 
> special case with great support from the instructor and direct sales 
> to the students with a discount..  It is also a very short term class 
> leaving little time for copying between students.  I have great fear 
> of what will happen in a normal class.  I'm considering disabling the 
> software after a period of time (2 days to 2 weeks) if the user 
> doesn't register, but how would I distinguish a purchaser from pirate? 
>  I've had ideas but I'm sure their are gaping holes in them, hence, 
> I'm looking for ideas.
>
> Byron

In my opinion, it is far better to not use a timeout but rather to 
limit functionality in some essential manner. Let people see that the 
app will fill their needs but limit it in some essential way so that if 
they really do need to use it, they will need to pay.

Not knowing what your app does, makes it difficult to suggest 
something. Normally I suggest that the try before you buy software has 
some functionality that is useful even if they never pay so that they 
spend the time to learn the software and they keep it on their disk 
drive. Then when they are hooked, have them pay. But for a class, I 
think a demo mode is probably more appropriate. "See it does everything 
you need and if you pay, it will be useable."

Kee Nethery