Most of you veterans know this, but some new users may not.
If you distribute an application as say a 30 day demo (you need to code for this) with the runtime to a particular customer, a person who has the A5 developer will be able to grab the runtime and use it for himself. The SN is displayed on the Help about, and also found in the registry, and perhaps in an unencrypted text file called license.key that you may have furnished with the demo to allow it to run without entering the license number. All the runtime files are also included when you install a runtime derived database using the A5 Installer.
So all a user has to do is launch alpha5.exe out of your install directory and get the SN from the Help |About. Then he gets the registry information, duplicates the registry stuff, and away he goes with your runtime.
I don't like this scheme of having the license number plastered all over the place in the runtime Help|About, or in a readily available license.key file that can be read with notepad. With some additional programming, Alpha could get rid of all this stuff and still require a license key from the developer that is hidden from the end user, even in the registry.
In addition, one has to code some trick stuff to prevent the user from reinstalling your demo say beyond a 30 day time out. I found this quite a challenge, but it was fun coming up with a strategy to outwit the hackers.
In addition, a developer must include security in the form of a Master Password on his database so another developer doesn't grab his entire database from a demo. The end user could also buy A5 and grab it unless it has a Master password assigned.
This means that every time a user opens up your product, he has to enter a password (= the Master password if you want to protect your source code). So we have to put security on every table, enter in some various users with different security levels, and provide a full security system to the end user whether he needs it or not. No problem, but it may be a hassle for end users who have no need for security.
Correct me if I am wrong on this.
If you distribute an application as say a 30 day demo (you need to code for this) with the runtime to a particular customer, a person who has the A5 developer will be able to grab the runtime and use it for himself. The SN is displayed on the Help about, and also found in the registry, and perhaps in an unencrypted text file called license.key that you may have furnished with the demo to allow it to run without entering the license number. All the runtime files are also included when you install a runtime derived database using the A5 Installer.
So all a user has to do is launch alpha5.exe out of your install directory and get the SN from the Help |About. Then he gets the registry information, duplicates the registry stuff, and away he goes with your runtime.
I don't like this scheme of having the license number plastered all over the place in the runtime Help|About, or in a readily available license.key file that can be read with notepad. With some additional programming, Alpha could get rid of all this stuff and still require a license key from the developer that is hidden from the end user, even in the registry.
In addition, one has to code some trick stuff to prevent the user from reinstalling your demo say beyond a 30 day time out. I found this quite a challenge, but it was fun coming up with a strategy to outwit the hackers.
In addition, a developer must include security in the form of a Master Password on his database so another developer doesn't grab his entire database from a demo. The end user could also buy A5 and grab it unless it has a Master password assigned.
This means that every time a user opens up your product, he has to enter a password (= the Master password if you want to protect your source code). So we have to put security on every table, enter in some various users with different security levels, and provide a full security system to the end user whether he needs it or not. No problem, but it may be a hassle for end users who have no need for security.
Correct me if I am wrong on this.
Comment