Hello,
This is what I was able to come up with after researching your
requirements at length.
I have chosen one service that appears to be exactly what you are
looking for, as well as selected various others to include with
briefer descriptions. My number one pick:
Software Activation Service provided by pingram.com
http://www.activatesoft.net
They charge $0.30 US per product key inserted into and managed through
their system. $0.50 extra is charged for telephone activation, while
online activations or product key reminders do not add extra cost. The
minimum monthly charge to your account will be $5 (which is very
decent).
You can use the product keys they provide in the form of
GBFTK-3UN78-MKF8G-T8GTY-NQS8R online, OR they give you the option to
activate and generate activation codes Offline (but this costs an
extra $149.00 one time fee). You also have the option to use your own
product keys, add, remove, modify product keys, as well as block or
unblock certain keys. You can find more information at this URL:
http://www.activatesoft.net/services.asp
They do use hardware and will allow the user to use the same
activation code on the same computer up to 10 times without having to
go through product activation, however on a different computer, the
key will not work. This easily seemed to be the best activation system
that I found.
They also have an excellent interface for your customers to use, to
get information on privacy etc. Even though they do not offer an
estore for you, they seem to do everything else. Very user friendly
and simple! A++
Some other companies that I found:
Az-Tech Safe-D Secure Distribution
http://www.az-tech.com/
Cost for software which includes 250 Meter Counts US $495. Meter count
is only used when the shareware user actually purchases the software.
Price for additional meter counts is $1.00 to $0.80 depending on
quantity purchased.
Rainbow’s Sentinel LM System:
http://www.rainbow.com/sentinellm/index.html
This is not a service like activatesoft, but you might be interested
in looking into this more. This software would have to reside on your
server and I was assuming this is not what you were looking for. If
you want to read more about how this works see:
http://www.rainbow.com/sentinellm/hiworks.html
SlockPK
http://www.crypto-central.com/slock/index.html
For Delphi and C++ software authors, they have hardware based checking
and will host the server for you. The basic version is $89 or the
corporation version with source code includes $249. If you have a NT
server with rights to execute programs in at least one directory, and
the ability to control the access rights to directories, you can
purchase an unlimited license for $250 for the Certificate Server. If
you do not have your own server see:
http://www.crypto-central.com/slock/slock_cs.html for pricing.
Element
http://www.element5.com. In this case, you need to have your own key
generator (perhaps purchase a product such as HardKey 3, Armadillo, or
ASProtect), which you then send to them, and they will handle the
transactions for you. You can use them by sending them your activation
generation software and have them process activation keys. They can
handle receiving payment from your customer and doing all key
generation, or you can have them handle the transactions and notify
you by email when they receive payment from your customer, and you
would handle sending the customer the activation key. In either case
you would need to make sure you have activation generation software
that takes hardware into account because they do not include this with
their service. You need to submit a quote request to get pricing for
their product.
CrypKey:
http://www.crypkey.com/products/copyprot/copyprot.html
Their product is sold to you, and you are responsible for management
of the product keys, generation, distribution etc. Has nifty features,
such as if a registered user sends their version and key to a friend,
it will still only be a shareware version because of the hardware
checking. Costs $1295.00 for each software title you want to protect.
SoftwareKey.com
http://www.softwarekey.com/solo/instant/
These guys say that you can get everything set up today, and that all
you need is a bank account. They seem to have a strong product
http://www.softwarekey.com/solo/server/features.htm and offer the
services that activesoft.net does, however their commission is much
higher. If you decide to have them sell your product for you
(something not included with activatesoft.net), and your product sells
for under $100, they take 6%, 3.1% Bank fee + $0.11 authorization fee.
There is a minimum $1.50 transaction fee and I am not sure if that is
added on to the other fees, or counts only if your product sells for
$14.
Of if you handle the transactions yourself, there is a $99 Setup fee,
and a per-license fee of $1.00, but this is more expensive than
activatesoft.net.
PC Guard
http://www.sofpro.com/
This might be something you are interested in if you are not looking
for someone to provide you with the complete package (as I am assuming
you are): One time charge of $129.95 for unlimited protection. Gives
you the ability to handle licenses by phone, fax or e-mail but users
would be phoning, faxing and emailing you, not a system such as the
one Windows XP has etc.
Cooper Software Systems
http://www.cooper-software.com/default.htm
This could well be the company you are looking for, however they
appear to be geared towards well established software companies. They
do not have pricing information online and the technical information
offered was not easy for me to understand, but they might be worth the
look.
Netquartz License Management
http://www.netquartz.com/
Might be worth a look, they have limited information online and you
would need to submit a download request to get a Data Sheet/White
Paper on their License Management software.
Hopefully this is what you were looking for. If you need any further
research, I will be happy to further assist you.
tisme-ga
Search Strategy:
software license management
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=software+license+management&cat=gwd%2FTop%2FComputers%2FSecurity%2FProducts_and_Tools%2FSoftware_Protection_and_License_Control
software protection
://www.google.com/search?q=software+protection&cat=gwd%2FTop%2FComputers%2FSecurity%2FProducts_and_Tools%2FSoftware_Protection_and_License_Control&hl=en
Google Directory: License Management
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Security/Products_and_Tools/Software_Protection_and_License_Control/
prevent software piracy license management
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=prevent+software+piracy+license+management |
Clarification of Answer by
tisme-ga
on
22 Nov 2002 17:59 PST
Hello,
First I would like to apologize for assuming things and not asking you
for clarification. Had I done so, you would have had a proper answer
sooner.
I took a look at the two companies you mentioned:
Preview Software: They were acquired by Alladin Knowledge Systems. You
might be interested in their Privilege software, but it is a complete
solution offering Protection, Trial Ware, Software Distribution, Sales
and Downloading which seems to be more than you are looking for.
You should be able to purchase Privilege Usage Building separately
(the protection and packaging component), but they offer very little
information about the sale of their products online. You will need to
contact them for more information at the bottom of this page:
http://www.ealaddin.com/privilege/protecting_preparing.asp?cf=tl
Sheriff-Software
http://www.sheriff-software.com/
Protects 32-bit Windows Applications against illegal copying. License
files are bound to a machine’s unique digital fingerprint (hardware
binding). Ability to distribute license activation keys via telephone,
fax, email, or over the internet. Offer a demo so you can try their
product before buying it.
The cost will be $550US for protecting your first product, $275 for
additional products, with no more hidden fees. You can protect
unlimited number of copies of a single product with each license you
purchase from them. Future versions of their software will be provided
to you free as well. 90 days free support and maintenance, $150
thereafter for a year of support. If you do not purchase annual
support, $100 per incident.
Ebit-Arts
http://www.softlocx.com/encryptogen.html
“Provides patent pending protection against the modification of code
and offers a strong layer of security around the intellectual property
of the software.”
Might be worth a look, but am unable to confirm that they use hardware
binding.
VisageSoft Visual Protect
http://www.visagesoft.com/vp/
Costs $119USD which includes full email support. Can generate unique
serials based on installed computer hardware. Easy to use and easy to
apply to any application. Also offer a version that can be downloaded
to try out their software. No hidden costs.
http://www.visagesoft.com/vp/#features
Sikander Soft
http://www.sikandersoft.com
Their SafeSerial OCX is a complete solution for copy protection or
license management. ActiveX control that requires your programming
environment to support OCX. Support key-disks if you want to use those
instead, remotely modify customer’s license or change license type. No
royalties and allows customer to temporary transfer their license (if
you choose to let them).
http://www.sikandersoft.com/safeserial.html
See also this screenshot: http://www.sikandersoft.com/screen.gif
Microcosm
http://www.microcosm.co.uk/
Offer several copy protection solutions, but Unlock-It is probably the
best one for you. Hardware binding… user has an activation code and
contacts the developer to get an unlock code. Offers automated
telephone system and website activation (not sure if telephone
activation is available in the US). Base charge of 50 British pounds
plus charge per activation and depending on how many copies you sell,
it can range from 2 pounds per activation to 0.20 pounds if
1,000-2,000 activations. They offer a demo and full price list can be
found here:
http://www.microcosm.co.uk/ccprice.htm
More info about the product: http://www.microcosm.co.uk/unlockit.htm
Sampson-Multimedia
http://www.sampson-multimedia.com
Crypto++ SDK Version 3.0
Total copy protection and software licensing to new and existing
applications. Activation Codes will never be the same, and basically
after reinstalling the user has to activate their software through you
or it will not run. Authorize your applications over the internet, and
if you want you can let your customer transfer license capabilities.
Unlimited Copies for Unlimited Programs for a one take charge of $295.
Free trial version available so you can try it out. (Sounds fantastic,
but you will have to investigate these claims yourself. Could be a
great value for a one time fee if they deliver.)
http://www.sampson-multimedia.com/copy-protection.html
Take a look at this screenshot:
http://www.sampson-multimedia.com/wizard.gif
Salony Software
http://www.salony.com/alcatraz/alcatraz.html
Alcatraz is a C++ static library that provides copy protection
capability to an application. You can lock to hardware, or lock to a
specific user (but you would think that this would allow other people
to enter same user info and use the same activation code). Note: They
only seem to consider the serial number of the hard drive, and I am
not sure how hard it is to fool a computer into thinking the HD serial
is something else, other programs tend to use a combination of
hardware.) Could be that they base the key on other algorithms as well
though, so it would only work one time. Support automatic
web-licensing, says that there is “no more hassle of giving out
registration codes over the phone,” but if you want to do this, I
think it is possible. Costs $89.00 USD, but what really scared me what
I found after visiting http://www.salony.com directly. Low cost so
might be worth a look if it delivers on promises.
If you don’t find the perfect company among these, please let me know
and I will continue searching. It’s what I am here for!
tisme-ga
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