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I’m working with a developer who has placed his faith in a license scheme that makes little sense to me. He wants to tie a desktop application to a hardware component value, one of which is easily changed, the MAC address of the ethernet controller.
Now, I know no one likes licenses, he does want to protect his hard work and I can understand that. What can I tell him to help him out? In the very least I’d like to give him a path other than tying a license to a hardware component.
I am sure this will not convince anyone who doesn’t already share my view, but I don’t see any value in licensing schemes that are more complicated than a short serial number, perhaps “phoning home” so you can detect if it is being abused and disable it. If the software is moderately popular, it will be cracked, whether you invest $5 or $5 million into the licensing scheme. Put those millions toward building a product that honest people (the majority) are willing to pay for and upgrade. If more protection is needed, hopefully the application can be converted to a web service.