Re: [Slightly OT] Shareware donation collection
Re: [Slightly OT] Shareware donation collection
- Subject: Re: [Slightly OT] Shareware donation collection
- From: Chaz McGarvey <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2004 12:35:52 -0700
On Feb 23, 2004, at 10:25 AM, M. Uli Kusterer wrote:
At 10:25 Uhr -0600 22.02.2004, Charles Srstka wrote:
Here's another problem I can see with having software phone home:
What happens if your web host goes down for a while? Bingo, all your
customers will immediately be unable to use your product, and your
support e-mail box will get flooded.
Even worse: What of your users when your company goes out of business?
If the app is keyed to the MAC address and their Ethernet card dies,
they'll be unable to use their legitimately bought application
anymore.
Or what if you don't want to support older versions of your
applications anymore and switch to a new registration scheme? If the
app phones home every week or so, it'll suddenly refuse running. I'm
not sure that's the right way to get your users to upgrade.
Of course, if the app only phones home upon installation, these aren't
that bad, but, looking at the old PowerMac 7200 I have here hooked up
to my scanner, I'd really be annoyed if any of the old applications
installed on it insisted on phoning home. Heck, that machine isn't
even connected to the net...
[snip]
In short, tying serials to machines is usually a support nightmare. My
vote goes to a simple registration scheme. It may be cracked, but any
other scheme you come up with is going to get cracked, too. Just trust
users to be honest. If your product is good and/or it's what they
need, they will pay (unless of course they aren't honest in which case
they're going to find a way to steal it somehow anyway). Those are
just my thoughts, though.
Chaz McGarvey
http://www.brokenzipper.com
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