DonationCoder.com Software > N.A.N.Y. 2012

NANY 2012 Release: Simple Software Licensing

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josant:
NANY 2012 Entry Information
Application Name Habanero Simple Software LicensingVersion 1.0.0 - Version 2 is available from the website.Short DescriptionReally simple software licensing solution designed for microisv and freelance software developers
Official product page Supported OSes Windows 7, Vista probably Windows XP...Setup File Download these files to use the application. The latest version can always be downloaded from the official site.
LicenseManager1.0.1.zip (306.53 kB - downloaded 818 times.) 1.0.1 of the license manager
LicenseValidator1.0.0.zip (25.69 kB - downloaded 690 times.) 1.0.0 of the license validation component
LicenseGenerator1.0.0.zip (33.17 kB - downloaded 657 times.) 1.0.0 of the license generation component

Paste the following license information into the license manager using the About menu item.
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Product: Habanero Simple Software Licensing, Free, 1.0.1
Serialnumber: bb158d3c-6f1e-455a-82ae-ad190ca96a98
Licensed to: DonationCoder
Valid until: 2012-06-30
5Y40HBB-EF05HJ-EC2TZ6Z-29HF1Q-BTTB72R-Y7JQ0P-76T27XA-X69WD7
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System Requirements.Net 4Author InfoJoshua Anthony has been developing software professionally since the mid 1990s and before that as a hobby for many years on such wonderful platforms as the ZX Spectrum, C64, MSX and others!

Currently he runs his own MicroISV and consulting company developing primarily for Microsoft platforms using .Net but also dabbling in cutting edge mobile HTML5 apps and experimenting with PHP.

Some random ramblings and interesting software development tidbits can be found on his blog.

Just to avoid unnecessary flames - I am a strong believer in permissive licensing, creative commons and open source which is one reason why I have developed this. Most of the licensing solutions that I have found as a small scale developer are in my opinion too expensive, too restrictive, aren't secure enough and try to make the end users life (and the developers) more painful than it needs to be! This is an attempt to change all that!

DescriptionSoftware licensing is tough and if you have little or no experience with cryptography and securing enterprise software systems it is really tough! This solution is designed to provide a good-enough licensing setup to discourage accidental and casual copying of the software without making it difficult for your licensed users to move their licenses to new computers or having to reactivate after a system crash. This licensing solution is also designed to integrate easily with Paypal IPN and Mailchimp webhooks if you want to send out license info via email automatically.

This is actually a product that I am going to sell as part of my regular business, but I recently joined DonationCoder and the NANY 2012 challenge inspired me to try and push something out the door earlier than I had planned. I will also set up a special DonationCoder license in the spirit of the official DonationCoder license (free with periodic renewals, no details on that yet) when this is officially released.

More info about how I think this could be of use for software developers.
FeaturesMilitary Grade encyption/hashing algorithms
Named users with keys or anonymous serial/licenses
Optionally limit license validity
License generation can be automated and integrated with PayPal

More advanced features are on the drawing board but not being implemented yet...
ScreenshotsUpdated screen shots for version 1.0.1


Basic GUI

The following screenshots are the old design but the functionality is the same.

GUI with license file generated


Sample license files
InstallationUnzip package and run exe file…Using the applicationThere are three parts to the solution:
* the license manager is the part that you use to create serials and license files
* the licensing component is the part that your code uses to get information about the users license
* the license generator is used for generating licenses from code

More info on all the different components will be coming...UninstallingDelete files...
Known IssuesNo software licensing solution can be 100% secure…
Reverse engineering of your software (not the licensing solution) is the most likely and easy attack vector.

I have plans for making this solution even more secure by allowing you to embed critical application data inside the license file which would make it much more difficult to crack your software, although nowhere near impossible.

JavaJones:
Oho, this looks quite interesting. How will it integrate with Paypal and Mailchimp? Will there be a web component? Any other integrations planned (e.g. Virtuemart, WorldPay, Authorize.net)?

- Oshyan

josant:
Both Paypal and Mailchimp can post signup/purchase data to a web page. I am developing a sample .net web page which uses the license key/file generation to create a user specific license file (the license file is just plain text) based on the variables posted by paypal and mailchimp. The end user can save the file into the directory where the software is installed. Alternatively you could provide an input form inside the application for entering the details of the license and include the license details directly in the email. The settings for the license generation are exported from the license manager in a format that the license generation component can read.

I am planning to look at other integrations, but nothing in the pipe at the moment. Since each api posts different data, formatted in different ways I must choose integrations which are of greatest interest to users of the software... I have worked with Paypal and Mailchimp integration which is why they are out first. I would love to hear if there are more integrations which would be of interest in addition to Paypal, Mailchimp, Amazon payments, Kagi, Virtuemart, Worldpay, Authorize.net?

josant:
I have looked at the apis of Virtuemart, WorldPay & Authorize.net. Worldpay and Authorized.net seem to support transaction notifications which resemble the Paypal flow so developing integrations for these should be possible.

And thanks for your interest Oshyan!  :D

tranglos:
This is wonderful, Josant, thank you! Great to see the DC spirit in action!

I would so use this if only I had software to protect :) Alas, I must have looked the other way when they were giving out business hats. But (in my salad-er days) I did look more than once at the available protection solutions, and they're all highly expensive. This is a wonderful gift to DC.

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