I understand what you're saying, but this is a pretty simple app.
Not much in the way of functionality I could cripple and still
keep it useable.
IMHO, if your application is really that simple, I don't see the point in
bothering with the demo restriction in the first place. Just make it
shareware and be done with it.
Conversely, if it's really that simple, then don't worry too much about how
hard it is to circumvent whatever "demo protection" you build into the
application. No matter what you do, a determined hacker can disable your
protection, so what you're really trying to do is make it inconvenient
enough to motivate users to pay for the product while (and this is VERY
important) never inconveniencing users who have already paid for the
product.
Most really secure copy protection falls flat on their face when it comes to
the latter point.
A simple registry key is probably sufficient to block most users, unless for
some reason your proposed customer base is especially technically proficient
(and if they are, you're back to the problem that there's not much you can
do to block them from using your program).
If I disabled the save functionality, for instance, it's possible
the folks would just do without it rather than buy it. I don't intend
it to be very expensive, but still I'd like a better incentive for
people to cough up the dough. If they like it and it stops, that's
a pretty good incentive.
I don't understand. Didn't you just say that if you disabled the save
functionality, it's possible people would just do without? But your
proposal now is to prevent the application to stop working altogether
instead? Wouldn't they also just do without in that case?
But I still advice on the best way to implement a registration system,
etc, so people can't just give everyone their reg key.
There's little you can do to prevent someone from sharing their registration
key with someone else. Microsoft has taken the "Product Activation"
approach and frankly that's a huge waste of time even for the relatively
big, heavy, expensive applications they apply it to. It just annoys users
and it doesn't stop people from using the software without paying for it if
they want to do that.
Pete
