Tell me more ×
Programmers Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for professional programmers interested in conceptual questions about software development. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote -3 down vote favorite

I'm trying to figure out how to sell a software license for a new program I've written on a wordpress site using pre-generated keys - and also to setup remote protection for the keys by checking for duplicates - or however it's done. I've found a plugin for the site called 'WP eStore' which will distribute individual keys packaged with a digital download.

Now I'm wondering how to setup the protection - but also perhaps there's a more comprehensive package which will sell/protect? There seems to be a lot of products out there but I'm a bit overwhelmed on where to start.

share|improve this question
Are you an experienced programmer? Based on how you asked your question I'm guessing 'no'. If you need to do this, a common method is to generate a UUID at the central site, and then 'marry' it to something unique on the client system. People often use the MAC address of the ethernet interface, but that can fail in the (rare) instance when the network card is replaced. – Peter Rowell Jan 25 at 18:31

closed as off topic by Glenn Nelson, ElYusubov, Walter, GlenH7, Dynamic Jan 25 at 23:08

Questions on Programmers Stack Exchange are expected to relate to software development within the scope defined in the FAQ. Consider editing the question or leaving comments for improvement if you believe the question can be reworded to fit within the scope. Read more about closed questions here.

1 Answer

up vote 3 down vote

First thing to understand is you can never prevent users from pirating, so focus on making it easier for honest users to do the right thing.

Can you get away with just a generated key which you can verify against something inside your program code, or do you need the added security of online validation? For the latter, consider the costs of hosting such a validation yourself or does it make sense to purchase a hosted solution for that?

A lot of these things are based on your own requirements and how much time/money you can spend on it, while still keeping your product profitable. Sometimes it makes sense to not even go down that route at all. Sell for a very low price (and with that expect to sell millions, you can still make a high profit on what you did and could skip licenses all together.

share|improve this answer
Thanks for your reply! After some research I've found that, yes, it would probably be too expensive to use online validation. I'm only expecting 200 or so purchases within the first month. I'm still trying to figure out how to do ...well how you described; "...verify against something inside your program code". I looked at a program called winlicense which creates a .reg which I guess I'd bundle with the digital download. Can you recommend another similar offline method of validation? – slothzen Jan 26 at 18:46

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.