Method for providing a trail period on a program

[Larry Bates]

My post has gotten some really varied responses.
I've been writing software for over 30 years
so I know that there is no "fool-proof" way
of doing what I want.  But I thought someone
may have come up with an "acceptable" solution.
I contribute to this newsgroup on a regular
basis and thought I would at least ask.

I find the idea that you can give the software
away and charge for support an interesting one.
If you write REALLY good software with REALLY
good documentation that provides REALLY good
tracing and debugging support (so users can
track down their own problems), what are you
going to charge for?

The reason I wanted to put a trial period on
my software was that I may have the opportunity
to place it on the CDROM with a hardware device
that is being sold.  I would like every end
user to have the opportunity of trying out my
add-on package.  I am however, not prepared to
let them run it forever for free.  If it provides
value to them, I believe they should purchase a
license.  This may put me in the minority on
a Python site, but that's the way I feel.

Regards,
Larry Bates
Syscon, Inc.


"Steve" <dippyd at yahoo.com.au> wrote in message
news:407CF4F0.4020604 at yahoo.com.au...
> Ben Finney wrote:
> > On Thu, 1 Apr 2004 17:46:12 -0600, Larry Bates wrote:
> >
> >>I'm searching for a good way to provide a "trail period" (something
> >>like 90 days) for a commercial application that I'm writing.  I'd like
> >>something that can easily stop working 90 days after installation.
> >
> >
> > Why do you want to break your user's programs to gain money?  Will they
> > not pay for your work without their programs breaking?  What does that
> > say about the value of your work?
>
> In fairness, it might not be Larry's work that he isn't
> confident about, but the honesty of his customers.
>
> Larry, how foolproof do you want this trial period to
> be? How sophisticated are your clients? How motivated
> are they to crack it? What are your motives for wanting
> to disable the program? Are you sure your business
> model is the best way?
>
> For example, perhaps you would be better off
> distributing a free version with reduced functionality,
> with the additional functionality only in the non-free
> version.
>
> If you want a foolproof mechanism for disabling the
> program after the trial period, then Python is probably
> not the language for you. Actually, a sufficiently
> motivated hacker will find some way to crack your
> protection no matter what you do.
>
> Besides, there is one other thing you should consider.
> You're not Microsoft. Your biggest problem isn't people
> ripping you off by not paying for your software, it is
> that people don't even know your software exists.
> Perhaps it is worth letting people make free copies in
> order to spread the word. Don't think of it as being
> ripped off, think of it as advertising.
>
> Just a few thoughts for you to consider.
>
>
> -- 
> Steven D'Aprano
>
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