>>I have a little program I'd like to try and sell. I am interested in having a 'key' or some method to stop it being passed from person to person without receiving payment. What is the best way to do this?
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>Grady
>There are books written on this subject.
>Here are a couple of thoughts:
>-Do you want to sell it to a person or to a company? If it's to company, the company might want to buy a company license that allows anyone in the company to use it.
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>-If it's to an individual, do you want to restrict the use to one machine or do you want the individual to be able to use it on many machines?
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>-How much will it cost? Protecting software costing several thousand dollars merits different measures than you'd use to protect something costing fifty dollars.

But which warrants the most stringent protection ? I'd argue the fifty dollar one....

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>-How wide will its appeal be? If your software assists in the diagnosis of rare diseases in tropical fish, it's not likely that it will be copied very often but if it's a popular game, it might be.