How do i licence my c# app?

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I am a complete beginner and have only just made my first application in c#, I would like to sell this to a few friends but realise if I sold it to one, he could just give it to the others for free, Therefore I would like the most simple way, and simply explained, way of licencing my app there is, I have had no luck with this so far with links on this site :/

Posted 17-Dec-13 6:19am

Member 10471987

Updated 17-Dec-13 6:48am

PIEBALDconsult

v2

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PIEBALDconsult 17-Dec-13 12:48pm

Why would you do that to your friends? You should give it free to your friends and let them beta test it. You shouldn't even think about charging for it until you see whether or not others think it's worth anything. If your friends, and their friends, don't like it, would you give back their money? Are you willing to lose friends over a few bucks?

As to licensing, that would depend greatly on whether or not you are providing source code, and it doesn't sound like you are.

3 solutions

Solution 2

I think this URL will help for your problem
http://go4answers.webhost4life.com/Example/licensing-csharp-application-19469.aspx[^]
http://www.developer.com/net/csharp/article.php/3074001/Applications-Licensing-using-the-NET-Framework.htm[^]

Posted 17-Dec-13 6:35am

nuke_infer

Updated 17-Dec-13 8:36am

v3

Comments

Member 10471987 17-Dec-13 13:10pm

hii, thanks but I was hoping to be able to make my own because I don't want to spend money on licensing it when I don't know that I will even make the amount I spend back.

Ron Beyer 17-Dec-13 13:30pm

Did you read any of the links at all? The second one is a tutorial about how to make your own. There is also an article here on CP about how to make a licensing system.

Member 10471987 17-Dec-13 14:45pm

yes I did look at them all, and I am looking into that one but I have a feeling it will be another complicated one, but thank you and ill try it and get back to you as soon as I can :)

Solution 3

If you are a beginner and are not sure that you will be able to sell your application, then it probably don't worth to protect it. Usually it is costly is library and/or time to protect a software and many protection are not that safe.

And if the protection is too safe, then it might block legitime users and then you might loose any benefit by having more technical support to do.

By the way, if you are using .NET, you have to be aware that the generated code is not obfuscated by default and it is quite easy to decompile the code particulary if you are a beginner and uses only basic language elements.

Also, if the application logic is not complicated, then someone might be able to cretae a similar application just by creating an application that mimic yours.

If you try to do protection yourself, then either it might you a lot of time to get it right or it might be easily breakable...

Also for a protection to be good against copy you need to validate licenses with a server thus you would typically have to host such server somewhere or use service that is provided by a third party (along its protection library). Thus you might have some monthly fees.

Don't expect to have much free solution in that area that is secure enough... If somewant want to protect its application, then it probably mean that there is money to do with it and thus those that offer protection libraries or services might charge big money for it.

Posted 17-Dec-13 13:38pm

Philippe Mori

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Abhinav S · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-17T06:22:00

Solution 1

A couple of paid services could help you do this -
http://ellipter.com/[^]
http://www.simplesoftwarelicensing.com/[^]

Posted 17-Dec-13 6:22am

Abhinav S

Comments

Member 10471987 17-Dec-13 13:10pm

hii, thanks but I was hoping to be able to make my own because I don't want to spend money on licensing it when I don't know that I will even make the amount I spend back.

Ron Beyer 17-Dec-13 13:31pm

Did you look at any of the links? The second one has a free hobbyist version.