OCX Licensing

[lintz]

Our company is looking at purchasing a charting OCX control which has 3 levels of licensing:

• Up to 100 users
• Up to 1000 users
• Unlimited users

If we went with the 100 users license but 500 of our customers actually installed and used it, how would the company we purchased the OCX control from know it's being used by more than 100 users?

[timeshifter]

Try installing something from Adobe that has a two user license on three computers. They know.

[lintz]

Just curious how they would be able to track it

[Andrew G]

When you install one of their products, they require validation over the internet. I assume your details are sent to the server and checked to see if you've installed it too many times or not. For OCXs, I doubt they'll have validation so they probably won't be able to track it, but I don't know much in this area, so its just an educated guess.

[mendhak]

That's assuming the OCX does validation over the Internet. In addition, you probably want to monitor the downloads from your own website. When it reaches 100, make the application unavailable, or raise an "alert" to contact the sales team of your company, who in turn can acquire another 100 licenses. Or unlimited.

[Hack]

I would suggest just eliminating the problem and starting with 1000 users while keeping open the option of moving to unlimited.

If your app is making your company money, there is no reason when the OCX you are using on this money making app should not be making the people that made the control money as well.