What is your thoughts for distributing applcation?

What is your thoughts for distributing applcation?
I have developed an application using vb6 and oracle.
Suppose;
I want to sell this to one of my client say "X", I have give this application as either exe or installatable file.

Now what can i do so if client "X" gives this exe to any one else say "Y" then Mr "Y" can't use that without my involvement.

Baic is that I do not want Mr. X to sell this application to Mr Y; only I can.

to achieve this what can I do with my code.

Well, Mr Y should no that Mr X did not make the application and has no right to sell it. What would you say if I told you I was selling Microsoft software. That would be illegal and you can sue Mr X.

Use an msi for you installation and provide a license key that they have to enter to install the product.

You shouldn't need any more protection than that, as that is what most commercial software uses.

If someone really wants to crack your program they probably will but why would they do that to your little program when they can crack Windows or MS Office.

thanks for the reply,

if i give the key Mr X can give it to mr Y right.

Now come to reply #2 why mr X sell to mr Y;
suppose mr x and y both have same kind of business then if Mr Y liked that way of using mr X then he can ask mr x to give it to me.
if x and y are a close friend then they can share this exe or installation file with key.

I am just discussing the scenarion.
because i need to sell an application;
Is it possible to protect my application.

You can't protect it 100%. You have to calculate with some loses from the start.

How big is your software, how do you distribute it to clients and how much does it cost? If the cost warrants it, you can use USB dongles for software protection. Just Google > "USB software protection"

Sure, you make your application very annoying.

You require a challenge code. Their machine generates a challenge code based on their hardware. Then your application transmit this via TCP to your servers. Your servers check the registration code, and if valid, generate a response to the challenge. This is sent back to the client's application, unlocking the software.

Now then, Mr Y tries this. The registration code and challenge(it's a different machine, so it's a different challenge) and sent off to your servers. The registration code is found! The challenge is looked up, and detects that the challenge is different! It refuses to provide the response, and Mr Y's application does not unlock, instead displaying a message, "The registration key you've provided has already been used. Please contact bpforum's_company_phone#/email for support."

Then again, the same would happen to Mr X when trying to install on multiple machines. Consider how restrictive you want your licenses. It's not inconceivable that Mr Y, upon pirating your software, determines it a very fine product and would love to purchase it from you. Don't think that's realistic? Well, Microsoft wouldn't be around if it weren't.

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Sure, you make your application very annoying.

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Yes Exactly ! think of Microsoft Genuine advantage, incredibly annoying and for a small company or lone developer potentially would lead to you losing all your business.

If (for instance) you implemented it, and i was interested in your software, and i could get the same thing your are selling from someone else with out a challenge code i would !

We have had quite a few people ask the same question in the past and the answer is always the same, you can only protect so much, companies just do not sell on software to other companies and as for individuals think of it like free marketing, the more known your product gets the more legitimate customers you would likely get.

So i would seriously recommend that you do not do anything silly when trying to protect your software, most people are honest and will buy it. Those that copy it probably wouldn't have bought it in the first place.