SoftwareShield License Models
SoftwareShield defines a "License Model" as the terms and conditions
(or rights and restrictions) that you grant a user and/or customer of
your software as defined by your business model. More specifically,
"supported SoftwareShield license models" refers to the available license
model enforcement options the SoftwareShield System SDK provides to
your software.
The SoftwareShield System SDK supports numerous license models. In
fact, the system is designed to be so flexible, that developers can
combine multiple license models together in arbitrary configurations
to achieve a virtually limitless number of customized license models.
Licensing Models
Below, you will see a number of the fundamental license models that
are supported. Keep in mind that these fundamentals can be combined
in numerous ways to create the exact model your business requires.
- Copy Protected (Node-locked) Licenses - This model
allows you to lock a license tightly to an individual machine based
on its FingerPrint.
- Seat Based (Bulk) Licenses - This model allows
you to deliver a "token of ownership" of your software which represents
an arbitrary number of activations (seats).
- Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) Licenses - This
model allows you to deliver a "token of ownership" to your software
(a Serial Number) which can be physically packaged in a box for retail
sale.
- Time Limited Trial Licenses - This model allows
you to deliver a time limited trial version of your software that
expires at some arbitrary point in time after the user first runs
the software. When expired, your software can either stop functioning
completely or change to some other model.
- Absolute Expiration Licenses - This model allows
you to deliver a time limited trial version of your software that
expires at some absolute point in time (regardless of when the user
first runs the software). When expired, your software can either stop
functioning completely or change to some other model.
- Demo Licenses - This model allows you to deliver
a feature limited version of your software.
- Periodic Expiration (Leased) Licenses - This model
allows you to deliver a version of your software that repeatedly expires
after some arbitrary number of days, weeks or months has passed. Customers
must repeatedly re-activate in order to continue using your software.
- Scalar (Edition Based) Licenses - This model allows
you to deliver a single deployment of your software that can "behave"
in one of several different "modes" or "editions". The editions are
normally "scalar" because one edition has all the features of the
edition before it - plus some.
- Pay-Per-Feature Licenses - This model allows you
to deliver software for which a user must individually pay for features.
"Features" can be as simple as the functionality behind a button click
or the ability to dynamically load a binary module. In this model
features are completely independent from one another and can be individually
purchased and activated or treated as a group.
- Pay-Per-Use (of a feature) Licenses - This model
is an extension of the above Pay-Per-Feature model and allows you
to deliver software for which a user must individually pay for each
use of a feature. Again, features can be as simple as the functionality
behind a button click or the ability to dynamically load a binary
module. In this model features are completely independent from one
another and the uses for each of them can be individually purchased
and activated.
- Pay-Per-Use (by execution) Licenses - This model
allows you to deliver software for which the user must pay every time
they execute it.
- Combination Licenses - All of the above models
can be combined in a myriad of ways to achieve a huge number of precise
models to suit your particular business needs.
The free trial version of the SoftwareShield System contains several
example programs that demonstrate the various license models.
Try our license
management system,
download a free trial of the SoftwareShield
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