Licensing system resources

On 02/03/2015 at 15:18, xxxxxxxx wrote:

User Information:
Cinema 4D Version:   R16 
Platform:      Mac OSX  ; 
Language(s) :     C++  ;   PYTHON  ;

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Hello.

I'm making a plugin and I'd like to add a license system...or at least I think I do. I've read this:

https://developers.maxon.net/?p=623

- And I'm feeling a bit out of my depth. Are there any other resources out there which cover this topic that anyone knows of? (perhaps some more recent ones?) - I'm also interested to see how people add licensing functionality to python plugins too.

Thanks,

Adam

On 03/03/2015 at 14:10, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hi supergeordie,

This is not the appropriate subforum for this request, as it does not deal with Cinema 4D's SDK, and you're explicitly stating you are not asking about the article you reference.  I'm therefore transferring your topic to what should be the proper forum.

BTW, any licensing beyond the most simplistic (and hence easy to break) will probably be as complex as the article you're referencing.  There are 3rd party licensing systems out there, but they have SDKs and such, there's no 'shake and bake' licensing of any meaningful strength.

Joey Gaspe
SDK Support Engineer

On 04/03/2015 at 01:57, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hi Joey,

Thanks for your reply and apologies for posting in the wrong section.

It's more than understandable that you get out what you put in when it comes to licensing etc and I guess that answers my question. The article I referenced above has a wealth of really useful information and I'll certainly be using that in addition to any other resources I can find.

To clarify, if I had questions about that specific article say for example, one of the first things would be -  What has replaced the deprecated GeAllocNC (from the licence implementation bit)  etc. Where would be the appropriate place to post? - Does that put me back in SDK help?

Thanks,

Adam

On 04/03/2015 at 08:43, xxxxxxxx wrote:

Hi supergeordie,

Yes, your statements are correct.  Licensing is a tough area, both at the technical and practical levels: make it too strong, and you'll anger your paying clients with difficult limitations and a system that is hard for them to maintain, you'll fry profits on tech support, even if the licensing system is technically perfect.  At the other end, make it too weak, and you mind as well not have put any in place at all, and it will anger your paying customers (especially if there is none).  So, you probably want to put a 'bump in the road' for pirates, but how big and steep the bump requires a tough balancing act.

As for questions, if they're about the Cinema 4D SDK and related development, yes, you may post in "SDK help" for C++ questions, and the "Python development" for Python specific questions.  If you're not sure where, especially if it's not purely Python related, "SDK Help" is the default forum.  This is to keep order for various reasons, especially for users searching for answers to resolved questions.

For instance, you can create a new topic in the SDK Help subforum for GeAllocNC, as you state it used to be in the C4D SDK.

Thanks!

Joey Gaspe
SDK Support Engineer