Best way to protect Add-on Software?

[da-net]

Quote from mcgene4xpro:

to share with you more details:

the competitor add-ons offer 200-250 $ one time purchase while mine which is 2-3 times much better.

So, what do you think the best way to market it? avoid piracy as much as i can?

FYI, the logic isnot that difficult to be recopied once seen by professionals.

Thanks
McGene

Microsoft's handbook= they originally GAVE AWAY drivers @ trade shows where others were charging for them. This got people to notice them, for the quality of the driver, which gave credibility.Later they priced their software very low to get users hooked. EG: Who remembers OS2 or OS2 Warp, Dr. DOS, IBM DOS?

IF I were in your shoes, I would market the first version @ under $100 and offer a very easy guarantee, plus I would offer a future version discount to anyone that purchases and uses for X months and gives me quality feedback which could be used to improve software (v2.0) or for marketing. My reasons for the pricing;

1...it undercuts the current mkt price and gets you noticed with v1.0...you may steal their customers if yours is truly better

2...someone that would normally try to hack it, probably would anyway, but those that are borderline would justify buying it because of the price

3...more customers would be willing to take a chance at a lower price than a higher one or one that is a continuous cost of business

Quote from goodgoing:

there is no secure way to protect software. hackers are one step ahead. They can break everything, most add-ons in 5 minutes.

this was good advice

 

[mcgene4xpro]

Quote from intradaybill:

Do you think this is a good time to sell trading software? I think this industry has been hit hard both by hackers but also from diminishing demand and skyrocketing supply.

IMO the best way to protect software is to never release it. A Russian kid will have your code up and running free of protection in 10 minutes. A Chinese maybe in 5 minutes. US kids do not do it any more because of severe punishment. Then Chinese, Russian and Eurocheap traders will be using it for free and it loses its edge, which I doubt it had any in the first place. So why should I buy a product that is available for free? It is not the moonies, it is the fact that it has lost its edge.

Save your time for something more productive IMO.

thank you for sharing.. I agree about chinese and Russians hackers.. I like their actually.

However, mine is not a trading software by itself. It isnot a trading platform but it is an add-on that is helpful for traders.

so it isnot standealone software. Also, yes, the supply is very high but i am not sure about the demand. I believe, it has an edge that could be jeoperdized greatly if hackers started their work before i distribute effeciently..

However, it is my first time i be on the other side. So no bad feeling regarding the pirates.

Thanks

 

[mcgene4xpro]

Quote from da-net:

Microsoft's handbook= they originally GAVE AWAY drivers @ trade shows where others were charging for them. This got people to notice them, for the quality of the driver, which gave credibility.Later they priced their software very low to get users hooked. EG: Who remembers OS2 or OS2 Warp, Dr. DOS, IBM DOS?

IF I were in your shoes, I would market the first version @ under $100 and offer a very easy guarantee, plus I would offer a future version discount to anyone that purchases and uses for X months and gives me quality feedback which could be used to improve software (v2.0) or for marketing. My reasons for the pricing;

1...it undercuts the current mkt price and gets you noticed with v1.0...you may steal their customers if yours is truly better

2...someone that would normally try to hack it, probably would anyway, but those that are borderline would justify buying it because of the price

3...more customers would be willing to take a chance at a lower price than a higher one or one that is a continuous cost of business




this was good advice

Thank u very much for your advice. It is very similar to what ihave in my mind. However, i stillnot sure about the advantage of selling over the renting cheep?. Let us compare 100$ one time purchase V0.1 ( which i agree with its logic), and renting it ( under 10-15$ monthly). However, i will try to get a wide marketing plans so i will not only offer one of way of purchase.

eager to hear from you

 

[mcgene4xpro]

Quote from LeeD:

There are 2 ways:
1) Link the addon to something that already can only be used on one computer only. It can be a named broker account, specific license of the charting platform etc. Platform developers go a long way protecting their software from unauthorised use. Some packages require a hardware device to run (say Neoticker), others connect to "License Server" (NinjaTrader), some require connection to a brokerage or datafeed account (eSignal). Some platforms offer addon developers ways to link addon to a specific "platform" license.
2) Build one of the above "protection" tools into the addon itself. An alternative to a hardware device is scanning the user's computer for hardware configuration such as processor type, RAM size, network adapter MAC address etc... but these can be easily duped by deploying the software inside a virtual machine, which can be easily cloned.

Thank you..

If you were me, which way you will go and why?

Thanks

 

[LeeD]

Quote from mcgene4xpro:

Thank you..

If you were me, which way you will go and why?

Thanks

If you develop an addon, it's easier to outsource the "rights management" to whoever developed the charting/trading platform. I would go for option 2 only if one of the following holds:
a) The charting software or broker don't allow option 1 (you may want to allow for some flexibility like checking platform configuration files)
b) You are developing a "crossplatform" addon
c) You belive the addon is more valuable than the charting/trading platform

In most cases extra protection means extra hassle and delays for honest buyers. So, you want to keep these to reasonable minimum.

 

[mcgene4xpro]

Quote from LeeD:

If you develop an addon, it's easier to outsource the "rights management" to whoever developed the charting/trading platform. I would go for option 2 only if one of the following holds:
a) The charting software or broker don't allow option 1 (you may want to allow for some flexibility like checking platform configuration files)
b) You are developing a "crossplatform" addon
c) You belive the addon is more valuable than the charting/trading platform

In most cases extra protection means extra hassle and delays for honest buyers. So, you want to keep these to reasonable minimum.

Thank you , highly valuable opinion.

 

[tradesoftware]

Quote from goodgoing:

Good question with a short answer: there is no secure way to protect software. hackers are one step ahead. They can break everything, most add-ons in 5 minutes.

Wow, it seems that there is no security in that software. I think all nothing is impossible LOL

 

[gettinglucky]

Pey some1 two leek eh "hacked version" on Piratebay.org et al. that also eenkludes eh trojan uv sum sort... Teech ze freeloadeur eh resson, sorta speek...

 

[mcgene4xpro]

Quote from gettinglucky:

Pey some1 two leek eh "hacked version" on Piratebay.org et al. that also eenkludes eh trojan uv sum sort... Teech ze freeloadeur eh resson, sorta speek...

this is wondeful idea LoL

 

[MGJ]

Build hardware. Map some critical sections of your software onto a peripheral device accessed via USB. USB device not present? Software no worky.

It's security by obscurity where obscurity includes "building hardware".

Depending upon your level of paranoia, you can include flash-programmed FPGAs with a "security bit" (example) into your USB peripheral design, to make reverse engineering a couple orders-of-magnitude more difficult.