The SoftwareShield System is a full featured licensing and copy-protection system for software developers who create Windows applications on the x86 platform. The SoftwareShield System allows you to make copy-protected, demo, trial, pay-per-use, leased and many other versions of your software.
License Models You Can Use:
Trial (evaluation licenses) - A time limited license used for evaluation purposes. The Trial's functionality may be less than the standard product in which case this is a combined demo/trial. The day of expiration is generally set on the day the license is issued. Alternatively, the demo may expire after a certain number of days after installation or after it has been used a certain number of times - or combinations of all three.
Time-limited (lease) - Vendors can issue licenses with a specific expiration date. This is used for product evaluations and product leases. Alternatively, vendors can issue licenses that repeatedly expire to enforce a periodic lease payment.
Demo (evaluation licenses) - A limited functionality version used for evaluation purposes. The demo's functionality is generally less than the standard product.
Enable/disable product features - In general, a product is defined as having a set of licensed "features." In this way, common features may be licensed across different products. This also allows a single set of product binaries to be licensed as a limited functionality "lite" version, a "standard" version and a "pro" version to give greater product "depth."
Pay-per-use - License fees are based upon actual usage. The measurement of usage may be based upon computer metrics (CPU use, time running, etc.) or upon metrics tied to the nature of the application such as the number of times feature X has been executed.
Node-locked (named-host) - Software is licensed for unlimited concurrent use on a single computer system.
Countless combinations are possible, allowing you to create the exact license you need.