Team LiB
Previous Section Next Section

Chapter 37. Licensing and Intellectual Property

IN BRIEF

When you are learning a new technology, such as .NET, there are many different approaches to absorbing the new material. You might seek out training and instruction from people who have more experience, you (obviously) read books, and you might check the Internet for newsgroups, communities, and samples. All of this gives you a wealth of knowledge and information to teach you how to write your code and create your applications.

But what do you do if you need to protect your applications and your investment in their development? We often spend so much time trying to figure out how to code our applications that we forget that we are indeed trying to make money. How do you make sure that only people who have paid for your applications or your controls can make use of them? How do you protect your application from prying eyes and curious hackers?

This chapter will show you how to create licensing schemes for your controls and how to protect your application's sensitive code.

WHAT YOU NEED

REQUIRED SOFTWARE

.NET Framework SDK v1.1 Visual Studio .NET 2003 with C# installed

RECOMMENDED HARDWARE

PC that meets .NET SDK minimum requirements

SKILLS REQUIRED

C# and .NET familiarity


LICENSING AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AT A GLANCE

Licensing Overview

755

  
 

Licensing Defined

755

Types of Licensing and Verification

756

 

When to License and Protect

755

  

Implementing Custom Licensing

757

  
 

Introduction to the License Provider and License Manager

757

Building Licensed Controls

764

 

Licensed Web Controls Versus Windows Forms Controls

768

 

Creating a License

759

 

Creating a License Provider

760

  

Licensing Implementation Strategies

768

  
 

Deciding on a Licensing Deployment Method

768

Deciding on a License Purchase Method

768

 

Deciding on a Licensing Verification Method

768

Deciding on a Licensing Method

769

Protecting Your Intellectual Property

769

  
 

Protecting Intellectual Property by Hiding Your Licensing Algorithm

769

Protecting Intellectual Property with Alternative Back-Ends

770

 

Protecting Intellectual Property Through Obfuscation

770

  

Summary

771

  

Further Reading

771

  


    Team LiB
    Previous Section Next Section