Risk of license-key stolen

I think it would be more sure to NOT show the complete license-key in the About-screen. The chance of someone who is able to login in my computer at my customer can steal it easily.

You MAY NOT install the software on customer's systems. This is a LICENSE VIOLATION. The license is granted to you, not to your customers!!

If you would like to use the software on a customer system, you must have the customer purchase the software. This is not your system, it is owned by your customer and by installing stuff on their system you are placing them in a legal limbo because ultimately they are responsible for what they run on their system and they can be sued and punished for stuff they run illegally, which is the case here.

Please see my message here http://www.softtreetech.com/support/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=22702
When replying to your message, I assumed that you are referring to multiple systems owned by you, and never meant to include your customer's systems.

Thanks

I try to explain the problem.

I think you have thousands of freelancers as customers for SQL Assistant. These freelancers buy it, because it helps in their dayly work. Dayly work means to work 99% of time at the place of the customer: there are the databases, there is the control of the customer over his data.

Only a few customers (like mine) trust the freelancer to use their own notebook in his company-network, so most of the freelancers have to work at "their" customers PC (meaning: the freelancer is the only one working at that PC, but potentially another IT-person could login also).

In my case I can use my own notebook, but if you stay with your opinion that a license is a not a one-user-a-time but a one-user-a-time-only-on-owned-mashine license, than most freelancers can not use it in dayly work.
One day I will get another customer where I can not use my notebook: the normal situation of most freelancers. And than I will be worried that I bought your license.

I think you should think about that and trust a bit more about the fair use of the licenses we bought.

I understand your reasoning, but... Software License is essentially a direct legal contract between the maker of the product and the licensee. Such contracts virtually never allow licenses to install or use the licensed software on third party systems without prior written approval from the maker. This case is no exception. What you are doing is called illegal redistribution of the software and the license explicitly prohibits that type of use.

Please uninstall the software from your customer systems, ask them to licenses it or take full ownership of the end system and make sure other people do not use it without your consent (not the other way around). The bottom line, your customer may not have it on their systems without obtaining a direct license.

Please understand, there is nothing I can do to change the legal terms or change the way the software industry is working.

As I wrote: I use it on my (!) notebook, because my customer allows my (!) notebook in his network, so my license is used in the way it is allowed.

That's fine. Sharing network is not the same as sharing your system. Yet, in your first post you have indicated some kind of system sharing.

	Quote:
	someone who is able to login in my computer at my custome

That was a commonplace (do not know if it is the right English word), because next year my customer will change and then the problem will arise.

I just read your license again. Where exactly is it written that it is a license for a person and his *own hardware*?

I wonder a bit about your words, because I did not remember it from reading. And I do not know it from many other software-products. If I buy Windows XP I can install it on one hardware and that can be the hardware of my friends, parents etc.
Your product is licensed by person and you are happy if you are sure that only one person (=one license) use it at a time.

For example: if my customer buys a license and installs it on one computer, this computer can be used by hundredst of people but only *one* at a time. Even if I would install it on "my" PC at my customer, only *one* person uses it a time: me (because if I am at home I do not use it; it is my free time). It makes no difference for you. And on the other hand: the customercompany would not license it to a special person which is changing all the time because of jobchange. It would buy a license for a computer and an abstract user a time.

I don't think that you should waste a thought about license as long as the customer pays and uses it the one-person-way. ;-)

And if you change your license to make it more strict I think many freelancer-developers will not buy it any more in the future. It makes no sense for them. And who else as the freelancers who know the product should bring the companys to the thought that they should buy it also... ;-)