How to protect web site and sell it?

[snowhall]

Hello,

We want to sell our web site script and looking for technologies for make it sell security that one copy can work on one domain name only. Could you please help us with a way to do it?

And one question about it. How to sell script on many "scripts catalogues" web sites? For example, if I need to generate licence code for every buyer, how to do it..?

Web site made in PHP and I would like to keep ability to edit files by buyer, so I do not want to use Zend or other compilers.

[Dan Grossman]

Without using Zend or IonCube or something like that, you're not protecting yourself. Anyone can go in and delete whatever code you add to check for a valid license. You can make it pervasive throughout the program so that it's hard to remove, but that adds complexity for you and for your users when they want to edit the code.

Another option is to not put any protections in the code at all. Your customers don't want DRM, they don't want to know what happens when your licensing system breaks and you're not there anymore to give them a new key or your licensing server is no longer online. DRM hurts the people that buy your scripts, while the pirates will readily remove whatever protection you add and distribute it anyway, so you're not hurting them.

[snowhall]

So, the best way I see to make very good service (support, install and etc.) that buyer will really like to pay for it?

[Green Moon]

I agree that the best way to insure that you get sales instead of people simply stealing your script is to provide good support. Still, a percentage will simply take it without paying, but I also question whether they would have ever paid anyway or would have just found another free or stolen script. You haven't necessarily lost a sale because there was never a sale to be had.

[Dan Grossman]

It's worked for me. I sell different licenses but the truth is it's up to the customer to honor those licenses. There's no code enforcing them.

Despite that, I sell hundreds of copies, and the piracy distribution has been pretty limited. What piracy does happen hasn't been from a paying customer giving it away, but a few purchases made with stolen credit cards. As Green Moon said, the people on the forums they share pirated scripts at wouldn't have paid either way. So I just ignore them and focus on converting visitors that do spend money into paying customers, and making sure they're happy so they'll refer more customers.

[AnthonySterling]

So I just ignore them and focus on converting visitors that do spend money into paying customers, and making sure they're happy so they'll refer more customers.

Great advice Dan, sometimes this is lost in a lot of eCommerce.

[_matrix_]

Hi,

I dont know how good it is..

http://phplockit.com/

But its a cost effective solution, at the very least keeping the honest theif at bay.

[AlexDawson]

Another option is to not put any protections in the code at all. Your customers don't want DRM, they don't want to know what happens when your licensing system breaks and you're not there anymore to give them a new key or your licensing server is no longer online. DRM hurts the people that buy your scripts, while the pirates will readily remove whatever protection you add and distribute it anyway, so you're not hurting them.

This is something I agree with entirely, I have yet to see a single solution where counter measures against pirates have proven effective over any sustained period of time.

[logic_earth]

Hi,

I dont know how good it is...

Its garbage, nuf said. All it does is base64 encode it with some character substitution. All you need to do is decode one file then the rest can be automated.

Just LOL from PHP LockIt!'s FAQ:

...sophisticated encoding of your PHP scripts.

I didn't know base64 was sophisticated.

[snowhall]

It's worked for me. I sell different licenses but the truth is it's up to the customer to honor those licenses. There's no code enforcing them.

Despite that, I sell hundreds of copies, and the piracy distribution has been pretty limited. What piracy does happen hasn't been from a paying customer giving it away, but a few purchases made with stolen credit cards. As Green Moon said, the people on the forums they share pirated scripts at wouldn't have paid either way. So I just ignore them and focus on converting visitors that do spend money into paying customers, and making sure they're happy so they'll refer more customers.

I think it's best help. I was thinking the same solution, just looking for customers who will by it..

[nimasdj]

Just LOL from PHP LockIt!'s FAQ:

I didn't know base64 was sophisticated.

with the saying above, I assume they are teenages who just started php learning and still very basic in php. how much they charge for the product? I am intersted to buy this very secure software!