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Comment by KenanSulayman | Hacker News Reader

Not to sound too negative, but NOPing out the invocation bypasses the licensing. At least in the native version. I like approaches where parts of the app are downloaded after licensing went through and the license key is actually a public key.

But maybe I’m missing the point?

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NOP'ing out the invocation has always been an issue. There are a variety of frameworks for the Mac that make license keys using public/private key pairs, and a simple change to the ASM to return early and report success is easy enough to do.

There is:

https://github.com/glebd/cocoafob

For example, there is one other one that I can't remember the name for off the top of my head.

The respectable frameworks I've seen also offer obsfucation/virtualization to deter tampering. Thats the harder and more critical part.

I think the point you're missing is that this is designed to be used on the server-side so you don't have to roll your own licensing.

It seems to be mainly for APIs that provide a service, not for protecting client-side applications.

> It seems to be mainly for APIs that provide a service, not for protecting client-side applications.

I'm not so sure about that, right at the top of the page is has the line: "For licensing desktop apps, on-premise software, and other digital products." That certainly sounds like it is meant for client side applications.

The FAQ seems to indicate that it's meant for client side apps as well.

You're right, I hadn't actually re-read the page since the last Show HN (when it was just targeted at server-side)

I like this idea. Offer a fully working copy with only a fraction of the features the licensed copy has. Features are "staged" so it builds on previously downloaded content and every download is tied to a unique public key.

This is what online games do with DLC (downloadable content).

Easier said than done because of all the extra work needed to seperate your features into dynamically loaded modules.

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