Protecting my code

[MarkusJNZ]

Hi all, I have a website which I want to release in 2 versions.

The first version will be freeware in exchange for a link back to my
page.

The second version will cost and will not need a link back to my page
at all.

For the freeware version how can I ensure that people do not remove my
link from the .aspx files???

Thanks in advance
Markus

 

[Steve C. Orr [MCSD, MVP, CSM, ASP Insider]]

You can precompile your site so there is no source code for anyone to
modify.
Here's more info on that:
http://www.odetocode.com/Articles/417.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/06/01/ExtremeASPNET/

You can also use obfuscation to make it difficult or impossible for people
to decompile your code.
You could use the one that's built into Visual Studio or use a third party
product which claims to be better, such as these:
http://www.lesser-software.com/ilobf.htm
http://www.9rays.net/cgi-bin/components.cgi?act=1&cid=86
http://www.remotesoft.com/salamander/obfuscator.html
http://www.semdesigns.com/products/obfuscators/csharpobfuscator.html
http://www.wiseowl.com/products/products.aspx

 

[Ben Rush]

I dunno, screen scrape their pages and see if the links are present? Not
sure of the legal ramifications of such a thing so check first....

....I'm not totally sure I know what you're saying.

 

[Guest]

You can't be "sure" - all you can do is scrape their (your app's) page
periodically and find out if the link is still there. Maybe you should
revisit your marketing strategy. Maybe your free version should 'phone home'
every time it starts, and if there is no confirmation of something you need
to get from it, then it would quit.

Peter

 

[Mark Rae]

You can't be "sure" - all you can do is scrape their (your app's) page
periodically and find out if the link is still there. Maybe you should
revisit your marketing strategy. Maybe your free version should 'phone
home'
every time it starts, and if there is no confirmation of something you
need
to get from it, then it would quit.

That would be a much better solution, IMO...

 

[MarkusJNZ]

That would be a much better solution, IMO...

Thanks for your help everyone
Cheers
Markus