RabidHaMsTeR.Org

Yeah, not a bad idea at all.

I'm also suffering from the same kind of situation - while I'm not a poor student, with the US -> UK exchange rate still up at 1.8, we're talking $368, which for personal use is a hell of a lot.... went looking for purchasing info after using it for 5 mins, partly because of the nag, but mostly because it was so f'in good!!

The dongle idea is good, however, that still promotes the fact that users of the free version, or even a cheaper non-commercial version, would be faced with a nag notice. However, what I'd recommend is something along these lines - three different levels:

1. Unlicensed, free - the general public.
2. Licensed personal use - people like me.
3. Licensed commercial use - VJ's, Night Clubs, etc.

Doesn't sound like anything new so far, does it. However, with levels 2 & 3, if it's not being done already for the current commercial licenses, collect registrant information and have it displayed in the software. Show the user name (and company name if applicable) that it's registered to, and the registration date, along with the non-commercial use only warning for the personal version.

It's not a perfect deterrant, but it could help a lot. Use of encrypted registration keys could help, more extreme methods (building it into the software) could prove too costly for the effort.

I realise this opens up a whole new bunch of questions, but I think if you offered a cheaper personal-use option, you'd get more cash coming in, because there are going to be a lot more personal users than there are VJ's. WinAMP shows 263,048 downloads so far of the R4 plugin, making the (somewhat wild) assumption that those are individual users, if 0.01% of those users registered, at $25 a pop, That's $650 in your pocket. R2 is in the Top 25 downloads, R2e & R4 in the Top 100 - sounds like there's many satisfied users out there who could shell out a few $$$ without being horrendously out of pocket.

To an extent you're still putting a good amount of trust in customer honesty, and it sucks that there's dishonest people out there, it's a problem faced by the entire software industry. I still think though that the number of users out there using it illegally is still low enough that you're only losing out by not offering the personal registration option. I could be wrong though.

... Finally, one other alternative which has already been suggested, is to build in such features for the commercial version that the section of the market it applies to would be stupid not to shell out - things like the DMX support, the ability to talk to Live PA software, multi-display support (if not already in there)... I'm not in that business, but I'm sure there's other features that would be appreciated.

So.... I'll shut up now.

At the shows I work at, we use this little USB to DMX converter to have a PC handle all our stage/dance lighting.. I can get you the specs on the converter if you're interested..

And yes, being able to link R4 to DMX would be sweetness =D

Oh ya, and the show company would definately buy a license or two and the dongle, for our shows ;>

Yep, its on p2p. However a newer version will be coming out soon. I'm sure it will get cracked too, but the way they have cracked it does mean that no-one will have a key to get the new version working.

Problem is that whatever I do, someone will crack R4. it was done with R2e Pro too.

The scene idea is good, but suffers from a bit of a problem - all scenes in R4 are customizable, so people can just remove the message. I'd have to add something to check that each of the extra scenes was ok when R4 loaded.

I'm thinking of re-doing the R4 selling style though. I'll be producing a stand-alone box with R4 in, which will be unix based and so pretty useless for people to crack. That'll sell for a lot of money - like the Hippo. There will also be a cheaper R4 for the home user and non-profit user (so its not worth cracking), which will have a load of features removed (but not scenes).