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Electronic License Management (ELM)

Electronic License Management (ELM) is a core feature of SOLO Server, which allows you to maintain control of your software after it leaves your possession. It also allows you to automate the disbursement of software updates while optionally collecting usage information and verifying that a customer's license is still valid. Instant Protection PLUS 3 allows your customers to activate online with SOLO Server. The Instant Protection PLUS 3 "Start my application as a trial" options does not use ELM features.

Activation

The heart of the Instant Protection PLUS 3 software licensing and copy protection is product activation. To utilize ELM features, the software must be activated when installed on a new computer. Instant Protection PLUS 3 performs an activation through the exchange of numeric values, which is a challenge-response mechanism. You can automate the exchange of these codes by using Instant Protection PLUS 3 or by using SOLO Server. These codes are only capable of carrying a very limited, numeric payload, so multiple licensing requirements may require multiple activations.There are three ways to activate your software with Instant Protection PLUS 3:

• Activate Online: The customer will enter a License ID and Password into the Instant Protection PLUS 3 activation dialog, which will validate with SOLO Server to validate, and then activate the software automatically.
• Activate Manually: Through a manual exchange of codes by phone, fax, or email, the software can be activated if no internet connection is available.
• Activate From Another Computer: If the computer to be activated doesn't have Internet connection, the software can create a request file that can be transferred to another computer that does have internet connection. This will validate the activation and send a registry file from SOLO Server which must then be transferred back to the computer that generated the request file.

Single build with multiple activation types

With Instant Protection PLUS 3, you can create one build of you application that can be activated in different ways to change the state of the license for a computer or user. These activation types correspond to different Trigger Codes. Creating, maintaining, and distributing different builds of your application, where each build fulfills a unique set of licensing requirements, would result in a significant amount of unnecessary effort.

Periodic license validation

To ensure your customers are using a valid license, you can periodically have the software validate with SOLO Server using the "Query SOLO Server to periodically validate the license status" option. If a customer activates your software, and a few weeks later you find the license was purchased with a stolen or lost credit card, you can remotely revoke the license status. Another scenario could be that a customer has activated your application, and is requesting a new activation claiming his or her original computer is broken and had to be replaced (see the deactivation section below). Should you encounter situations like the ones described here, you can disable an individual system previously activated or the entire license (and all systems activated with it), and then the system revoked will soon no longer be licensed or able to run.

Additionally, some applications may require periodic/time-limited licenses. SOLO Server's rich e-commerce features can help you automate accepting payments (even automatic, recurring payment) while making it possible for your software to automatically update its expiration date.  So for example, you can have your customers only use the licensed application or service for 30 days before payment is necessary again. Once the next payment is processed after those 30 days, your application can automatically check with SOLO Server for a new expiration date without requiring customers to go through the process of activating again. This level of automation gives you and your users the simplest and most convenient experience possible.

Deactivation & transfer

You can choose to allow deactivation of your software, which will allow customer to transfer their license to a different machine. An example of when this functionality is when a customer has encountered a hardware/computer failure that renders the prior activation unusable, or if they simply want to transfer the activation for another reason.  When deactivating remotely through SOLO Server, the protected application will see that it has been deactivated the next time it validates with SOLO Server, which ensures the customer is getting any extra activations.

View the deactivating licenses with SOLO Server topic for more information.