How to license my .net application (remotely, but occasionally connected) ?

Question

I have a .net application (c#, Winform and libraries) that I want people to download from the Internet freely. But once installed they'll only be able to run it if I give them a license (and I want to be able to give different licenses according to what feature I want to unlock). I also want the license to be time-limited. After it expires it should get renewed over the internet automatically. I want to control from a centralized server which licenses can get renewed and which ones cannot. I don’t want to rely on an Internet connection every time the user opens the application, but rather only when the locally stored license is expired and a renewal is needed. Any recommendations on how to program such functionality? Thanks, Nestor

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Something like .NET Access Control Service would be good, except that I don't want to hit the Internet every time the application is run, but rather, say, once per week.

Answer 1

Check this link out: Licensing

Would this help you ? You could override the GetLicense and re-implement the rules for checking the license to be as flexible as you want it to be ...

Answer 2

CryptoLicensing For .Net licenseing software does most of the things you need:

• TIme limited licenses
• Renewal over Internet via License Service controlled by you
• Disable specific licenses so that they cannot get renewed.

Answer 3

I'd add Client Application Services. It can also work offline, by caching login information for a configurable amount of time.