Jar Store - prevent from copying

Question

We are going to create Jar Store the way like App Store works, but for Java Developers.

Everyone will able to submit and sell custom .jar library which solves some little problem, but solves it very good to save other developer's work time.

The only undecided question is how to prevent .jar copying or publishing bought .jar to the Net.

EDIT: This can probably achieved by using strong copyright policy? Suggest please!

EDIT 2: I imagine Steve Jobs asking:

How we can prevent iPhone Apps from copying?

— You can't it's just a files on the iPhone which can be easily copied by anyone.

Answer 1

you can't don't even spend any more time on trying.
rephrase your question to

I want to restrict someone copying a plain text file.

Same problem with a .jar file. You can put all the legal restrictions you want, but it won't stop anyone from making a copy of your file if they are able to use it. Go ask the RIAA how effective they are at stopping the copying of .mp3 files.

I would also offer what do you think you can offer than the Open Source community doesn't already offer in the Java world? The Java ecosystem is very mature and very full featured from a library stand point. I can't imagine that anything you offer, that might be the least bit innovative, some open source project won't spring up and create a free open source version of.

Answer 2

Whoa! Did we just go through a 12-year time warp?
This is exactly what JavaBeans was intended to do, back in 1996-7.

It was intended to solve a technical challenge of pluggable, re-usable code, which would of course engender a vibrant and lucrative third-party marketplace of drop-in components. People would make,sell, buy, and consume these re-usable pieces of code.

Then, that fantasy was replicated when server-side Java grew in popularity. The idea behind numerous companies was that they'd act as brokers and commercial exchanges for re-usable pieces of code. The names of these companies escape me now. There were many.

Most of them faded, and some of them evolved their business model away from acting as an commercial exchange, and towards selling software directly. In particular, they moved toward selling the thing they had hoped to run their business on (their "ERP"), as a piece of software that enterprises could use internally - a component repository supporting re-use within an enterprise.

Darn! The names of the big companies that made this transition escape me now.

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An interesting question is, why did App Store succeed (wildly!) while the vision for JavaBeans stores, or stores for enterprise Javva components, never caught on.

I have my theories but... not least among the reasons is the phenomenon of "open source" - where you can get pretty darn good re-usable components for free. Before you go tilting at this windmill, I suggest you study some industry history!

Answer 3

With this business idea copyright protection in both technical and legal way must be you core competences since this is the main part for your added value.

If you prevent something from copying, how are people supposed to distribute their software? I'm not writing enterprise solutions to run only on my notebook.

Answer 4

For this to work you need to have content. Really good content. With excellent documentation.

I would imagine this is the first obstacle you need to tackle.