The company I work for has a download manager in place that handles distribution, DRM, installation of our products - when a user gets them off our website. However, we're using an clunky system for packaging and protecting our products when we do press releases or make retail CDs.
Part of the antiquation problem is the fact that the automated system that works with the installer- and DRM-creation software we have is a disaster that needs to be put out of my misery.
The list of products that we currently produce, that a new system MUST be capable of producing:
- Retail CDs, with a certain level of obfuscation to make copying difficult.
- Downloadable installers that time out after a few hours of use of the product. After the time has expired, removing and reinstalling the product will leave you still blocked from use.
- Installers that will fail to work after a certain date.
I'd love to be able to just feed a tool the directory where a complete product resides and have the installer generated with a couple command-line operations. (The command-line issue is non-negotiable, as this will be called by an automated tool.)
A single-solution package would be far preferable. Software with royalty-based or per-unit based licensing is not an option.