L I C E N S I N G
Lost licenses – What now?
My dog ate my dongle.” What sounds like a poor excuse is actually the start of a true story I like to tell. Or almost true, because
the dog did not eat the dongle, but a piece of paper with the dongle password. Whatever the dog ate, the story illustrates how
people can lose licenses or license containers, or access to their license containers.
With CodeMeter, license containers are called
CmContainers” and come in the form of sep-
arate hardware (CmDongle), encrypted license
files bound to a known device (CmActLicense),
or user accounts in the cloud (CmCloudCon-
tainer). Independent software developers can
choose which CmContainer types to provide to
their users; they can mix and match CmContain-
er types to their liking, let their users decide, or
set specific rules, such as regional restrictions.
Depending on the CmContainer, licenses might
get lost in several ways. In all of these scenarios,
developers will want to help their users quickly
and ideally automatically, without need for any
manual action on their part. At the same time,
they want to avoid the potential outcome that
the users or “finders” of the lost license have
access to more licenses than they legitimately
own.
Automatic Replacement
CodeMeter License Central plays a key role for
automating this process. As the developer, you
decide whether users are allowed to replace li-
censes in another CmContainer (irrespective of
the type in question) and how often the users
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can do so by themselves. The restriction can be
a finite number of licenses or an enforced wait
period before trying another recovery. If you
know that your user base typically replaces their
hardware e.g. every three years, a replacement
at the start of the period and again after two
years would be a reasonable timeframe that
keeps the need for support down. You can, of
course, allow additional license replacements
manually at any time to show your goodwill
where you believe it warranted.
When using CmActLicenses, you can also put
in place certain rules for replacing licenses in a
new CmActLicense on the same device. Again,
you define the initial number and the minimum
hold period before another license replacement
is allowed. You can also choose the hardware
properties that show whether the user is still
using the same machine. This reduces the risk
of a continued fraudulent use of the old, al-
legedly lost CmActLicense. Even if a lost license
was used alongside its replacement, it would
normally be bound to the same computer,
which constitutes no real threat for single user
licenses. This allows you to be more liberal
with the restrictions than you would be with
license replacements in any other CmContainer.
Again, you have the power to authorize manual
replacements at any time.
Automating the manual authorization process
via SOAP is an appealing option. In this case,
you would not allow any automatic replace-
ment, and instead ask the user to contact a
portal that checks the criteria defined by you
before deciding whether the user is entitled to
an automatic replacement. If this is the case,
the replacement can be released transparently
via SOAP, using a completely automated work-
flow.
Blacklist
When using automatic license replacements in
a new CmContainer, you can either allow the
process for the entire existing CmContainer or
only for the specific licenses to be recovered.
You can also put the affected CmContainer
on a blacklist, using one of three options for
applying the blacklist to the old CmContainer:
1. CodeMeter License Central can generate
an automatic update (as a honeypot trap)