Hello,
I have never worked on anything like software licensing, but I would like to sell tox I have been developing on for quite a long time. I am looking for licensing option that would only allow for this tox to be used on specific machines (possibly with some date restrictions based on subscription). Offline access is crucial as it should be usable also on locations without internet access.
I really like the way Derivative licensing works and therefore I thought I might first ask if there isn’t some tox licensing solution already provided by Derivative which I am not aware of (I guess there isn’t, but I wanted to ask just in case I would be missing something important).
If not, may I ask whether did someone already tried implementing some licensing into own components? I know this would be question better suitable for some other forums, but I was curious if someone have actually done something similar (and possibly have some recommendations on how to go about it). Thanks
GumRoad offers a license-API for software-prodcuts. This seems pretty streight forward. It also seems to offers a custom_fields-parameter. I suppose you can put the the identifier of the computer in there from the purchase. Not fived to much into it:
Shopfiy also offers this, but requires some more setup on your site:
Pretty sure you could also dive into the PatreonAPI to manage only give active patreons access.
@elburz has (had?) licensing implemented in his nVoid-Components. Maybe he has 3 words on that regard.
In regards of privacy: keep in mind that the privacy-feature of TouchDesigner as it is right now does not play with extensions. A private component with an extension will not allow itself to gain access to load the extensioncode, so you are bound to either using only in/outOPs and custom-params or developing some TCP/SharedMemory way of cummunicating with the comp (UI also works of course.)
Just my 2 cents on Selling though: No a huge fan of this. I thought a little bit about it but in general, the market is not really big enough to make much money of it, compared to actual projects. But having people buying your components brings you somewhat in a position of having to keep track of the product. This results in you somewhat wasting time on keeping your components running.
I personaly just share the stuff I do for everyone to use as they wish. If problems arrise or additional features are wished its always possible to “sponsor” the new feature or hire me for a project. This keeps my mind at ease, brings in bugreports and from a bookkeping-standpoint is also easier (B2B is what I’m looking for).
Thank you very much for these recommendations, I will take a look at them.
I know there are some limitations when using extensions with private components, but I thought I should be fine as long as I don’t need to access extension from outside (from “public” space). Now I am a bit confused. Does this mean I can’t use extension code from within the private component that contains extension? Sorry for stupid question, so far I don’t have access to TD Pro license, so I am just guessing here.
I completely understand this, me neither. I wanted to open-source this project for a long time, but considering the amount of full-time development it required (so far its been 2 years) and the big money investment it needed, I have realized there is no way for me to keep developing it (or at lest maintaining it) without some financial plan…
It surely requires further development, but I feel like it can do some wonderful stuff already so that is why I thought about releasing some version (maybe starting with something like private beta). It is RnD project based in AR / XR area. It tries to solve some issues from this area. There are some big players in this area that have extremely expensive products (which I can’t afford) and therefore I decided to go down the rabbit hole and started building custom solutions within TD.
I believe it features some quite unique concepts that no other solution in this area offers… Therefore I thought there might be a chance of selling this - which would mean I could continue with full-time development.
This mainly is in regards of top-level-extensions. Inside of your private-extension you can do what you want, even go outside. But going inside from the outside sadly results in issues.
I don’t want to discourage you from going this route, just be aware that this is a relatively small market, and the reason for alot of solutions being so expensive is the reason that even that companies do not sell a heap ton of licenses, thous the price has to go up to account for full-time-development.
Just a little thought came up: It might be smarter to offer your AR/XR-Expertise as a service and use your toolset you developed yourself. You can then use a headless CMS to setup a relatively simple license-server yourself without having to rely on external supliers (which will also take a share of your selling). When targeting B2B this gets easier enyway.
Oh snap, I haven’t considered this Thank you very much for information, I will have to rethink some modules…
Yeah, you are right, it is a small market. Providing service sounds good too, I gotta think about it I thought it would be great to get it to more people out there (that might be looking for some similar solution), but it certainly is quite complicated task.
Just chiming in that we had used Gumroad API. It’s easy enough to setup, but I’d agree that the hurdles of protecting something like that are tough to justify financially on their own. You’ll see a lot of folks who have sold toolkits at some points have eventually turn them into open source projects (and then they charge for custom development and implementation) or packing them with other services (like how our tools are now part of The HQ PRO). Doesn’t mean you couldn’t do it, but I think most folks (myself included) under-estimate what @alphamoonbase mentioned about having to maintain your tools and provide general troubleshooting for them (often for free if you’re selling them).
Thank you very much for information, I will have to rethink some modules…