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License protection (DRM) of MS Office add-ins

Asked by hippohood in Microsoft Office Suite, Installation, Intellectual Property

Tags: Office; license; DRM; VBA; add-ins; Excel; Powerpoint

We have a few of add-inses (mainly, for Excel and Powerpoint), which contain sets of handy functions and routines. Almost all of them are purely VBA projects and do not use external modules like DLL.

Our diverse clients are interested to buy hese add-inses. We don't mind to sell, but need to have them well protected from copying and put distribution restrictions. On the other side we have no resources and competency to code all the things which are needed for proper copyright protection.

I know that there are many online services which, which offer simple-to-use relatively inexpensive services on software encryption and delivery (copyright protection developer tools, license key generation, sales track and etc.), for example UniKey SDK, Armadillio SoftwarePassport, Avangate CodeBox.

So far as I see, all these services require software to be compiled using an IDE (C++, VB Studio and etc.) or have an executable file ready. But we don't want to redevelop the VBA subs and functions (it would add another level of complexity and require extra resources for support).

Ideally, we wish have the full scope of service, which is provided by CodeBox using our ready add-ins (e.g, XLA) files. These services should ensure that
- we know how many copies of our software are sold and we can be sure that hey can be used only by those who bought them
- user-friendly setup and activation
- our modules can not be decoded and/or changed
- easy on-line activation, no use of dongles
- service provider keeps track of licenses and etc.

I believe that today there are should services like this, but I couldn't identify them :(. May be I am looking in a wrong place, or ask wrong questions? I am looking for specific service providers with references.

Thanks in advance
[+][-]11/12/09 12:37 PM, ID: 25808622Expert Comment

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[+][-]11/12/09 05:46 PM, ID: 25810712Author Comment

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[+][-]11/12/09 09:45 PM, ID: 25811646Expert Comment

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[+][-]11/12/09 09:49 PM, ID: 25811662Expert Comment

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[+][-]11/19/09 01:49 PM, ID: 25865444Author Comment

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