Addon branding and removal

[Talaysen]

Sort of in the line of thought of @DRE 's question on:
https://xenforo.com/community/threads/how-do-you-copyright-a-style.25975/

I've seen many addons that have built-in branding, and then sell tokens or licenses that remove the branding. Some of these addons also ensure that if the branding is manually removed by the user without the appropriate tokens, the addon no longer functions.

I was wondering if any of you might be familiar with the methods that would be undertaken to accomplish something like this. I'm working on an addon that, ideally, will have a small 'Add-on by Talaysen' down at the bottom, and I'll offer the plug-in for free, and then optionally sell a license (or some sort of validation token) that removes this attribution. (I'm not necessarily looking to profit off this addon, but the amount of work that's gone into it, I'd like to get credit where credit is due, or contribution otherwise )

Worth noting: I'd like there to be some kind of.. lack of functionality if the attribution is removed manually, without the validation token.

I've been searching around on the forums, and on google, and haven't found anything quite on par with what I'm looking for. The closest thing I've found is the WHMCS licensing addon, it seems with that code, you could add this functionality to just about anything.

Just curious what kind of methods other developers here use, or if anyone has any recommendations.

 

[Jake B.]

Removing functionality from people who remove the copyright will only hurt legitimate users. The people who want to remove it without paying will do so, and will make it so your checks don't do anything but the legitimate users will have to deal with callbacks that count potentially not connect and break their site.

Regards,

Jake

 

[Talaysen]

Removing functionality from people who remove the copyright will only hurt legitimate users. The people who want to remove it without paying will do so, and will make it so your checks don't do anything but the legitimate users will have to deal with callbacks that count potentially not connect and break their site.

Regards,

Jake

Hm, what if it used something like the WHMCS licensing, where it has a failsafe that protects against the callback failing (say, the server is down),
the "license key" for the free version would be the attribution text, protecting against the legitimate users encountering any issues.

I mean, I'm fully aware that people who want to circumvent licensing or attribution will do what they want to do, and I'd definitely want to protect legitimate users from any sort of unintended issues. My overall goal is to make the link very discreet/unobtrusive, and make the brand removal fee very, very minimal, but I'd also like to protect my work where necessary.

Just for discussion purposes (not something I'd ever invest time into), but what do you think about the plausibility of having a callback that simply alerts the addon developer if the addon has been tampered with, allowing the developer to issue a DMCA notice, or something of the such. (Given that this would be impractical in many circumstances.)

 

[Paul B]

Quite honestly, in my opinion, it's not worth the time and effort.

I don't bother with any branding/attribution/copyright on my add-ons as my time is better spent chasing those who have removed it.

I apply that same approach to those who pirate my add-ons.

 

[Jake B.]

Hm, what if it used something like the WHMCS licensing, where it has a failsafe that protects against the callback failing (say, the server is down),
the "license key" for the free version would be the attribution text, protecting against the legitimate users encountering any issues.

I mean, I'm fully aware that people who want to circumvent licensing or attribution will do what they want to do, and I'd definitely want to protect legitimate users from any sort of unintended issues. My overall goal is to make the link very discreet/unobtrusive, and make the brand removal fee very, very minimal, but I'd also like to protect my work where necessary.

Just for discussion purposes (not something I'd ever invest time into), but what do you think about the plausibility of having a callback that simply alerts the addon developer if the addon has been tampered with, allowing the developer to issue a DMCA notice, or something of the such. (Given that this would be impractical in many circumstances.)

Even if you had something like that they could just as easily remove it as they could remove your link. WHMCS is completely encoded with ioncube.