License / Registration key enabled software

[Mike Playle]

On Thu, 28 Sep 2006 17:36:02 +0200, Sybren Stuvel wrote:

> Mike Playle enlightened us with:
>> Having installed it all over the shop, how can you be sure that only 5
>> people are using it at any one time?
> 
> Write the software in such a way that it needs a certificate on a
> smartcard, then supply the company with five smartcards.

And 150 smartcard readers?

Of course USB dongles would work just as well and wouldn't
need special readers, but really this is just a hardware
implementation of the same idea - dongles are just as hated
as FlexLM, and for all the same reasons :)

Mike