How to sell an application? Licensing problems

Question

I`ve built a simple but yet effective delphi-7 application that solves sudoku puzzles, and a keygen that produces a unique serial key for each PC. My purpose is not to make money, I want to understand the methods of commercial uses of an application at its simplest form.

I have zero knowledge and experience about licensing. I googled internet for methods of "pay 1$ and receive the serial key by email", however there is no clear information about this, sometimes they explain what kind of licenses there are (GNU etc.), but I do not know how to use them. I need simple instructions, explanations or methods.

When user presses the menu "Register" on the solver, the second form is created, and the user sees the product ID of the application and a windows where purchased serial key should be entered.

Assumptions:

1. I`m going to set the price for a key as 1$ in this experiment, therefore it is assumed that I will not make enough profit (if any), therefore costly external services are not my case. (Nevertheless, any information is welcomed)
2. The Product ID of the app is produced using CPU_ID of the clients machine. Therefore, user must be warned that the purchased key will not work if CPU of the PC is replaced. (Warning can be placed as a check near the register button)

My questions:

1. Do I have to produce individual terms of agreement for this program?
2. Do I have to submit my .exe file for approval in somewhere in order to be able to sell it?
3. What is the least costly method to distribute keys to clients?
4. Is there something I dont understand or do wrong?
5. Is there a way to automate billing and key distribution?

Answer 1

It has probably never been easier to sell this kind of software, due to the emergence of online app stores for Mobile phones and now Windows.

If you compile your app as a windows store app, sign up for a windows store account, fill in various tax forms, get a PEGI certificate and set up a bank account for them to pay money into. You can upload your app to the store and they will sell it to millions of consumers for a ~30 cut, deal with the Sales tax etc and pay money direct to your bank account.

It's not trivial, but only a couple of days effort and you'll need to setup a company etc anyway for tax purposes.

Another option would be to make you app into a web page and add a signup procedure which includes a payment before the user can access the solver page. You could take the payment via paypal. obvs you have to sign up for a paypal account and then monitor payments and activate peoples accounts.

Again Paypal will take a cut and you will have to do your taxes etc

If you want to keep the app as a binary download, you could use the same site but offer a download link instead.

You also touch on the problem of piracy. This is kind of separate from how you sell you app. In fact you want to sell a licence to use your app and add a technological restriction on the user which enforces the terms of the licence.

Having a serial key that users have to buy and enter is a common solution. Or you could force them to login when they launch the app.

Answer 2

TL;DR Use an app store. They do all the hard stuff for you. All you'll need is a simple website to point to your app in the store.

You have many questions here, and may issues to resolve...

Do I have to produce individual terms of agreement for this program?

You don't have to do anything. To be honest, a $1 sudoku solver will not make much of splash in the app pond, so a license probably won't make or break you. But if you want to have a license so you can decide to go after someone who violates it, you can find one in another app, or search online for samples, and copy it. Read it thoroughly to make sure you understand it, or pay a lawyer to help you understand it, before you adopt it.

Do I have to submit my .exe file for approval in somewhere in order to be able to sell it?

No. But be aware that a random .exe floating around the Internet will be assumed to be a malware delivery bundle. Nobody will touch it. At the very least, you need to deliver your .exe through your website (no website = no trust), and you should provide a SHA-1 hash of your .exe that a user can use to verify that nobody has hacked your .exe and bloated it their garbage. (This assumes you know how to keep your website from being hacked.)

What is the least costly method to distribute keys to clients?

Your costs will vary wildly depending on how you build your e-commerce solution to be able to process payment transactions. You don't want to roll your own solution. There are too many government regulations about data safety and if you're this new, you'll get into trouble fast. Build your website with a content management system (CMS) like Wordpress, Joomla, or Drupal. They all have e-commerce modules you can plug-in, and they support digital media products (such as an app) and license key delivery features.

You'll need to set up a merchant account with a bank if you're going to process transactions.

PayPal has a payment processing feature as well, but to my knowledge, they don't support license key delivery.

No matter what payment processing mechanism you use, you're going to pay a percentage of each transaction to the payment processor. How much depends on which processor you choose.

Is there something I dont understand or do wrong?

Yes. Lots. But you won't know what you don't know until it happens. There are lots of resources on the web about how to build an online business.

Is there a way to automate billing and key distribution?

E-commerce software modules in the popular website platforms do this.

But, by far, the easiest way to distribute a $1 app these days is to use an App Store. The Windows 10 App store will do all the work for you in terms of hosting your app, processing payments, and ensure your app doesn't get bloated up with malware you cannot control. There's a registration process, and they take a commission on each purchase. Android and iOS stores work the same. It's not bad to pay them a commission, since they're taking care of all of the above-mentioned issues for you.

See Alexander's answer for a great list of app stores.

Answer 3

In 2015 there is no need in making such system by yourselves. Every major platform has its own application market.

Desktop:

• On Windows: Microsoft Store
• On OS X: Mac App Store
• On Ubuntu: Ubuntu Software Centre

Mobile:

• On iOS: App Store
• On Android: Google Play
• On Windows Phone: Microsoft Store

Cross-platform:

• Steam (for applications)

This is the easiest way to promote your app and show it to your audience.

Answer 4

There will be many answers along the lines of "use someone's AppStore that handles all the nasty credit cards and taxation issues". This will elide over the "and sign about sixty pages of rapidly changing agreements that you cannot understand". (No, you cannot and Intellectual Property licensing lawyers are guessing about what they mean.)

Your aim, however, was to learn.

1. If you want to learn the AppStore process use an AppStore.
2. If you want to learn what licenses people will accept, generate different ones for each user.
3. If you want to learn how an AppStore works, set up an AppStore.
4. If you want to see who uses your software, replace the payment requirement with a plea for a five line email (no spam!) stating the country and something interesting.

Do not shy away from experimenting just to use the AppStore model.