Sentinel LDK Licensing

Sentinel LDK offers a wide range of options and unprecedented flexibility for making and revising both licensing and protection strategies. Virtually any licensing business model can be created—supported by the following fundamental Sentinel LDK concepts, technologies and applications:

>Protect Once—Deliver Many—Evolve Often™

The process of protecting software is completely autonomous of marketing and licensing processes, so that after protection has been implemented, diverse licensed products can be created without necessitating changes in the code.

>Cross-Locking™

Using Sentinel LDK, the software vendor can choose the device to which the protected software and license are locked—either to one of the many hardware-based Sentinel HL keys, or to a specific computer by means of a versatile software-based Sentinel SL key. The required level of protection, the licensing business model, and the manner in which the software will be accessed and used collectively determine the most appropriate type of Sentinel protection key. Locking the license to a hardware-based Sentinel HL key provides the strongest security.

>Sentinel Remote Update System utility (RUS utility)

The RUS utility provides a simple and secure method of remotely updating the licenses on deployed Sentinel protection keys. Using the RUS utility, software vendors can renew, extend, revise or revoke a license.

>LicenseOnChip® and UpdateOnChip

When a license is supplied on a hardware-locked Sentinel HL key, the licensing logic is embedded in the key’s chip, employing Sentinel LDK’s patented LicenseOnChip technology. This practice ensures that licenses are hardware-secured and effectively tamper-proof. Likewise, license updates are authenticated in the key’s chip.

>Role-based licensing application

Sentinel LDK-EMS is a role-based application in which access to each type of task is restricted to authorized personnel. Restricted access provides separation of business activities from order creation, license manufacture and customer follow-up.

>Versatile Implementation

Software protection can be implemented using the GUI-driven Sentinel LDK Envelope, the Sentinel Licensing API, or a combination of both. The considerations for choosing a protection method are provided in Determining the Best Protection and Licensing Method.

>Detachable Licenses

A detachable license is available for Products that are locked to Sentinel SL keys in a network environment. Such a license can be temporarily detached from the network pool for use on a remote recipient machine for a defined period.

Determining the Best Protection and Licensing Method

Sentinel LDK offers two software protection methods that establish an inherent link between the protected software, the license, and the intelligence contained in a specific Sentinel protection key.

>Envelope-based protection (automatic)

Sentinel LDK Envelope automatically wraps software in a protective shield and validates the licensing terms. Sentinel LDK Envelope protection offers ease of use, short time-to-delivery, and anti reverse-engineering features such as file encryption and anti-debugging. It is suitable for protecting compiled executables and DLLs.

>API-based protection (automatic or customized)

Executables or specific functions are protected using Sentinel Licensing API calls that are embedded in the software code. This protection method offers maximum flexibility, and compatibility with a wide variety of development tools and operating systems. API-based protection can be based on predefined Sentinel LDK functions and calls so that licensing terms are validated automatically, or can apply a customized license validation mechanism in order to implement specialized licensing business models.

Most licensing business models discussed in this guide can be applied using either Envelope-based protection or API-based protection. However, some specialized models require customized implementation using the Sentinel Licensing API. Each licensing business model notes the appropriate method or methods.

NOTE   To enhance the security of your application, when you choose an API-based protection method, it is recommended that you also protect your application with Sentinel LDK Envelope. You can do this using a dedicated Feature ID or with Feature ID 0, which is not linked to a specific license.

For additional information, see Preparing Your Sentinel LDK Licensing Plan.

For information on which important licensing functionality is supported by the various types of protection keys, see Protection Key Attributes. This will assist you in determining which types of protection keys can be used for the various licensing business models described in this section.