   Shareware 30 days EULA question
  Hypothetical situation: You write a piece of software and distribute it as shareware, with the usual 30 day time period. The app itself is designed to quit working after 30 days, but this can be prevented simply by adjusting the clock settings.If the EULA for the shareware version does not explicitly say that the application is to be used for a period of only 30 days, is it illegal to set the clock back, and if so, should any of us that use the 30 day system start adding that to the EULA?  
  I think 30 days is 30 days on the calander, not the PC''s date. Because everyone would have this sneaky program that cleverly monitor all the date/time calls and return always the same date.Sand Hawk    -----------------Earth is 98% full. Please delete anybody you can.My Site;  I realize that the intent of the publisher would be thirty days, but if it''s not expressly presented in the EULA, can you do anything about the sneaky programs?  ;  I tried that with Milkshape, but it told me that the time had been adjusted and wouldn''t save anymore.  I set the time back and it worked again.Obviously theres a way around this sneaky trick.50% of people are below average.  ;quote:Original post by Big B  Obviously theres a way around this sneaky trick. Yeah, purchase it. ;  Milkshape is only $20  ;  YOu could make it so that every time the program was started up it reccorded a date in a file, wich couldnt be seen/accessed, then if the date goes back since the last time it was used then you make the program eyther:Show a warningm then quitAutomatically uninstall the softwareAnother thing you could do is the above, but every time you load, check the date then every time the day''s date changes and the program is loaded a letter/symbol is placed in the file, after the 30th time this it done the programme stops working.This has 2 effects:1. it would work properly, for 30 days, if you dont change the date.2. If you change the date then the software would think another day has passed, therfore giving less days as a punishment for doing so.These are only ideas, maby they have already been done, i dont know.  ;  Since you guys seem to have no idea what the OP was talking about...The EULA must state all restrictions/freedoms the user has with your product.  If the 30 day limit is not in the EULA, the user is legally free to circumvent it... Except for the fact that the DMCA prevents circumvention of copyright protections. It could be argued, however, that the 30 day limit in the software is not a copyright protection because it isn''t stated in the EULA.So put it in your EULA.As for how to enforce the 30-day limit... I''ve seen this before...1: system clock2: NTP server3: access/modified time of a good few files4: Whether or not these times are before the time recorded last time the program was run5: date checksum and counting (what that last poster mentioned... any time the date changes, they''re penalized two days because it doesn''t work changed, then they have to change it back again)Along with sneaky places to hide information (self-rewriting EXE''s, registry, files, self-rewriting DLL in windows/system dir, a .ini in the windows dir) And it doesn''t work if any of these are missing/changed. Also not deleted on un-install, so re-installs don''t work.  