Is the answer No to my question about offline manual activation/deactivation.
manual activation/deactivation after I dieAnswered
After I die and my Lime account is closed, how can my users perform manual activation and/or deactivation?
I am assuming that the standard method of online activation and/or deactivation will continue working for a closed account if this is done using the API (for windows). Will the WebAPI still work as well?
Answer
Yes, online activation / deactivation will still work for real users ("priming" keys to appear to be real users is detected by our systems and not allowed). Former-customers that go out of their way to do that get their account locked down so no activation/deactivations are allowed while in dormant mode.
But the real solution is to have a succession plan. Sell or partner part of / whole of your business before you die so you're not depending on such-and-such a feature to work after your death.
Plus, customers due stupid things. And you need a real-life person to handle those customers. That customer service cannot be outsourced to us. The most an end-user will get from us is a “contact the people that make the software, that's not us”.
If they ignore that and persist, or if they're particularly aggressive when first contacting us, we just block and send their messages directly to spam.
So, long story short: there isn't a “simple technical solution” to a people problem. Partner up with someone (friend, relative, random business partner) and have a contract in place.
They cannot with a dormant / cancelled account.
If no one will be financially benefiting from your software after your death, the best option is to have a pre-built version of your software without licensing that your customer can use. Have your lawyers / relatives “push the button” upon your death to release it to your users.
Thanks for the suggestion, Wyatt. I had been pondering that very thing, and have now decided to put the pieces into place.
GoranWould like some clarification about the meaning of “priming” keys, as in a reply above. Is it what I think: if you create keys before closing the account, and then use these keys for new users. So the keys have never been activated before the account was closed. Think this makes sense, otherwise you could create a lot of keys to use after you have closed.
Yeah, those keys won’t be able to be activated if you cancel your account. Also, other methods of fraud are blocked. We don’t list them all.
But legitimate users for your app will still be able to use your app while you switch away from our system to another system.
This is all designed not to give people free usage of LimeLM, but to let customers switch to another licensing service if they’re dissatisfied.