GameShield Activation Methods

The GameShield DRM Kit provides you and your team with a wide variety of options of how you can control and manipulate the licenses on yourclient machines.   Controlling your users license is performed via a process generally referred to as "Activation".  Activation normally involves a "code exchange".  In a code exchange, various codes are sent and received, either automatically or manually, to and from the client and your server-side logic or your staff. Click on the diagram to the right to see a few of the Activation Method possibilities you can achieve all with a single build of your game.

Activation Methods

• Activating Your Software Online Fully-Automatically with CheckPoint

  Activating your software online fully-automatically is achieved by using the ClientProtector in your application to connect to and communicate with the CheckPoint License Server. While no human intervention is required, an internet connection is.

  You can only perform fully-automated activation when using the CheckPoint License Server which comes with the Server Edition and the IronWrap Edition of the GameShield DRM Kit.

• Activating Your Software Manually (Online with CheckPoint)
  
  Activating your software manually (online with CheckPoint)  is achieved by using the ClientProtector in your application to receive manual input from the user and your staff using the Manual-Activator to connect to and communicate with the CheckPoint License Server.  While no internet connection is required at the users location, your staff must have an internet connection to the CheckPoint License Server and physically operate the software.

  You can only perform activation using the CheckPoint License Server when you purchase the Server Edition or IronWrap Edition of the GameShield DRM Kit.

• Activating Your Software With The Web-Activator -

  Activating your software using the Web-Activator is achieved by invoking it through a simple HTTP GET query from some authentication layer on your server-side as a direct result of a sale.  Note that there is never any HTTP communication from the end-users machine to the Web-Activator (a security risk).  The web-activator is the "lightweight" option to using the CheckPoint License Server.

  While no human intervention is required, you must provide your own authentication layer in the data flow sequence to ensure Activation Codes are only generated for those who have the right to receive them.  This can be accomplished by querying the Web-Activator  for a new Activation Code only from your server-side code when a sale is successfully processed.  The Web-Activator only validates the request code, sends Activation Code responses and does not use a database back-end to store any information.

  You can only perform activation using the Web-Activator when you purchase the Server Edition or IronWrap Edition of the SoftwareShield System DRM Kit.

• Activating Your Software Manually (Off-line)
  
  Activating your software manually (off-line)  is achieved by using the ClientProtector in your application to receive manual input from the user and your staff using the Manual-Activator to generate Activation Codes directly from the license.  No internet connection is required at either location. Your staff must physically operate the software.

  You can perform manual off-line activation using any edition of the SoftwareShield System DRM Kit.

• Build Your Own Activator

  If your business process includes a mechanism for authenticating users who have the right to activate your software and you have your own in-house tools and development team for providing customer relationship management (CRM) functionality, you may wish to consider building your own Activator with the COM-Activator.

  The COM-Activator is a simple COM component that can be created and accessed from virtually any environment that supports COM.  This is every high-level language in use and even includes server side scripting languages that could allow you to integrate it into a web-application. The COM-Activator provides equivalent programmatic functionality to the Manual-Activators off-line features.

  The COM-Activator comes with all Edition of the GameShield DRM Kit - except the Professional Edition.