” I want to sell my ebooks and I want to prevent buyers from sharing my ebooks with others.”
➡️ A solution: using online activation
The other solutions are hardware-locked keys and dongle protection.
What online activation offers
To access your ebook, your customer has to unlock it with an activation key that you give to him/her. The ebook will contact a server to validate the activation or not. This can be done by your server or with our Protect Ebook .net service.
The activation process is easy and can be automated through the Internet, or Manual for end users who do not have a computer with an Internet connection. You can easily integrate e-vendors such as PayPal, FastSpring: deliver ebooks and keys to customers by email immediately after successful orders.
➡️ With online activation, your ebooks cannot be shared without your consent.
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About the server…
Online activation rests on a remote server that manages activation keys. You can use:
✔️ your server
For advanced users, we provide the activation kit that allows you to install required files on your server and turn it into an activation server.
✔️ our Protect Ebook .net service
Everything is easy and intuitive. You do not have to deal with PHP, server maintenance and installation, databases. Everything is automated for less than 1 USD per day!
Control the number of computers on which your ebook can be run…
When creating your user’s account, you determine how many activations you want to allow him/her, which means the number of computers on which he/she can run your ebook. The activation server tracks the number of times your ebook is activated.
Once activations have all been used, the ebook will display an error message if someone tries to run it.
Block refunded or illegal users…
You can block users by turning their number of authorized activations to 0, or by configuring your ebook to check the key’s validity regularly (see below).
A customer who has already activated your ebook and who wants refund, or who wants to move his registered publication or ebook to another computer will have to deactivate his certificate. When deactivating, the ebook creates a unique uninstall confirmation code that you can check in Protect Ebook .net or with your activation kit.
Control access to your ebook regularly…
Thanks to the Validation feature, you can configure your ebook to check the key’s validity:
- at each run,
- every three/four/ten runs, as you want
- randomly
- manually with scripts
With this feature, you can:
➡️ block users after their first activation and when you wish,
➡️ restrict the time a user may access your ebook.
How to configure my ebook to use online activation?
In HTML Executable, go to Security tab → Certificates page. Then, tick « Create a restricted publication »:
Double-click on « Registered » in the list of certificates. Choose the « Activation Properties » tab, and select Online Activation in the combo box.
You can then configure the general, deactivation and validation properties:
➡️ You can offer a trial version if you wish. If your customer does not have a valid activation key, they will never be able to access to the registered version.
The first time the user opens your ebook, a window requiring the registration key will appear, depending on how you have configured the ebook. These windows can be customized at will. You can put a link to your order page directly in the nag screen:
When the user clicks “Continue”, they will obtain:
Users who do not have an Internet connection have to use manual activation. They will get this window:
It works as for hardware-locked keys. Your customer sends you their system ID, and you can generate his key with the activation kit or with Protect Ebook .net and send them.