Ableton Forum

Hello Folks;

I've a few Max4Live devices that I'd like to sell, but it seems that Ableton's licensing APIs are not for general use.

Might anyone have any information on how one might add a license to an Ableton Live Pack?

Thank you,
S.T.

Um, you' can't maxforlive devices are open source by design, you could look at Creative Commons licensing, but it'd be difficult to prove anything...

Cheers
D

S4racen wrote:Um, you' can't maxforlive devices are open source by design, you could look at Creative Commons licensing, but it'd be difficult to prove anything...

Cheers
D

Couldn't you write them in embedded C++ code, and include a licensing scheme in those binaries?

It also depends on the money we are talking about and if the effort of licensing makes sense. I saw on one homepage that they sell audio-effect-racks (so not m4l devices) over a zip file with an individual password. There isn't any real copy protection but it is a way to sell it. Or maybe a Paypal donate button would be it.

ChironControl wrote:It also depends on the money we are talking about and if the effort of licensing makes sense. I saw on one homepage that they sell audio-effect-racks (so not m4l devices) over a zip file with an individual password. There isn't any real copy protection but it is a way to sell it. Or maybe a Paypal donate button would be it.

Those are some options, yes.

The option that many used early on in M4L's life (one that I really loathe seeing) is to make all of the objects in the device transparent and then stack them on top of each other. Also I've seen some use some [thispatcher] trickery to make the patch unaccessible. Of course if you're persistent enough you can circumvent such measures to get into the patch.

Personally I would only pay for a device that I could also open up and inspect to see how it works.

stringtapper wrote:
Personally I would only pay for a device that I could also open up and inspect to see how it works.

This...

Cheers
D

software license enforcement is a job in itself. Sometimes it's more worthwhile asking yourself if you can get the rewards from your work in a different way than giving yourself yet another job - of chasing the white rabbit.

Just look at the market as sets of people

1- people who buy everything in this marketplace, they own everything. Everything!
2- people who will buy all of what you sell, if you show good value
3- people who will buy some of your products, after much deliberation
4- people who will buy a thing off you if they really really, need that exact thing.
5- people who will never, ever buy anything off you. Even if the product was a bucket of water and their head was on fire they'd still be trying to brute force your ftp password for a solid month rather than pay you $2.99 for it.


My advice.
Don't worry about the bottom fifth, concentrate on the others. There will always be those people at the bottom, and those people at the top, they are a force of nature and cannot be reasoned with. Focus on the middle.

My advice is only worth the pixels it is written with though. So there's that.