Introduction
Welcome to this online simulation! We will show you
- how to deliver registration keys to customers immediately after orders.
- how you can prevent end users from sharing full versions of your ebooks on the web by using hardware-locked registration keys.
If you sell ebooks, you have to send the full version to your customers. You may also want to prevent your customers from sharing their full version with someone else. A possible solution is to use activation (it would require a computer with Internet access) or hardware-locked registration keys, i.e. keys that will only work on a single computer. We are going to work with the second solution for this simulation.
Step 1: offer a Trial version of your ebook to your future customers
For this simulation, we made a sample ebook with HTML Executable based on an extract from The Valley of Fear by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This ebook was then converted into a Trial ebook; another tutorial covers all the steps to realize that.
A Trial ebook works in two states: unregistered and registered. We decided to only leave the first page of the ebook in unregistered state; if an user wants to read the rest of the story, he/she needs to purchase a registration key and place an order. After a successful order, a script automatically sends a unique registration key to our new customer. With that key, he can unlock the remaining pages (the ebook is then in registered state).
To test this ebook, you need first to download it on your computer: download the stand-alone (portable) executable program (valleyfearebook.exe) below and run it. No installation is required! Size: 726kb.
File is digitally signed (with Microsoft Authenticode) to authenticate the publisher as well as to ensure that the code has not been altered.
Step 2: test the Trial version
Each time you run the ebook (in unregistered state), you will get a nag screen at startup:
Close the nag screen by clicking on Evaluate.
Navigate through the pages, and try to access to the next page (page 2). But it is not available in the Trial version, as explained by the page displayed:
Go ahead and place an order for the ebook. Click on Buy Now in the ebook or go to this page.