What is the general approach for implementing serial number and activation protection for a Java application?

Question

I want to create a Java Desktop application and want to use some kind of mechanism to protect my software from illegal copying. What is the general best approach for implementing serial number and activation protection for a Java application? If the user can correctly activate the software, where to store activation information?

Thanks.

Answer 1

The answer may be almost the only one: on your server along with a significant part of your algorithm (s). If all the code should be on the client, then all that can work is

• Reliable computing (ultimately, a hardware barrier)
• Steganography (obfuscation, scattering, hiding, deceit, ...)