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How do I protect my software from illegal copying?

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Hi all. So I’ve developed a software using Excel’s VBA and I want to distribute it by providing licensed copies. I would greatly appreciate your expert help in doing this.

I believe I’ve protected the actual code sufficiently, so there’s no problem there. Now I want to make sure its not copied to other computers illegally.

I’ve thought of the following options.

1. Provide a hard lock with every distributed copy. But I have no idea how this works or how to code it in to VBA.

2. Since sales are likely to be low volume, I think I can customize the code for every copy to work with only the buyer’s computer. First of all, can this be done? (Does every machine have a unique ID that I can tap?) And can I use VBA to work it?

3. Provide a time dependent password. The copy requests a password to function after a year of use or something similar.

Are there any other methods of protecting my Excel file from redistribution?

Thanks in advance for all your help.

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