EA Locking to prevent illegal distribution

[Fernando Jose Velasco Borea]

Hello! I'm working on several projects and for some of those I require to be restricted without having to buy/rent a server to make kind of a every 6 hours check for license numbers or something like that.

I came up with a fairly simple idea, and I just wanted to get opinions on that and other walk-around methods that can be taken

if(AccountNumber() != [Account number of the authorized user])
 {
   Alert("Unauthorized account, contact [My project contact mail] to get an authorized copy");
    //I'm not sure if I should use 
   ExpertRemove();
   //Or just use
   return(1);
   }

I would be placing the code on the OnInit() part of the Expert Advisor but I'm not sure if I should use just ExpertRemove() function or return 1 so the expert won't be initialized correctly, any advise on this?

Also, how would be a proper syntax to set an expiry date? I haven't worked with dates data so I'm not sure if I should pass the expiration date as a string and compare it to server time, any suggestions?

[Icham Aidibe]

FernandoBorea:

Hello! I'm working on several projects and for some of those I require to be restricted without having to buy/rent a server to make kind of a every 6 hours check for license numbers or something like that.

I came up with a fairly simple idea, and I just wanted to get opinions on that and other walk-around methods that can be taken

I would be placing the code on the OnInit() part of the Expert Advisor but I'm not sure if I should use just ExpertRemove() function or return 1 so the expert won't be initialized correctly, any advise on this?

Also, how would be a proper syntax to set an expiry date? I haven't worked with dates data so I'm not sure if I should pass the expiration date as a string and compare it to server time, any suggestions?

It's indeed better than a password - with sources' deletion it's unassailable. You can use ExpertRemove(), you can also call a dll and bomb the computer or whatever. On the other hand, if you go so far, think about using several brokers and accounts.

For time expiration, as a string it's feasible, but best is to do it with timetostruct : 

https://www.mql5.com/en/docs/dateandtime/timetostruct

[Jonathan Mcbrine]

Icham Aidibe:

It's indeed better than a password - with sources' deletion it's unassailable. You can use ExpertRemove(), you can also call a dll and bomb the computer or whatever. On the other hand, if you go so far, think about using several brokers and accounts.

For time expiration, as a string it's feasible, but best is to do it with timetostruct : 

https://www.mql5.com/en/docs/dateandtime/timetostr

I want to be able to lock my EA's and have the purchaser only get up to 2 downloads, without being able to copy and share?

[Tom Sasson]

Jonathan Mcbrine:

I want to be able to lock my EA's and have the purchaser only get up to 2 downloads, without being able to copy and share?

You will need to communicate with some server, which means to own access rights to a server and then approach it from the EA to get/send data, including user registrations etc.

If you have such access, you can add a code inside the EA to update your server when the user downloads from a specific link you give him. and limit it to 2 downloads only.

[Marco vd Heijden]

You can also use the Blockchain to register and block accounts.

[David]

change that acc number you get and make it to generated string, make that generated string as your key, so you don't need to compile again every new user.