The trial period is now planned to be set at 15 days. If any of you think it should be different let me know so I can have more considerations.

For pirating reasons, its most likely going to be a running time trial. In other words, the app counts the minutes it runs or the minutes the PC has been running since install. This will determine when your trial ends. It will not look at the date on your PC.

To use a trial, there will be one download for all users. You can either activate the program with a key code if you purchased it, or continue with a trial. This way there is only one download for everyone.

Licensing hasn't been decided yet. I would like to license the application per individual, but it's hard to enforce that. Enforcing a per computer license is a lot more secure, but then harder to implement. For version 1.X the simpler individual licensing may have to suffice. Future version may change.

Updating the app will be free for minor releases. If you purchased 1.0.4 you will get free updates until 2.0 comes out, then you will have to buy 2.0 if you want that version. Cheaper upgrade pricing for major versions hasn't been determined yet, or even if that's a possibility.

The software will use key codes for activation. When you purchase "Cobalt" you are buying a key code, then you're open to free downloads that can be activated by this code. The key codes will not be mathematicly generated (to avoid pirating). Unfortunatly I have to hide how this will work, but no key generator will be able to generate these codes.

A more old fashioned method will be used in the first release of cobalt. This has already been built in.

Development on a more complex activation system will happen in the future, purhaps in time for version 2.0.