Regular posters there seem to agree that you don't have to think too much about piracy. People who won't buy won't buy anyway and complicated copy protection schemes run the risk of bothering the honest customers.
This is an excellent post by Patrick McKenzie about this issue:
As for stopping circumvention... Anyone who wants to crack your software will, and most people are too lazy to circumvent anything but the most trivial usage.
I'd argue that you want to get those people who regularly use your software to happily pay for it. They're most likely to happily pay for it if they've used it a non-trivial number of times.
b.t.w. Beyond compare has a system where you can use the software for 30 non-consecutive days. i.e. If you use it one day, and then use it 2 weeks later, then this will only count as two days. I've never been so happy to pay for software than when I paid for Beyond Compare.
It is common for software during the trial period to lack (or limit) some significant feature, such as printing or saving. I've tried (and bought) a panorama assembly tool that put a large watermark across the finished image. It allowed the quality of the tool to be evaluated, but put a real limit on further use of the images created during the evaluation period.
I've shipped a trial version of a commercial product that allowed all features to be used with limits generous enough to run through all of the tutorials in the user manual, but did not permit saving your work. We know that many users were able to quickly determine whether the tool would work for them by constructing tests with their own data, and it generated more than enough sales to justify the added development work to create the demo version.
The trick in your case will be to find a way to limit the functionality without eliminating the key utility of a trial period: actually trying out the software.
Perhaps limiting the number of records that can be converted in one run would do the trick?
This is a marketing decision and the answer to any marketing decision is always "it depends...". For example it doesn't make much sense (commercially) to have a 30 day time limit on software that most users will probably only use once (e.g. harddisk recovery).
There are some issues association with time-limited trials:
A user might use it once and then not get chance to complete the trial before the 30 days is up.
Time limitations are easy to work around, e.g. using VMs, registry hacks, additionalmachines or resetting the system clock.
Longer sales cycle - most customers will only buy on day 31.
Some of these are avoided if you go for a limited number of uses.
The main issue with feature limited trials is that the customer might not feel they can fully evaluate the system. But this isn't too much of a problem if you have a good money-back guarantee (and you should).
As a vendor I prefer feature limited trials in most cases. You can be quite creative in how you cripple the trial (watermarking, limited number of records input or output etc).
Please do not fall into the trap of limiting anything about the trial version other than time or number of uses. Reducing functionality and/or having annoying popups saying "This is a Pro feature" will simply alienate your users. Besides, the trial period is a chance for you to impress potential buyers, so you should showcase all of the features rather than hide them.
I would definitely go with a time-based limit. As you mentioned, this usually is fairly easy to circumvent, but I promise you that if your software has a large enough user-base, cracks will be around in no time anyway. Thus there IMHO is no point in making it hard/impossible to pass by your software's time limit.
Any other limitations (such as annoying pop-ups or limited functionality) would definitely be a show-stopper for me. If I cannot evaluate the software properly, it has to be very good to make me consider buying it.
You could limit the size of the import file supported. Or the number of uses. Or if insertion speed is a critical factor you could start out at full speed and then after 30 days add some delay (but be sure to tell your users this is intentional).
BTW, one of the worst schemes was in the Ingres database for Sun workstations 20-odd years ago. If you entered the wrong license key, Ingres silently enabled a dozen serious query processing errors. After playing with it for an afternoon, I told the salesman that his product was ridiculously buggy and that we'd be going with a competitor. He quickly told me what the issue was, but by then the sale was all but lost.
I just wanted to add that this is a strangely biased group. As programmers we want to be able to see all of the features, and play with them, etc. We get annoyed by certain limitations, and ads, etc.
However, normal people seem to react to these things differently. I'm just saying that we aren't really the target market here, probably.
ALSO, we should note that most people aren't nearly as good as we are at circumventing these things, so as has been mentioned, something pretty dumb is probably ok...
We have one product with a free - limited version, and a pro version, and another product with a 2 week free trial. Actually the free version also had a 2 week free trial of the pro, so it was sort of both...
All in all, I think it depends on the product and the people using it...
I've purchased plenty of shareware but always tend to be annoyed when it disables certain features. I prefer to check all features before I make a purchase. I do like the limitations that Altova add to their software. You always need a registration key to use their software and to get one, you have to provide your email address to which they will send you your temporary key. You can then use their software for up to a month and then you'll need a new key. Some people will just continue to request a new temporary license but most users will sooner or later purchase a permanent key. The Altova software does make a "call home" to validate the key it uses. It does this to restrict the number of users that can use the software. I can install their product on as many computers as I like, but at any moment, I can only use it on a single computer. If I try to use the software on two or more systems at the same time, the software will discover this multiple usage and thus block my access to the application.
Still, I do know that many people are willing to pay for your software if it's good enough. Especially if you can provide some additional services next to the software itself. (E.g. regular updates or subscriptions to additional data feeds.)
You can limit the number of times the users can use the functionality within a given time period; say they can use it 8 times in a month, before it throws up a "nag screen" when they use it. And if they need to use it more than, say, 20 times in a month, insist that they buy the software. If you do this, you may want to provide a certain number of keys for charitable purposes or educational purposes as well; it helps users to buy the software when they know that there are some charitable purposes their money is going to pay for.
Since this is a software to import data in a database, you could also add rows to the database indicating that the importation was made with a shareware version.
Just annoying enough (rows are still deletable), but you get most of the functionnalities.
No, I have never bought limited trial versions. However, I have donated to a couple of open source projects. If this were a software for people, instead of companies I would recommend a donation system.
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看看这篇博文，这是 Andy Brice 对小型软件供应商所做的一项调查。 在这里您可以找到试用类型及其使用百分比。
http://successfulsoftware.net/2009/ 04/23/the-truth-about-conversion-ratios-for-software/
我向您推荐软件商业论坛：
http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz
那里的常规海报似乎都同意您不必考虑太多关于盗版。 不买的人无论如何都不会买，复杂的版权保护方案可能会打扰诚实的客户。
这是帕特里克·麦肯齐（Patrick McKenzie）关于此问题的一篇精彩文章：
http://www.kalzumeus.com/2006/09/05/everything-you-need-to-know-about-registration-systems/
Look at this blog post, it's a survey made by Andy Brice on small software vendors. Here you can find the trial types and its % of use.
http://successfulsoftware.net/2009/04/23/the-truth-about-conversion-ratios-for-software/
I recommend you the Business Of Software Forum:
http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz
Regular posters there seem to agree that you don't have to think too much about piracy. People who won't buy won't buy anyway and complicated copy protection schemes run the risk of bothering the honest customers.
This is an excellent post by Patrick McKenzie about this issue:
http://www.kalzumeus.com/2006/09/05/everything-you-need-to-know-about-registration-systems/
许多人一生只需要一次此工具来导入某些数据。
所以你肯定要选择限量版而不是限时版。
Many people will only need this tool once in a lifetime for an import of some data.
So you will definitely have to go to a limited version instead of a time version.
限制使用次数是最公平的方法。
至于阻止规避……任何想要破解你的软件的人都会这么做，而且大多数人都懒得规避除了最琐碎的用法之外的任何东西。
我认为你想让那些经常使用你的软件的人乐意付费。 如果他们使用过多次，他们很可能会很乐意为此付费。
顺便说一句，Beyond Compare 有一个系统，您可以使用该软件 30 天（不连续）。 也就是说，如果您使用一天，然后两周后使用，那么这只算两天。 我从来没有像为 Beyond Compare 付费那样高兴地为软件付费。
Limit to number of uses is the fairest way.
As for stopping circumvention... Anyone who wants to crack your software will, and most people are too lazy to circumvent anything but the most trivial usage.
I'd argue that you want to get those people who regularly use your software to happily pay for it. They're most likely to happily pay for it if they've used it a non-trivial number of times.
b.t.w. Beyond compare has a system where you can use the software for 30 non-consecutive days. i.e. If you use it one day, and then use it 2 weeks later, then this will only count as two days. I've never been so happy to pay for software than when I paid for Beyond Compare.
软件在试用期间缺少（或限制）某些重要功能（例如打印或保存）是很常见的。 我尝试过（并购买了）一个全景组装工具，它可以在完成的图像上放置一个大水印。 它允许评估工具的质量，但真正限制了评估期间创建的图像的进一步使用。
我已经发布了商业产品的试用版，该产品允许使用所有功能，但有足够大的限制来运行用户手册中的所有教程，但不允许保存您的工作。 我们知道，许多用户能够通过使用自己的数据构建测试来快速确定该工具是否适合他们，并且它产生了足够多的销售额来证明创建演示版本的额外开发工作是合理的。
您的情况的诀窍是找到一种方法来限制功能而不消除试用期的关键效用：实际尝试该软件。
也许限制一次运行中可以转换的记录数量可以解决问题？
It is common for software during the trial period to lack (or limit) some significant feature, such as printing or saving. I've tried (and bought) a panorama assembly tool that put a large watermark across the finished image. It allowed the quality of the tool to be evaluated, but put a real limit on further use of the images created during the evaluation period.
I've shipped a trial version of a commercial product that allowed all features to be used with limits generous enough to run through all of the tutorials in the user manual, but did not permit saving your work. We know that many users were able to quickly determine whether the tool would work for them by constructing tests with their own data, and it generated more than enough sales to justify the added development work to create the demo version.
The trick in your case will be to find a way to limit the functionality without eliminating the key utility of a trial period: actually trying out the software.
Perhaps limiting the number of records that can be converted in one run would do the trick?
这是一个营销决策，任何营销决策的答案始终是“这取决于……”。 例如，对大多数用户可能只使用一次的软件（例如硬盘恢复）设置 30 天的时间限制没有多大意义（商业上）。
限时试用存在一些问题：
30 天到期之前。
黑客攻击、额外的机器或
重置系统时钟。
如果您限制使用次数，则可以避免其中一些情况。
功能有限的试验的主要问题是客户可能觉得他们无法完全评估系统。 但如果您有良好的退款保证（而且您应该这样做），这就不是什么大问题。
作为供应商，在大多数情况下我更喜欢功能有限的试用。 您可以在如何削弱试验方面非常有创意（水印、有限数量的记录输入或输出等）。
This is a marketing decision and the answer to any marketing decision is always "it depends...". For example it doesn't make much sense (commercially) to have a 30 day time limit on software that most users will probably only use once (e.g. harddisk recovery).
There are some issues association with time-limited trials:
before the 30 days is up.
hacks, additionalmachines or
resetting the system clock.
Some of these are avoided if you go for a limited number of uses.
The main issue with feature limited trials is that the customer might not feel they can fully evaluate the system. But this isn't too much of a problem if you have a good money-back guarantee (and you should).
As a vendor I prefer feature limited trials in most cases. You can be quite creative in how you cripple the trial (watermarking, limited number of records input or output etc).
请不要陷入限制试用版的时间或使用次数以外的任何内容的陷阱。 减少功能和/或出现恼人的弹出窗口说“这是专业功能”只会疏远您的用户。 此外，试用期是您给潜在买家留下深刻印象的机会，因此您应该展示所有功能而不是隐藏它们。
Please do not fall into the trap of limiting anything about the trial version other than time or number of uses. Reducing functionality and/or having annoying popups saying "This is a Pro feature" will simply alienate your users. Besides, the trial period is a chance for you to impress potential buyers, so you should showcase all of the features rather than hide them.
我肯定会接受基于时间的限制。 正如您所提到的，这通常很容易规避，但我向您保证，如果您的软件拥有足够大的用户群，无论如何，裂缝很快就会出现。 因此，恕我直言，让软件的时间限制变得困难/不可能是没有意义的。
任何其他限制（例如烦人的弹出窗口或有限的功能）对我来说绝对是一个阻碍。 如果我不能正确评估该软件，那么它一定非常好，让我考虑购买它。
I would definitely go with a time-based limit. As you mentioned, this usually is fairly easy to circumvent, but I promise you that if your software has a large enough user-base, cracks will be around in no time anyway. Thus there IMHO is no point in making it hard/impossible to pass by your software's time limit.
Any other limitations (such as annoying pop-ups or limited functionality) would definitely be a show-stopper for me. If I cannot evaluate the software properly, it has to be very good to make me consider buying it.
您可以限制支持的导入文件的大小。 或使用次数。 或者，如果插入速度是一个关键因素，您可以全速开始，然后在 30 天后添加一些延迟（但一定要告诉您的用户这是故意的）。
顺便说一句，最糟糕的方案之一是 20 多年前 Sun 工作站的 Ingres 数据库。 如果您输入了错误的许可证密钥，Ingres 会默默地引发十几个严重的查询处理错误。 玩了一个下午后，我告诉推销员，他的产品有很多错误，我们将与竞争对手合作。 他很快告诉我问题所在，但那时销售几乎全部失败。
You could limit the size of the import file supported. Or the number of uses. Or if insertion speed is a critical factor you could start out at full speed and then after 30 days add some delay (but be sure to tell your users this is intentional).
BTW, one of the worst schemes was in the Ingres database for Sun workstations 20-odd years ago. If you entered the wrong license key, Ingres silently enabled a dozen serious query processing errors. After playing with it for an afternoon, I told the salesman that his product was ridiculously buggy and that we'd be going with a competitor. He quickly told me what the issue was, but by then the sale was all but lost.
缩小差距 当 Eric 第一次发布它时，这是一篇非常有启发性的读物，我相信它是今天同样重要。
Closing the gap was a very enlightening read when Eric first posted it, I believe it is equally relevant today.
我只是想补充一点，这是一个奇怪的偏见群体。 作为程序员，我们希望能够看到所有功能，并使用它们等。我们对某些限制和广告等感到恼火。
然而，普通人对这些东西的反应似乎不同。 我只是说我们可能并不是这里真正的目标市场。
另外，我们应该注意到，大多数人在规避这些事情方面并不像我们那么擅长，所以正如已经提到的，一些相当愚蠢的事情可能是可以的......
我们有一个产品，有一个免费的有限版本，和一个专业版，以及另一个提供 2 周免费试用期的产品。 实际上，免费版本还提供了 2 周的专业版免费试用期，所以两者兼而有之......
总而言之，我认为这取决于产品和使用它的人......
I just wanted to add that this is a strangely biased group. As programmers we want to be able to see all of the features, and play with them, etc. We get annoyed by certain limitations, and ads, etc.
However, normal people seem to react to these things differently. I'm just saying that we aren't really the target market here, probably.
ALSO, we should note that most people aren't nearly as good as we are at circumventing these things, so as has been mentioned, something pretty dumb is probably ok...
We have one product with a free - limited version, and a pro version, and another product with a 2 week free trial. Actually the free version also had a 2 week free trial of the pro, so it was sort of both...
All in all, I think it depends on the product and the people using it...
我购买了很多共享软件，但当它禁用某些功能时总是很恼火。 我更喜欢在购买之前检查所有功能。
我确实喜欢 Altova 添加到其软件中的限制。 您始终需要一个注册密钥才能使用他们的软件，并且要获取注册密钥，您必须提供您的电子邮件地址，他们会将您的临时密钥发送到该地址。 然后您可以使用他们的软件长达一个月，然后您将需要一个新密钥。 有些人只会继续请求新的临时许可证，但大多数用户迟早会购买永久密钥。
Altova 软件确实会进行“回拨”来验证其使用的密钥。 这样做是为了限制可以使用该软件的用户数量。 我可以在任意多台计算机上安装他们的产品，但在任何时候，我只能在一台计算机上使用它。 如果我尝试同时在两个或多个系统上使用该软件，该软件将发现这种多次使用，从而阻止我访问该应用程序。
不过，我确实知道，如果您的软件足够好，很多人愿意付费。 特别是如果您可以在软件本身之外提供一些附加服务。 （例如定期更新或订阅其他数据源。）
I've purchased plenty of shareware but always tend to be annoyed when it disables certain features. I prefer to check all features before I make a purchase.
I do like the limitations that Altova add to their software. You always need a registration key to use their software and to get one, you have to provide your email address to which they will send you your temporary key. You can then use their software for up to a month and then you'll need a new key. Some people will just continue to request a new temporary license but most users will sooner or later purchase a permanent key.
The Altova software does make a "call home" to validate the key it uses. It does this to restrict the number of users that can use the software. I can install their product on as many computers as I like, but at any moment, I can only use it on a single computer. If I try to use the software on two or more systems at the same time, the software will discover this multiple usage and thus block my access to the application.
Still, I do know that many people are willing to pay for your software if it's good enough. Especially if you can provide some additional services next to the software itself. (E.g. regular updates or subscriptions to additional data feeds.)
您可以限制用户在给定时间段内使用该功能的次数； 说他们可以在一个月内使用它 8 次，然后在使用时会出现“导航屏幕”。 如果他们需要在一个月内使用该软件超过 20 次，请坚持让他们购买该软件。 如果您这样做，您可能还想提供一定数量的钥匙用于慈善目的或教育目的； 当用户知道他们的钱将用于某些慈善目的时，它可以帮助用户购买该软件。
You can limit the number of times the users can use the functionality within a given time period; say they can use it 8 times in a month, before it throws up a "nag screen" when they use it. And if they need to use it more than, say, 20 times in a month, insist that they buy the software. If you do this, you may want to provide a certain number of keys for charitable purposes or educational purposes as well; it helps users to buy the software when they know that there are some charitable purposes their money is going to pay for.
在非付费版本中保留所有功能但随机重新排列菜单/按钮怎么样？）
How about keeping all the functionality in but randomly re-arranging the menu/buttons in the non-paid version ;)
由于这是一个将数据导入数据库的软件，因此您还可以向数据库添加行，表明导入是使用共享软件版本进行的。
只是够烦人的（行仍然是可删除的），但你可以获得大部分功能。
Since this is a software to import data in a database, you could also add rows to the database indicating that the importation was made with a shareware version.
Just annoying enough (rows are still deletable), but you get most of the functionnalities.
不，我从未购买过限量试用版。 不过，我已经向几个开源项目捐款了。 如果这是一个针对个人而不是公司的软件，我会推荐一个捐赠系统。
这个软件听起来像是一个与工作相关的应用程序，所以：
No, I have never bought limited trial versions. However, I have donated to a couple of open source projects. If this were a software for people, instead of companies I would recommend a donation system.
This software sounds like a work-related app, so: