What is the general approach to implement the serial number and activation protection for Java Application? [closed]

Question

I want to create a Java Desktop Application and want to employ some mechanism to protect my software from illegal copy. What is the general best approach to implement the serial number and activation protection for Java Application? If the user can activate the software correctly, where to store the activation info?

Thanks.

Answer 1

There can almost be only one answer: On your server, together with a significant part of your algorithm(s). If all the code has to be on the client, then all that could work is

1. Trusted computing (ultimately a hardware barrier)
2. Steganography (obfuscating, scattering, hiding, deceiving, ...)