I'm interested in what everyone thinks about the following registration process. We wanted to combat piracy but on the other hand don't want to inconvenience the user. We've tried the following out but have had some complaints. I'd really appreciate any feedback you might have.

Their are two programs: a demo and a full version. The demo has all sorts of nag screens and such to get the user to register the product. When the user purchases the product they receive a serial number and are allowed to download the full version. When they run the full version the first time they are asked (required) to register the software online. They click a button and are taken to a web page where they enter their serial number and are given a registration number. They enter the registration number in the program and thus unlock the full version.

This allows us to track how many times a serial number has been used and to remove the serial number from our database if any wrong doing occurs. (note that the registration code is based off a users computer so theoretically they can only use the registration code on a single computer)

The system works well and combats piracy. However, we have had complaints that its too complicated. In your experiences what have you found to be a good registration scheme?

Garage Games uses a simmilar scheme for their games, they give their users an ignition key when they purchase the game, the user has to input this key the first time they run the game, but the game itself actually goes to the server and validates it, as opposed to the user going to a website.

If the user does not have internet access at that time it tells the user they must be connected to the internet to register the game.

Personally, if I was required to register a product, i.e. give some information about myself, in order to use something I've just payed for, I would feel like I was tricked.
If none of that information is required, then it sounds like a decent process. Although you should possibly warn customers before they buy that they must have internet access from any machine they wish to install it on.

Yes the garage games system only requires the ignition key (CD key)

Ya, you don't actually enter any personal info. You just use the serial number you received when you purchased the software.

We thought this would be quite acceptable since you can only get our software online. So, you should have an internet connection when you go to run the full version the first time.

(We also added a manual way to register a non-internet enabled computer using an internet enabled computer. )

Here are the points that others (reviewers and purchasers) have made against this scheme:

1. too complicated
2. must have an internet connection to register
3. demo vs full version is confusing (which do I need to register)
4. what do I do if I want to use the game on a non-internet enabled computer (apparently the manual way was confusing)

When we designed this scheme we understood that it would be slightly more complicated then traditional schemes but we didn't think we would have complaints like those above. We even had website reviewers have problems with following the registration process and just give up on the review because of it. It seems fairly simple to us but apparently others don't agree.

What are you going to do if a code has already been used? Deny the registration?

Well, the registration code will work for a fixed number of computers (5). After that they have to contact us for an additional registration code. We have yet to need to do this though.

What is the manual proccess for folks that aren't online?

They run the game and go to help to get the machine ID (and a web page to go to). They then can go to any computer that is connected to the internet and enter their serial and machine id to get their registration code.

i see. I take it that the regkey that is made off the MachineID is not to unwieldy.

We are actully takeing the operturnity to make a pretty substatial key when the game connects back to the server since for the most part a human won't have to deal with it manually.

Unfortunally i think that might mean we'll have to have a floppy disk involved in the manual (no internet access) situation.

Still pondering a bit on that one :)