Normally, this message indicates one of the following conditions:

• You've used LicenseControl's "Find this Application's License and Activate It" operation when the application/plug-in is not yet licensed for this system. This operation can only find and re-activate the license on a currently licensed system — e.g., in a case where the system was restored from a backup or copied to a replacement disk. If the license is not already activated on that system, you'll need to supply the License ID to perform the initial activation.
• The license was recently purchased but has not yet been "posted" to the licensing server by the e-store from which it was purchased. Some e-stores can sometimes delay a purchase (e.g., for approval, etc.) so you should wait a while and try again. Many e-stores send the purchaser an email to indicate the purchase has been completed. Once the e-store's computer contacts the licensing server, the posting will be completed and the license(s) will immediately be available.

Unfortunately, OS X changed how it reports some system characteristics. When you booted into 64-bit mode (via the update — e.g., when upgrading to OS X 10.7/Lion), it made LicenseControl think it's a different system. 'Though we released a version of LicenseControl that will prevent this issue (v4.500 on 2011-Mar-08), it takes time for software Vendors to release builds using a later version of LicenseControl (with re-testing, and all that).

There are three possible solutions:

• reboot into "the other" mode (e.g., boot into the currently licensed 32-bit mode), use LicenseControl's "Find this Application's License and Activate It" operation to re-activate the license (or supply the License ID and activate it) then de-activate the license, reboot back into "the other" mode (e.g., back into 64-bit mode) again, and activate the license by supplying the License ID.
• check with the licensed product's Vendor to obtain a newer build of the product (i.e., one that's built using LicenseControl version 4.500 or newer) and install that build of the licensed product
• create a problem report and we'll switch your license

If you're going to switch between 32-bit and 64-bit modes, you can prevent this issue by first de-activating the license prior to switching. If you're going to constantly be switching back 'n forth, you should get an updated product build from the licensed product's Vendor (i.e., one that's built using LicenseControl version 4.500 or newer).

In situations where a LicenseControl'd application and/or plug-in will not run (i.e., so it's unable to present its licensing operations), you can locate then run/launch the LicenseControl application directly. In this case, you must be sure to run the correct LicenseControl application as each LicenseControl'd application and plug-in has its own embedded LicenseControl. As always, a licensing operation that applies to a given application/plug-in on a given system must be performed from that system.

To run LicenseControl directly on a Mac OS X system:

• find the LicenseControl.app for the application/plug-in that's to be unlicensed — it's normally located inside an application or plug-in "bundle" so you may need a search utility such as Find Any File or EasyFind
• double-click the LicenseControl.app icon — the resulting window title will normally read "LicenseControl for " followed by the application/plug-in name
• perform the licensing operation(s)

To run LicenseControl directly on a PC Windows system:

• find the LicenseControl.exe for the application/plug-in that's to be unlicensed
• run the LicenseControl.exe application — the resulting window title will normally read "LicenseControl for " followed by the application/plug-in name
• perform the licensing operation(s)
• if there are problems performing the licensing operations:
• delete the LicenseControl registry entry as follows:
• download, unzip and double-click/run the following registry script
• OR
• open the Start menu
• on XP or Vista, Select "Run...", type regedit and press the OK button
• on Windows 7, type regedit in the search box and run RegEdit (once found)
• Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
• Expand SOFTWARE
• on 64-bit Windows: Expand Wow6432Node
• Select "Derman Enterprises Inc. - LC" and delete it
• note that this does not de-activate the license but will make this system unaware of it's own license, if it was licensed
• now either find and run LicenseControl_Setup.exe as Admin (right-click to get "Run as...") or run the application/plug-in installer again (it will run LicenseControl_Setup.exe)
• if de-activating a license, use LicenseControl's "Find this Application's License and Activate It"/re-activate operation to make this system aware of its own license (i.e., so it can then be de-activated)
• now perform the licensing operation(s)

If you encounter any problems with the process, capture screenshot(s) showing the ID entry (if applicable) and the error and send it as an attachment to a problem report.

If you're unsure which system(s) are licensed, you can use LicenseControl's status/information operations to determine the licensing status/information. If you manage multiple LicenseControl'd applications, you can use the LicenseControl Utility to perform certain kinds of licensing operations.

In OS X, you can view a system's MAC/Ethernet IDs (labeled as Hardware Address in older OS X versions) via the Network Utility (in /Applications/Utilities). In OS X 10.5 and later, look in the System Preferences → Advanced... → Ethernet tab.  In older versions, the Network Interface pop-up menu on the Info panel shows information about each Ethernet device and en0 is the primary.

In Windows, you can view a system's MAC/Ethernet IDs (labeled as Physical Address) via the Windows command:
ipconfig/all

If the previously licensed system has "gone dead," see the FAQ regarding failed systems.

The "...licensing ID is invalid." message indicates that the licensing ID has not been input correctly (a licensing ID contains self-checking information). A licensing ID is 65 characters in length, starts with a zero and ends with a number. When viewing the License ID, you should use a font that clearly distinguishes between ones and els, zeros and ohs, etc.

Note: some LicenseControl Vendors provide the ability to enter a subset of the License ID. If you're attempting to enter a supplied License ID that is shorter than 65-characters and it's not working, please contact the application's Vendor (or get/use the full 65-character License ID).

If you typed the licensing ID, it's possible that there's a typo — which is why we recommend that you copy/paste the licensing ID. The most common typo is when there are "vertical bar" characters in the licensing ID. The "vertical bar" character is the "straight vertical line" character (i.e., it's not an "el" and not a "one"). It's usually located above the "\" character on keyboards. If you can't see the difference between ones and els and vertical bars, try changing the display font in the email/editor in which you're viewing the License ID.

If you're getting this error after copying/pasting the licensing ID, then it's likely that there are one or more invisible characters being (erroneously) copied/pasted along with the licensing ID. This can happen with some email programs, especially browser-based programs or where email is rendered as HTML.

To remove any invisible characters that exist before the licensing ID:

1. place the cursor at the beginning of the licensing ID
2. press the left-arrow key a few times
3. press the right-arrow key once
4. if the cursor is not to the right of the first zero in the licensing ID, then there's an invisible character that needs to be deleted
• to delete the invisible character, press the left-arrow key once then the delete key and continue starting again at step 1

To remove any invisible characters that exist after the licensing ID:

1. place the cursor at the end of the licensing ID
2. press the right-arrow key a few times
3. press the left-arrow key once
4. if the cursor is not to the left of the last/65th character in the licensing ID, then there's an invisible character that needs to be deleted
• to delete the invisible character, press the right-arrow key once then the delete key and continue starting again at step 1

If you have the (excellent and free) TextWrangler application, you can paste the licensing ID into a TextWrangler window and select the "Text => Zap Gremlins..." menu to remove any "bad" characters from the licensing ID. TextWrangler can also count the number of characters in total or that are selected.

Yes, please see the sections titled Storing Your License ID, Controlling Access to Licensing Operations, Multiple-Systems Administration and Distributing a Stored License ID in the LicenseControl ReadMe document, available via LicenseControl's Help menu.

In addition, if you use a system that does not have any LicenseControl'd products installed, you can download the LicenseControl Utility that can be used to perform certain licensing operations.

If you've determined that LicenseControl is blocked by a firewall and/or proxy server (see information below) and that you can't or won't setup the network services to allow LicenseControl to communicate with the licensing server, you'll need to use LicenseControl's manual licensing capability (expand/read the Manual Licensing Detail, below).

There are two notable exceptions to this:

• if the system you're using employs outgoing firewall software that controls network connections based upon the application from which they originate (e.g., "Little Snitch" on OS X or "PCZoneAlarm" on Windows), then you will need to configure your system to allow LicenseControl to communicate
• if your network employs a proxy server that proxies based upon individual applications, then you will need to ensure that the proxy server allows LicenseControl to communicate

Thus, if you can use a Web browser to access our web pages at www.derman.com (and, if you're reading this, you can), then you should also be able to connect to our licensing server — if you can't it's most likely that your network controls are preventing LicenseControl from communicating with the licensing server. If that's so, see the information, above, regarding manual licensing.

Note: a LicenseControl query can have multiple parameters that each are multiple kilobytes in length with a total URI maximum of 8,190 bytes. Browsers, proxy servers and network communications must pass the entire parameter collection. Licensing operations will fail if parameters are truncated or altered.

2011-09: We've seen a small percentage of cases where the manual licensing will fail on the final/longer URI (it'll appear to "hang") because the network is not passing the longer URI. We've only seen this with Macs and have seen that using a browser on a PC on the same network will work (i.e., just re-issue the the request that failed). The failure has not been OS-version or browser-kind related so the evidence points to some software issue on those systems and/or networks (e.g., some networking-altering software product, some errant packet inspecting router, some misconfigured and/or over-zealous and/or erroneous security server, etc.). 'Though we have no confirmation, SonicWALL products have been implicated as causing this issue – possibly upstream at the ISP.

2012-01: We've released LicenseControl 4.600 that works around the "longer URLs can get whacked" issue. If you're having problems, you can ask the supplier of the licensed product for a build that uses LicenseControl 4.600 or later.

ISA Server Setup

Some organizations create a rule called "General Product Updates" to allow all traffic, for anonymous users — important that part, as Mac software, and many pieces of Windows software, do not send credentials — to specified URL Sets and Domain Sets.

You may need to create a new URL set for the product being licensed, and for http://www.derman.com/* and http://tss-geotrust-crl.thawte.com/* (or the applicable certificate URL authority)

Provided both these URLs are accessible for anonymous traffic, activation normally works.

More Detail

LicenseControl supports most proxy setups. LicenseControl uses the proxy setup defined for your web-browsing services. If a proxy server is configured, LicenseControl will use it and will prompt you for the username and password if one is required by the proxy server setup. However, there are proxy servers that are configured to use empty login credentials so, if you normally don't see any proxy login but using LicenseControl shows one, try not entering any login credentials and just press the button.

LicenseControl does not support a script/server-driven automatic proxy (.pac file) setup allowed by some configurations. In such configurations, you'll either need to configure the proxy setup manually before LicenseControl will be able to use it or you'll need to use the manual licensing capability.

Specifically, LicenseControl uses the curl library to connect to the licensing server. On an OS X system, you can easily test a curl-based connection via the command line. This may provide valuable troubleshooting information. To do so:

• bring up a Terminal window (launch /Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
• if your network does not use a proxy server, issue the command:
  
  
  curl -x www.derman.com:80 http://www.derman.com/ > ~/Desktop/foo.html
• if your network does use a proxy server, issue the command:
  
  
  curl -U user:password -x proxy-server-address:proxy-server-port http://www.derman.com/ > ~/Desktop/foo.html
  
  where user and password are the username and password required by your proxy server (if no proxy login is required, omit the "-U user:password" portion of the command) and proxy-server-address and proxy-server-port provide the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or the IP address and port number for the proxy server

In either of the cases, above, if successful, the curl command will create a web page named foo.html on your desktop. If you open that web page, you'll see our home page, minus the graphics (i.e., drag the file icon for the foo.html file from your desktop onto a web-browser window).

If the permissions on a LicenseControl'd application have been altered and the application fails, the quickest way to fix the problem is to reinstall and relicense the application.

In general, tampering with an application's permissions is unwise. Tampering with a LicenseControl'd application's permissions or any of the LicenseControl files will often result in a non-functioning application.

Yes, LicenseControl'd applications can be run from a server (i.e., a network-mounted/remote disk volume) but each client will operate in Trial mode until a license has been activated to license that software for that client system.

When the licensing server to perform licensing operations, your system uses a minimal number of HTTP (web) packets via port 80 (the normal web port) or HTTPS (secure web) packets via port 443 (the normal secure web port).

You can use network packet-capture software to verify the nature of information being communicated — e.g., on OS X, issue the Terminal command:

In this situation, please do the following:

• attempt to license the application on the replacement system, once (it'll fail, but we'll need this failed transaction to transfer the license)
• contact us with the following information:
• the License ID you used to attempt the above licensing
• the kind and model of system upon which the software was previously installed

Note that, legally, we can only provide support to the registered owner — in practical terms, it means that we'll need to communicate via the registered email address or we'll need a copy of the original purchase receipt.

Important: Just a warning that you need to be very careful not to attempt any licensing operations for an application/product from a system that was de-activated by us (i.e., during this procedure). If a licensing operation from a system that was marked as "missing/dead" issues a licensing request using that same License ID, that License ID will automatically be disabled (affecting all its licenses) and no further licensing operations will be possible via that License ID. If a stolen/failed/etc. system is re-acquired/repaired and you need to move the same licensed application back to it, disable the license on the other system then let use know and we'll move the license and make the re-acquired system available for continued licensing, again.

LicenseControl allows you to de-activate/activate (i.e., move) a license whenever you want and as often as you want.

You need to de-activate the license on the currently activated system before you can activate it on another system — you cannot de-activate using any system other than the system and application version that is currently licensed. Technically, failing to do so is giving that license away with the switched-out system.

The LicenseControl documentation, available via LicenseControl's Help menu, has instructions on how to move a license from one system to another. Essentially, you need to De-Activate the license on the activated system so you can use it on (i.e., move it to) another system.

If the application is no longer installed on the currently activated system:

• download/re-install the LicenseControl'd application that's to be unlicensed — Note: it needs to be a version licensable by the same license (typically <5 minutes)
• access LicenseControl – typically, select the "Licensing..." menu or press the "Licensing ..." button
• select LicenseControl's "Find this Application's License and Activate It" radio button and press the "Next" button (<30 seconds)
• follow the on-screen instructions (<30 seconds)

If you encounter any problems with this process, capture screenshot(s) showing the License ID entry and the error and send it as an attachment to a problem report.

In OS X, you can view a system's Ethernet IDs (labeled as Hardware Address in older OS X versions) via the Network Utility (in /Applications/Utilities). In OS X 10.5 and later look in the System Preferences → Advanced... → Ethernet tab.  In older versions, the Network Interface pop-up menu on the Info panel shows information about each Ethernet device and en0 is the primary.

In Windows, you can view a system's Ethernet IDs (labeled as Physical Address) via the Windows command:
ipconfig/all

If the previously licensed system has "gone dead," see the FAQ regarding failed systems.

Various licensing requests, which are sent to the licensing server to acquire and activate a license, de-activate and relinquish, get licensing status, etc. for the system being licensed.

License activation and re-activation requests contain the following information:

• Request Version: so we can support software changes, over time
• the Re/License Info:
• Info Version: so we can support software changes, over time
• Purchased Product Name: the license's product identifier
• Purchased Product Version: the license's product version identifier
• Purchased License Kind: the kind of license
• Purchased License Serial: the license's serial number
• Requesting Product Name: the licensed product's identifier
• Requesting Product Version: the licensed product's version identifier
• Requesting Week Number: the week the request was made
• System Info: see detail below
• Checksum: a checksum to (doubly) ensure the validity of the transmitted data

The unlicensing request, which is required by the licensing server to request that a license be relinquished for a system, contains the following information:

• Unlicense Version: so we can support software changes, over time
• License: the License previously generated and received from the licensing server (this is encrypted)
• Requesting Week Number: the week the request was made
• System Info: see detail below
• Checksum: a checksum to (doubly) ensure the validity of the transmitted data

The unlicensing confirmation, which is required by the licensing server to de-activate and relinquish a license for a system, contains the following information:

• Confirmation Version: so we can support software changes, over time
• License: the License previously generated and received from the licensing server (this is encrypted)
• Confirmation ID: the Unlicense Confirmation identifier
• Requesting Week Number: the week the request was made
• System Info: see detail below
• Unlicense Date: the date of the unlicensing
• Checksum: a checksum to (doubly) ensure the validity of the transmitted data

The System Info is information that is used by the licensing server to help associate license activations with licensed systems, including as they change over time — it's a dynamic and adaptive patentable technology:

• Info Version: so we can support software changes, over time
• Requesting MAC Addresses: certain ethernet MAC address(es)
• Requesting System's Serial Numbers and/or UUIDs: the system serial number and/or an operating system and/or hardware UUID (where available)
• Requesting System's Kind: the system kind (where available)
• Requesting System's Model: the system model information (where available)
• Multiple other attributes on any given system: these are all pieces of information about the system that are available via standard operating-system supplied interfaces

Note that:

• no information related to Users or (other) applications is required, desired or captured
• ethernet MAC addresses are (by standards, are supposed to be but are not always) unique for every ethernet interface ever made and is something that's sent as a part of network packets, so it's always externally visible
• serial numbers and UUIDs are, by definition, supposed to be unique but are not always
• all System Info we capture is available via normal operating-system interfaces
• only specific employees at Derman Enterprises and the licensed application Vendor can view information that's captured and, by law, we're prevented from using this information for any purposes other than to support licensing (for more information, see our Privacy Policy page)
• you can use network packet-capture software to verify the nature of information being communicated — e.g., on OS X, issue the Terminal command:
  sudo tcpdump -pxX -vv -s 0 host www.derman.com

The LicenseControl "customer"/registrant record includes:

• Name
• Postal Address
• Primary Phone, Additional Phone, FAX
• Gross Sale Amount
• Date
• Vendor
• The posting transaction from the posting entity (e-store)
• Customer communications

Note that this information does not include any credit-card information.

Also note that we are legally restricted from using any customer-supplied information for purposes other than which it was supplied — i.e., for the business/support of licensing. For more information on this, see our Privacy Policy page.