Elan Computer Group Inc, Mountain View, California, is ready with version 3.0 of its Elan License Manager software licensing toolkit for Unix. The product has been enhanced to enable software vendors to implement ‘soft’ limit licence usage and includes start date keys so vendors can restrict a customer’s use of their software until a given date. It also has a dynamic client debugging capability, so software developers can track down problems that occur within an application when it is being licensed out to customers – when an application that includes License Manager is run, information about what is happening internally is printed. Version 3.0 also includes a software usage metering function, which registers how often a certain application or feature or function is used. Available now, in source and binary code as an upgrade or for a one-off fee of $7,500.
