# open-license-manager/licensecc

Software licensing, copy protection in C++. It has few dependencies and it's cross-platform.

Repository: https://github.com/open-license-manager/licensecc
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/licensecc
Homepage: http://open-license-manager.github.io/licensecc/
Language: C++
License: BSD-3-Clause
License Family: permissive
Topics: licensing, software-protection, msvc, linux, cpp, hardware-locking, copy-protection, license, license-management, license-generator, hardware-identifiers
Last push: 2026-08-25T13:07:46+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 67/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4525, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1241, forks 367 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:06.416302+00:00)

## What it is
Licensecc is an open-source C++ library for software licensing and copy protection that generates hardware signatures and validates licenses against them. It supports limiting usage by time, machine, and virtualization detection, with few dependencies and CMake integration.

## Use cases
- lock my C++ application to specific machines
- generate and validate license keys for my software
- prevent my software from running in virtual machines
- add time-limited trial licensing to a desktop app
- detect if my executable was copied to another computer
- implement hardware fingerprinting in C++

## When to choose
- you have a small to medium C++ application to protect
- your customer base is small (10-20) and licenses can be distributed manually
- your project already uses CMake
- you need a fully open-source licensing solution with no premium tiers

## When to avoid
- you need to manage licenses for thousands of customers automatically
- you require strong protection against determined crackers (open-source code is inspectable)
- you need a hosted license server or web-based license management
- the project is seeking maintainers, so long-term support may be uncertain

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: maintenance
- function: security, cryptography, sdk, developer-tools
- domain: security, developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: windows, cpp, cross-platform
- tags: software-licensing, copy-protection, hardware-locking, license-generator, cmake, linux

## Member repositories
- open-license-manager/licensecc (main) score 67

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:06.416302+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T05:08:29.804935+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/open-license-manager/licensecc (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:06.416302+00:00, sha 430da7f20eea)
  - homepage: http://open-license-manager.github.io/licensecc/ (fetched 2026-08-29T12:20:19.811144+00:00, sha 68889f3b81dd)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.