Google Play app copy protection, licensing. can this be added later?

Question

I know this topic has been discussed many times here.

It's the first time i'm uploading an app to Google Play. The app is free. I read google's licensing support webpages but i'm really confused. From my understanding, licensing should be used for paid application in order to prevent copying the app from one device to another.

My app will be free. Do i need to implement licensing? I guess it will only help me to prevent app copying from one device to anoter ( which probably won't be the case beceuase it's free) but still, i may track the right number of downloads if i use it. Would this help me in a different way?

I read that when you upload the app there should be some checkbox to "Copy protect" your app. Is it still there and usable?

In the future i'm planning to add some paid modules to the app. Is it possbile to add licensing in an upcoming release version?

Many thanks, Dan

Answer 1

Do i need to implement licensing? No. Your app will work just fine without it. It's only there to prevent pirating your app and since it's free, that's not going to be a major problem.

Is "Copy protect" still there and usable? As of 2012-12-13: Yes, it's a simple switch in the old layout.

Is it possbile to add licensing in an upcoming release version? Yes, but bear in mind that itmeans users will see a new "right" that is required by your app and many users do not like that. So if you're planning on implementing it, I'd put the uses-permission in the Manifest now.

However, if you are using in-app payments, you might not need to implement app licensing at all, since the paid content will be verified by googles in-app system, which uses other APIs.

Oh, and make sure you properly obfuscate your code before your first release.