I'm about to launch a new application - Obviously I don't want it to be pirated. It's also pretty data heavy - so I do not want to build a webservice that will take more time to haul around the data than processing it.

So my question is this:

How can I ensure it's not going to end up being shared. I'm not sure it's strictly possible to do this but I want to ensure that it is very difficult to use a cracked/pirated copy. The only thing I can think of is to set up a licence server as is done in online games like Starcraft that the application will constantly talk to. Any pointers you guys might suggest on how to go about setting this up would be very welcome... (books, links to pages explaining this stuff...)

thanks all...

ps: I have some ideas about doing some of the computations on the server side but it is a pretty lame solution just to prevent people not licensing it...

ps2: obviously I'd welcome any other solution besides the server-talk approach...

ps3: is there a company/startup for this ? I'd be willing to pay for an API that has a good repuatation and I can set up easily for this...