Responses in line.
Yep, the ownership of a license is going to be the important thing.
But Cracked copies are more of a pain then WPA. Take the SP1 issues
for instance. Look at my response to Kurt, a bad implementation of
Activation will always run people off. A good one should go pretty
much unnoticed as MS's has.
I remember the little issue with the ID tag Intel put on the PIII and
newer chips. People were paying a premium for PII450's for a few
weeks and then downloading the little script to deactivate the ID tag
for a few months. Now every chip has that ID tag and no one seems to
notice.
They didn't and they will not. This issue for MS is not what many
try to make it out to be. And I hope this mentioning of 98lite does
not bring Bruce Jensen and his other personalities like Rachel out of
the wood work either.
Yes, I was one that quit buying their product because it was an
extremely poor implementation of Activation with too severe of
install limitations and nuisance problems. Both TurboTax and TaxCut
will have versions of Activation in future products. They will just
have to be much higher quality versions for the public to stand for
them.
But we do know a company has to make money to stay in business. When
ever piracy both bold and casual goes over 50% of the installs you
create the absolute necessity for Activation or something like it. I
was very skeptical at first but after meeting those responsible for
implementing MS's WPA I had a good feeling it would not be allowed to
become a problem.
Here I have to disagree. One should be able to leave their car on
the street with the keys in it and find it sitting there when the
return, as I did when I was 16. When the public has so few that will
do the right thing just because it is the right thing then some type
of enforcement is necessary. And don't think MS doesn't go after the
bold Pirates because they do with great zeal. I always find it
interesting that those that speak here against WPA are almost always
people who wouldn't think of pirating software such as Kurt and
yourself. It is a sorry state for society to get into such a
position that we end up where we are. But a company can not stay in
business when a young person looks at you just after admitting that
they have hundreds of songs the they did not pay for on their
computer that they pirated the OS and most of the software on it and
says "what do you mean that isn't right, no one stopped me". They
possibly wouldn't consider stealing the computer off the back of the
Dell truck, but they see nothing wrong with not paying for the use of
another person or companies intellectual products mostly because they
can do it and there is nothing to stop them. That is why WPA exist
today and why you can expect to see more of it on other products in
the future.
None seen by me. I like good discussions on any subject. This one
is one that is very controversial and the more discussion the better
change we will end up with something we can live with. I think
everyone should make it clear to those companies out there
considering Product Activation. If you are going to do that then you
had better do your best to consider your Customers right to use the
software in their own home with a minimum of restrictions and it had
better not cause a lot of nuisance problems or we will find another
product.
