Software Activation Goes Wrong

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2005/1/13/2191/36692' target='_blank'>http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2005/1/13/2191/36692</a><br /><br /></div><i>"All was fine until the reader experienced a hard drive crash and needed to re-load his application. "When I went to the Broderbund site I was informed that I needed to enter an e-mail address and password, whereas before I had registered with a user ID and password," the reader wrote. "Since I did not have my account set up with an e-mail address, I was forced to call their customer service for assistance. When I finally got through to a human being I explained my situation to the representative on the other end. He informed me that Print Shop is no longer activated through the web and it would cost me $5.99 to get the actual CDs in the mail in order to re-install. Again, I already had possession of the original CDs, which evidently would only work with web activation. He also stated that web activation was only guaranteed for 90-days from the purchase date of the product. Didn't I buy a license to use their product? By Broderbund no longer providing web activation, aren't they stopping me from using the product I already paid for?"</i><br /><br />This is an interesting story about a software product activation scheme gone horribly awry - reading this pretty much confirmed my worse fears about online software activation: when things go wrong, it's us, the consumers, who lose out. :? Unfortunately, I'm seeing more and more companies selling software that requires activation - which is especially frustrating when you buy a physical box with a serial number. :roll:

[Zack Mahdavi]

I've become especially annoyed with Macromedia. Their new MX 2004 Suite requires product activation, and it only allows you to install the program on two machines (which seems reasonable). However, let's say you decide to buy a Mac, and you want to switch over your Windows-activated Dreamweaver to the Mac-based one. Guess what? No can do. In fact, Macromedia now refuses to let you switch your license over from platform to platform. That doesn't make sense to me..

I feel like these companies are feeling the pressure of software piracy. However, rather than making their software more bloated and charging more from version to version, maybe they should think about innovating and adding useful features...

Finally, I think the software companies, like the music companies, are over-reacting to fear of piracy. I highly doubt that the people that are pirating software would have bought it in the first place.

[Jason Dunn]

I feel like these companies are feeling the pressure of software piracy. However, rather than making their software more bloated and charging more from version to version, maybe they should think about innovating and adding useful features...

What I'd be interested in knowning is the "before and after" effect: as in, now that they've put in these draconian product activation schemes, are they making more money? Are they selling more copies of the software now that they're forcing all those bad pirate people to buy their software? I strongly suspect the answer is a resounding NO...which means it's just the legitimate consumers that suffer. Again. :roll:

[EscapePod]

Broederbund is the suckiest software company on the face of the earth.

My probems with them go all the way back to my days of an Atari computer (model 800). When I upgraded from tape to floppy disk, Broederbund was the ONLY company that refused to send me the software I purchased on tape with the same version on floppy disk.

I can carry a grudge a long way -- too bad for them. In the PC world, my wife used American Greeting Creat-a-Card software since ver. 1.0. When Broederbund took over Macromedia, they continued updating the software. I have refused to let her buy any new versions. I tested some of their upgrades, and they have really gone down hill.

I have told hundreds of friends to stay away from any Broederbund software.