>>I knew I was being conservative, going on the (apparently>>incorrect) assumption that piracy is less of a problem in>the>>flightsim community than with other games because it is>>relatively close-knit.>>>>I know the average percentage of piracy of entertainment>>titles has been estimated by major industry partners as>>approaching 90% as a worldwide average (against 50-60% for>>office applications and operating systems).>>I wonder from where you get all your "datas". I bet the>software-pirates will not tell you that they have stolen your>software! And if this is as accurate as any other statistics,>you can forget it!>Or did you really believe that the Concorde was the safest>plane on earth BEFORE the Paris disaster. And do you really>believe that the Concorde has suddenly become the MOST>DANGEROUS commercial jet AFTER the Paris-disaster??? Yet this>is exactely what the statistics will tell you!>(I doubt that everybody who uses stolen software would have>bought it if he hadn

>I know it's sad but the fact of the matter is that most people>who pirate software wouldn't have bought it in the first place>so in reality there is NO sales loss.>>>HOWEVER, since it is PMDGs product (or any other payware>product for that matter) it is up to the group/team selling>it. If they want you to "go 10 paces past the tree, make a>right, and answer the riddle from the old man" so be it.>>It is thier choice and I support them.>>It may not be the easiest registration process but how hard is>it really to copy a number, email it, receive another email>and copy a new number? It would seem that complaing about such>a simple task could be construed as "laziness" (this isn't>direct at you Vortex).Even if it is not directed at me, I admit being lazy and I

You're not suggesting companies give in to the pirates and abandon all attempts at protecting their investment do you?That would be like leaving the doors and windows of your car and house unlocked with the carkeys in the ignition when you go on vacation for a month.

Hello,Ray Proudfoot, I'm sorry to hear about your registration woes. It doesn't surprise me that this converting from FAT32 to NTFS invalidated your registration, as doing this not just akin to reformatting your hard drive, it is reformatting. I will say I think maybe software protection schemes are perhaps getting a little out of hand, for a few specific peices of software, so far. I know I am now trying to make careful decisions about purchasing software based highly upon how I feel about their protection scheme due to how I felt about my Captain Sim Legendary 727 registration. So far I don't think PMDG's method is too bad. But I haven't run into what you are running into right now. What are you experiencing since reformatting? Are you back to the 10 day trial? Or is it just totally disabled? If so, I would think you could possibly uninstall the PMDG 737 and reinstall it. There may be a couple of other things you would have to look at deleting before reinstalling it too. If necessary that part may be a little above what should be expected of a legitimate customer and/or a person with only mediocre computer experience immediately after reformatting. I feel you should be able to use your software immediately though, at least in trial mode. Otherwise the security would seem to be a little too keen. What can you do about this? For now wait for the PMDG support to help you out, and just hope you don't need or want to go about converting your filesystem very often so you don't run into this with great frequency. And, if you feel somehow burned after this experience, vote with your wallet by not purchasing again from PMDG until the registration process is changed to a method that you find satisfactory, however tempting it might be. And let them know about the fact they lost a customer. Of course that is a decision only you can make.With all that said, so far I personally don't think PMDG's security system is to bad. It is perhaps only slightly more troublesome than registering my other software that requires registration codes. With my other software, I have to pull out my stack of papers and flip through the pages I have printed to find the page for that peice of software and get the registration code and put it in. I suppose I could have also entered all these into a text document that I could keep updated on a floppy or something, but I just never have. I just have my printouts. With PMDG's software, I have to find the printout to get my Purchase Order Number and password, fire up FS200x and get the Reference number, and then finally go to their web page and enter those into their 'Online License Generator'. Not really all that hard. Do I worry about what would happen if PMDG were to go out of business? Yes, a little. I would hope that they would be kind enough to release the 'Online License Generator' program to us so we could continue to use our software for however long we want to since we paid for it. Really, I hope that situation never arises though.For Vortex Generator (Walter),"I really can

>You're not suggesting companies give in to the pirates and>abandon all attempts at protecting their investment do you?>>That would be like leaving the doors and windows of your car>and house unlocked with the carkeys in the ignition when you>go on vacation for a month.At the moment the safety-measures are more anti-customers than they are anti-pirates! It is almost as if person A commits a crime and person B gets punished for it and everybody is happy and shouts "hurray we have done something against crime"!I would be willing to pay a higher price for software if it meant that it came with a dongle or something similar (only possible for CD-ROM releases, of course) because this would be a protection-system which would not restrict my rights (as long as I did not lose the dongle, of course)!But yes, with the current protection-system I think it would be much better to "leave the doors and windows" open instead of having the gangsters blow up the whole house (=deterring the customers)!!!Walter

Somthiing my dad once told me...I think it applies here.Locks only keep honest people out. If the thief wants it..he WILL get it. plain and simple

Gary Hayes

http://members.cox.net/gary_posky/siggy.gif

Guys.. I can give you at least fifty examples of inconveniences caused by people protecting their property from theft that we put up with every day...Ready? Here it goes...001) Car alarms002) Getting your bags taken from you when entering a store003) Getting your bags searched while leaving a store004) Items in stores that are behind the counter005) Items in stores that are in locked cabinets006) Endless Security codes that you need to type in when installing software007) Security guards following you around a store008) Web site passwords009) Gigantic boxes for small items010) Annoying plastic cases that cant be openned without scissors011) Those white security clips they put on clothing012) Those black security clips with the nice added wires that wrap all the way around the product013) Security wires attached to small electronics like cameras that prevent you from moving the item more than 12 inches from the counter014) Dummy products on display that dont actually work015) Products that are actually glued to the shelf016) Empty Video boxes at Video rental stores017) Empty DVD cases at Video rental stores018) Empty CD cases at some CD stores019) Items that are stored beyond the reach of the tallest human being020) Employees having their bags searched while leaving a job021) Employees going through metal detectors while going to work022) Endless adds on the radio for The Club023) Endless adds on the radio for Lojac024) Comprehensive Car Insurance025) Renters Insurance026) Homeowners Insurance027) Keys028) Locks029) Combinations030) Having to travel 10 miles to look at your own stuff in a safety deposit box031) Banks that charge you more for keeping your money than they give in interest032) Wheel locks033) removable face car radios034) Coop communities with gate and guard035) Annoying jewelers who wont let you look at more than one piece at a time036) Cars with combinations on the door037) Armored cars always parking right in front of the store038) The intrusion of the government into the Internet because of the likes of Napster, Kazza, Morpheus, and countless others039) Increased cost of car insurance because of insurance fraud040) Increased cost of health insurance because of insurance fraud041) Increased cost of products because of theft042) The cost passed onto the consumer due to insurance 043) Lockers044) keeping pretty things in a safe instead of on your dresser045) Having to keep your wallet in your front pocket046) Buses that dont give change047) Not being able to pay at certain places with any bill bigger than a 20048) Cashiers looking at your money funny049) Cashiers writing on your money with their conterfeit pen050) The registration process for your PMDG 737Stop yelling at us... the annoyances are everywhere... you just forgot about them.VinPMDGwww.precisionmanuals.comhttp://www.vinscimone.com/deadblue.jpg

>Stop yelling at us... the annoyances are everywhere... you>just forgot about them.>>>>Vin>PMDG>www.precisionmanuals.com>Sorry that I have to say that but I just can

>I disagree. I think PMDG considers potential villains to be>potential villians and considers paying customers to be>customers and as such give them a registration code.You mean it is a special privilege for us to have this registration process??? I aready feel very flattered! Tell me, if they consider paying customers to be honest paying customers why is there a need for the registration code??? This only makes sense if you consider your customers to be possible villains who give away a copy of the 737 for others to use without paying!!!>Although true, you are leaving something out here. The pirates>leave themseleves open to crminal charges and prosecution, at>least the possibility of it, no matter how large or small that>possibilty may be. Maybe what we need to see more of is law>enforcement cracking down harder on and on more pirates, and>headlines with something along the lines of "Software Pirate>Found Guilty and Sentenced to A Year in Prison." In other>words, pirates run the risk of getting plauged by law>enforcement agencies. Whereas us legitimate paying customers>don't have to worry about going to jail. Well, I agree in this case, though I guess the possibility of getting caught really is very small for a *user* of pirated software...>And I'd rather pay>for security and not see the leeches be able to get a freebie.>I do happen to think that equation is just. As I stated>earlier in this post, if you feel you've been burned, vote>with your wallet, and let PDMG know they've lost a customer.I will certainly think twice befor buying a "security-protected" - software again. Basically I will NOT buy such a thing again unless I need it really VERY badly...just think that you maybe have 40 different programmes on your PC in the future ALL with security-protection...WHAT A MESS THIS WOULD BE!!!>I disagree. I think there are plenty of people that would look>at a product and say, 'Darn, I can't get this thing cracked.>But this thinng is so cool I guess I'll just have to go ahead>and pony up the dough because I really want it."Again this is pure speculation (as all those other "statistics"). Nobody really knows how many people would have bought it.Cheers,Walter

Hi Walter,I think you have some good points here. But I stand by what I said.First, I said that they consider a paying customer to be a paying customer. That does not mean they consider a paying customer to be a totally honest customer even though the person paid. I think everyone knows that some people cannot be trusted. They do not personally know everyone they are making a sale to. I believe some people have been known to pass along a peice of software to a good friend who asks for it. As in an illegitimately. Also, I think it has been known that some people buy a peice of software, and then post it on the net for freeloaders to grab.I do think this registration process is a little controversial and only time will tell how well it works. In my post I compared how I register software that requires me to enter a registration key, compared to registering this software. I didn't think it to be much more of a hassle than my other software. If I had 40 other registrations like this one, I don't think it would be that much more of a troublesome than what I have always done to enter a registration key. Especially seeing how they now have an 'Online License Generator'. And I think it's worth it if it keeps would-be freeloaders from getting what I paid for, for free. Believe me, I read numerous posts on this section(PMDG support) of the forum before making my decision to purchase the 737 in order to try and be somewhat informed. Nonetheless, in my orginal post, I was curious about how the situation was going for the original author of this thread, as his situation is a good example of how someone can be caught offguard by this system. Another exmaple of what I think makes this system a little controversial, is in all my reading of posts, I don't think I ever saw a satisfactory response to the question of 'what happens if my hard drive or OS goes down due to reasons beyond my control and therefore I was unable to "unregister" the product first'. There are a number of times that has happend to me and I have foramtted with a different file allocation unit size and/or different partition setup. I think a fair number of people consider this sytem to be a little controversial. Just look at the number of people that signed in the thread titled "Democratic Petition to PMDG...Please sign if you agree". So why did I go ahead and purchase? Because I got the feeling from reading all the posts that the PMDG seemed like pretty friendly folks, forthcoming about issues, and would be very accomodating should a problem arise. Although I can see that at least one of them is perhaps growing a little weary of posts about this issue. I don't blame him/them, but I think they should expect this sort of thing when using a new technique that has turned out to be, at least somewhat, controversial, imho. Sorry if I've used that word too much, but it seems to be the most appropriate one I can think of. He has a point, but I think what people are worried about is having another hassle added to their life that they feel is beyond the extent they are willing to deal with after shelling out hard earned money. I think people should quit worrying though and go for the great plane! You Walter claimed to be lazy and proud of it. I am somewhat lazy too. But I find that when I want something bad enough, I suddenly find I have some motivation! And I still agree with Arklight1(Shane), this isn't that hard!On the last point you made, you are correct, it is pure speculation. On the part of the person who made the statement(Shane) I was responding to, and on my part. Hence my use of the words 'I think', not 'I know' in my response. He had his opinion about that, and I had mine, and I still have it.Cheers,Jimmy RichardsOne Tin Soldier

Hey,I guess you gotta learn a lot befor making such statements of disbelief! You may considure to learn more how Windows and about many OS are working. Never heard of Plug-And-Play? That goes today with most PCI Cards, als well with USB and Firewire. But a HDD is not such a device you can plug and unplug as you like, as well as resize partitions etc. OS has to do a lot to keep your System and other data in right order, so you bestly dont see that your Windows needs a lot of time processing data flow etc. But for your Windows it is essential to be in tied close touch with your HDD data. If you ever worked with SuSe 8.2 or any other Linux OS, you should know what is the issue is mounting, moving data, copying data, resize and do other work manualy with your HDD Partitions. And think about that Windows has a Registry where ALL work and processes are basicly reported to and there you can find so much stuff how many software system party interacting with others and as well with installed software. As example, if you wanna move a programm from one partition to another, you have to change every parameter in the registry where windows will find this software after you moved it. Try that yourself, it takes hours manual work within the registry! So

>First, I said that they consider a paying customer to be a>paying customer. That does not mean they consider a paying>customer to be a totally honest customer even though the>person paid. But that

Torben,With respect I think you're missing the point. The reason for this security is so the software cannot be installed on any machine except the one the registration code was generated from.It shouldn't be necessary for so many different components to be interrogated before establishing that machine is valid and I certainly wouldn't expect any software changes to make this necessary.I now have a new registration number so as far as I'm concerned this topic is closed.Cheers,

Vin,Yelling? I wasn't aware I was. I felt I had a point to make and I made it. Whether you choose to listen to your customers is up to you.Cheers,

Hi,well, it's good you got all right by now. I am awaiting the patch befor I request a new code and key etc.But I think in many cases the Windows own reg key will be the same and can only be installed at the owners own PCs. Well, it should be so and only one registrated Windows at one PC. Microsoft knows my number and My windows XP has only ONE key code. And I had to unlock that. So, it would work wonders if every XP user gives just the XP key code and nothing more. Another way must be somehow for Win98 users... I dont know what so spontanius.So, every customer with WinXP can be registrated with the WinXP key code. That doesnt change no matter what I do to my system.>Torben,>>With respect I think you're missing the point. The reason for>this security is so the software cannot be installed on any>machine except the one the registration code was generated>from.>>It shouldn't be necessary for so many different components to>be interrogated before establishing that machine is valid and>I certainly wouldn't expect any software changes to make this>necessary.>>I now have a new registration number so as far as I'm>concerned this topic is closed.>>Cheers,