Regardless of everyone's opinions and/or knowledge about the damaging of the CD's, here are some ideas:* Use the original CD and take your chances.* Use a no-CD crack, and risk incompatabilities with programs like FSUIPC and other add-ons.* Use disk imaging software to create a local, on the hard-drive picture of your FS2004 CD. So long as you don't need the 700MB (which isn't *that* big these days), keep it there and enjoy FS2004 without your CD. Personally, I'll be creating an on-drive image. I do too much CD swapping to want to take the chance, PLUS I know my CD burner cannot support the *writing* of Safedisk-type copy protections, so making another CD would be useless. Good luck to all, and to all a good night...-Greg

In Australia i had just found out recently that you cant make a copy of software that you have perchased for the simple reson makeing a backup copy is considerd piracy.... (but I really dont expect much from Australias backward law system)

I use the NO CD crack for all my gaming I then put away my cd's and forget about them.I got sick of pulling them in and out.Tony

>I use the NO CD crack for all my gaming I then put away my>cd's and forget about them.I got sick of pulling them in and>out.>>TonyI really have to chuckle. FS Simmers for the most part are the most anal bunch of anti-piracy folks to hit the road. We openly abuse everyone who even infers that piracy is ok. Yet, we feel completely justified breaking the EULA to make "archival" copies, even to the point of going to the warez site to get those NO-CD Cracks from those dispicable pirates that provide us with such a useful service.What a joke. Pirates may be scum, but they sure can be useful scum sometimes can't they.(BTW...I am against all anti-piracy measures, and think the best way to eliminate or minimize piracy is to provide a great product, and great customer support at a very competitive price. Wal-Mart has somehow become the World's Largest Retailer while retaining the World's most liberal return policy and being one of the most hit targets by shoplifters....)

You are quite correct, and I am all in favour of such laws as they at last make it possible to go after the people who create software whose sole purpose is to crack software protection (which is written with the express purpose of enabling piracy no matter what the authors may claim).

I've never had a CD crack in any drive no matter what the speed.That's just another excuse made up by pirates to give some legality to their actions (just as the "punishing large corporations", "it's really a patch and therefore I have a right to get it free", "it's not illegal if I don't make money from it", "I only want to try it before buying", etc. etc.).Actually, people with old drives will be more likely to suffer damaged disks because the bearings that prevent vibrations (which in turn might cause the disk to spin unstable and touch the tray or walls of the drive) wear out in time.

>>I use the NO CD crack for all my gaming I then put away my>>cd's and forget about them.I got sick of pulling them in and>>out.>>>>Tony>>>I really have to chuckle. FS Simmers for the most part are>the most anal bunch of anti-piracy folks to hit the road. >>We openly abuse everyone who even infers that piracy is ok. >Yet, we feel completely justified breaking the EULA to make>"archival" copies, even to the point of going to the warez>site to get those NO-CD Cracks from those dispicable pirates>that provide us with such a useful service.>some of them maybe. But not all.The only reason I would visit piracy sites is to get screenshots to send to their hosting providers and law enforcement in order to get them shut down..."Archival copies" be damned, if my original breaks after X years of service I replace it with another original. It will have provided more than its money's worth during that time... (in fact, I've done so several times in the past...).>>What a joke. Pirates may be scum, but they sure can be useful>scum sometimes can't they.>yes, to vent frustration and gain some browny points from software manufacturers for turning them in :)>(BTW...I am against all anti-piracy measures, and think the>best way to eliminate or minimize piracy is to provide a great>product, and great customer support at a very competitive>price. Wal-Mart has somehow become the World's Largest>Retailer while retaining the World's most liberal return>policy and being one of the most hit targets by>shoplifters....)>Provinding a great product doesn't prevent piracy. In fact, it attracts it as their is more money to be made from selling pirated copies of a great product than a mediocre one...I am all in favour of anti-piracy measures, the stricter the better.Bring on subscription based software, remote hosted with core components being loaded onto your computer from the manufacturer as you boot the program only after validation of your credentials.Give those away to someone else and YOU pay whenever they use it (as there's a per-use charge involved of course).Current software IS competitive. Especially on FS and related titles margins are minimal. Charge any less and the companies will be running a loss.

>That's just another excuse made up by pirates to give some legality to their actions.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

I have talken to a friend, who is a lawyer specialized in copyright issues. He says, that making back up copies for PERSONAL USE, is not forbidden by Austrian law and by the laws of countries, which are member of the EU. But, if you are burning more back up copies than you need for your personal use, then you will have a legal problem. :-)Just like possessing a certain amount of Marihuana for personal use is not against the law, but owing more that you can personally consume is against the law, because this implies, that you are dealing with it - and this is forbidden.Wolfgang

>>I use the NO CD crack for all my gaming I then put away my>>cd's and forget about them.I got sick of pulling them in and>>out.>>>>Tony>>>(BTW...I am against all anti-piracy measures, and think the>best way to eliminate or minimize piracy is to provide a great>product, and great customer support at a very competitive>price. Wal-Mart has somehow become the World's Largest>Retailer while retaining the World's most liberal return>policy and being one of the most hit targets by>shoplifters....)>Well said, I always copy my cd's to the harddrive and mount the images. I am really tired of all these protection schemes. They always fail and they are only a pain.

I don't assume anything, I've heard it all.Some people might be fooled by such excuses into believing such things are real and valid reasons but that doesn't make them so.

jwenting wrote:"Archival copies" be damned, if my original breaks after X years of service I replace it with another original. It will have provided more than its money's worth during that time... (in fact, I've done so several times in the past...)."So if I understand you correctly, you don't mind paying twice for the same product? Software developers must love you.And it's a good thing you weren't here the night a Kenwood CD drive committed suicide, taking a pristine (as in just purchased and going thru the install) Adobe PhotoShop LE disc with it. Surely, your world would have been turned upside down witnessing such an impossible event.

I had this happen to me too. A perfectly new CD of an RC helicopter training simulator ($400), one install and the CD became unreadable. Nobody could get me a new copy. I've never been able to play it again. Thank God we have software that can read these CD's now, so I can put them on my harddrive the minute I buy the software. I just bought GTA vice city. Some kind of new protection scheme (securom). It accesses the CD every few minutes and I just finished a hard mission and here it goes... CD seems to be stuck on some intentionally bad blocks and the entire system hangs. This stuff gets worse every month. I made a copy on my harddrive and with securom emulation enabled I'm now able to play the game without further trouble. They just force you to make copies!

Let's propose this to Microsoft:I will promise not to use any scheme to bypass copy-protection. I will promise not to make backup copies, and instead only use the original CD every time I play.In return, Microsoft will promise to immediately replace any damaged CD that is returned to it. This would be done either through retailers, who would replace the disk on a no-questions-asked basis, or through mail-in to Microsoft, who would offer same-day turnaround and free next-day shipping, plus re-imbursement of my cost to return the disk to them. As compensation for the inconvenience, Microsoft would also provide a coupon good for a free copy of the next version of Flight Simulator.

Heh, the never ending discussion :-)I've experienced unusable CDs after using them. But not by normal use, but my own habit to take it out and putting it on the computer without the cd-cover.My answer: I'll make a copy of CD4 and use it myself. Sue me!/ Olle R