Jim you should clearly spend more time answering your customer email than post on a hobby forum... Benjamin

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Benjamin,You really don't want to know the details for your ASE problem posted here because it fits right in with what we are discussing.

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I bought ASE today, with activation problem, so i sent an Email 14 hours ago... No answer...But time to post here...You think it's -1 but it's -49 on my bank account for a software i can't useBenjamin

No, it's not facetious. It's proving a point. The posters want the developers to risk absolutely everything for their convenience... and yet we all know they are unwilling to actually share the risk.I will clarify one thing... 'system wipe': I mean wipe all software from the system that was covered by the protection software. You violate the license, you lose all the software covered by it. Not just one item. All of it. And yes, I do believe that is legal. You can revoke a license to use software.

If it's not facetious then it's as ludicrous as the suggestions that developer's shouldn't protect their products.Anyway, if the installler can detect an attempt to install illegal software then it can refuse to install it which would achieve your objective - I doubt you can guarantee that there would be no false positives. Wiping out other legal software would be regarded as disproportionate, malicious and leave you open the legal action.

Benjamin,You really don't want to know the details for your ASE problem posted here because it fits right in with what we are discussing.

I know the details, but i don't know why i can't have a good support to make the soft i just bought work.

Highway patrol officer to another- "Do you realize how much revenue is being lost because we don't have radar to catch the speeders?"So the radar was installed and soon the officer again complained- "Do you realize how much revenue is being lost because now that we have radar, no one is speeding."------------Does anyone really have evidence that the pirate downloaders would actually purchase the software, if piracy was somehow made impossible? My guess is that the revenue increase would be hard to measure.Theft is theft but with an intangible like software, loss prevention doesn't necessarily translate into more income.AR

AR,I'll share what I can. No there are no hard numbers, but I can tell you that with our key system there is a unique system event that tells us that a person who has borrowed our software and then decides to purchase happens. There is only one possible explanation for this event, and no, no harm is done to the system. Also, please notice that I did not use the word "pirate", though some might. However, the user does need to write to us to solve this situation. So based on those e-mails alone I do have a number and it is more than a "few" or a "couple".

You can revoke a license to use software.

Yes a company could revoke a software license but I believe that they would only have the right to disable (as in make inoperative) said software. I just see a major legal issue if revoking a license entailed automatically and without warning removing the software from ones system especially since one could have legally purchased other software with the same license. Can you legally destroy something that someone legally obtained?Now what I could see happening would be an installer that detects if there is software on an individuals computer that has been obtained illegally (checked against registry entries, duplicate used serial keys, registered names not equaling user name, etc.) then all of the illegal software on that computer is removed. I think that would be legal because the user would have no rights or license to actually having/owning that software on their system. But as said in another post the checks and measures would have to be a 100% accurate with no false positives.Todd

AR,I'll share what I can. No there are no hard numbers, but I can tell you that with our key system there is a unique system event that tells us that a person who has borrowed our software and then decides to purchase happens. There is only one possible explanation for this event, and no, no harm is done to the system. Also, please notice that I did not use the word "pirate", though some might. However, the user does need to write to us to solve this situation. So based on those e-mails alone I do have a number and it is more than a "few" or a "couple".

"system event" so what you leave garbage in the registries even though the person uninstalled the software? As someone said before maybe you should concentrate on making the paying users experience better.

Hi,Nope, no garbage, just data that makes a re-install and a re-set up a lot easier for the PAYING customer which in turn leads to a BETTER EXPERIENCE.

Hi,Nope, no garbage, just data that makes a re-install and a re-set up a lot easier for the PAYING customer which in turn leads to a BETTER EXPERIENCE.

You guys are about as locked down as you are going to get in FS... I really don't see the benefit here other than providing a few select customers a slap on the hand. Technically you could be distributing for free with a 1 or 2 week trial... wouldn't that be a better way to attract more paying customers?

Technically you could be distributing for free with a 1 or 2 week trial... wouldn't that be a better way to attract more paying customers?

That IS what they do...no?

Technically, we don't want to program a demo and then watch the hackers attempt to turn it into a full version.

Technically, we don't want to program a demo and then watch the hackers attempt to turn it into a full version.

I understand that but you realize the guy that is going to hack it might be the guy first in line to buy it. You aren't really battling thousands of torrent users, you are battling one single bad apple. The sad part is all the developers are battling the same one or two guys over and over. You have to admit the live element of the Active Sky products, has contributed to it's success? Personally as a user, I wouldn't mind reactivating every time I used the product, heck StarCraft II asks me for my password each and everytime. If it's the only way to do it properly so be it, just don't think any offline schemes are going to cut it as protection.

Yes a company could revoke a software license but I believe that they would only have the right to disable (as in make inoperative) said software. I just see a major legal issue if revoking a license entailed automatically and without warning removing the software from ones system especially since one could have legally purchased other software with the same license. Can you legally destroy something that someone legally obtained?Now what I could see happening would be an installer that detects if there is software on an individuals computer that has been obtained illegally (checked against registry entries, duplicate used serial keys, registered names not equaling user name, etc.) then all of the illegal software on that computer is removed. I think that would be legal because the user would have no rights or license to actually having/owning that software on their system. But as said in another post the checks and measures would have to be a 100% accurate with no false positives.Todd

The end user doesn't own the software. They purchase a license to use it. If the license is revoked... the software is no longer legally on their system.