FSX-MS Why Does Microsoft Still Control Activation?

[vc10man 732]

Just re-installed FSX after a new system build. But when trying to activate it, which I find an anachronistic as they no longer support Flight Sims, and AFAIK, have dismantled their links to Flight Sims, and yet they hold sway on activation. And why should I have to go through all this stupid nonsense when I have purchased the FSX Gold disks? It's like buying a Chevvy outright for cash and each time you carry out an oil change, you have to get the ignition software released by activating it with GM!

 

Just does not make logical sense. Is this a case of the dying tentacles of the Microsoft octopus still clinging like limpets in today's world where it will not be long before Microsoft goes the same way as other monopolies?

 

I'm well and truly pxxxed off with this activation nonsense.

[Jim Young 2,356]

Hi Rick,

 

You had to buy your copy of FSX Gold and, if there were no activations required, then you could pass the FSX Gold edition to all of your friends and neighbors and there would be no reason for anyone to purchase the product again. Why should you have to purchase the product and others do not?

 

Best regards,

[vc10man 732]

Hi Jim

 

A good point. In fact a very valid point. But if I own that software and have paid hard cash for it, it is as much mine and mine alone as much as you buying a pound of steak at the nearest Walmart walking out of Walmart owning that pound of steak. Thus, if you decided to gift that steak to a down-and-out hobo on a street corner, out of your kindness, or decided to invite a pal or a gang of pals around to share that 20lbs of steak at a BBQ, or in the nearest park, would you say that Walmart had the sole right to dictate to you who you gifted that steak to or shared it with?

 

Likewise, I have bought the software outright, so if I wanted to gift it to my friends, if I had the mind to---not that I'm that generous in coughing up $$$ for a piece of software to just 'gift' it away----surely that is my choice as much as it is your choice in the scenario above, to gift away/share that Walmart steak. I do not see how, (1)when Microsoft were alive in the Flight Sim game, and they have a record of the activation key from the disks when it was first activated, so they well know it is a legit piece of software,(2) they can still, after they are long dead and buried in the Flight Sim real world, still be able to dictate 'you have exceeded the number of times activated' crap when going through a pointless activation nonsense.

 

Anyway, the long and short of it, I've done it thanks to a Freephone number they supplied, but the principle of the argument is still the same.

[charliearon 3,017]

An interesting thing to think about!  But, in reality, you have to remember that you don't

 

own the software, just the license to use it.

 

https://www.techdirt.com/blog/wireless/articles/20111209/08380617021/microsoft-reminds-everyone-you-do-not-own-your-software.shtml

[UK_Squiff 1]

You have to remember...Mickey$oft own YOU...not the other way around

[BillW 210]

The steak can't be copied.

[JF_Rich 9]

What charliearon says is absolutely right. Although you may own a physical copy of a game and be able to hold it in your hand, you don't own the rights the to software itself, just the rights for you to use it. You can't give it to your friend in the same way you couldn't give it to ACME CD replicators in order to make you a pile of copies to go sell at a carboot sale (or fleemarket).

 

Imagine if you could buy a steak to take home, eat it and then somehow (in a way that wouldn't be gross) pass it onto all your friends for them to eat it and then pass on to their friends. I'd imagine Walmart would start insisting, and enforcing, that only you ate the steak so that they were able to sell enough steaks to make it worthwhile for the farmer to raise cattle and bring them to market. If they could only sell one steak then the whole chain breaks down and nobody gets to enjoy any steaks... 

That software was made by Microsoft and they own and control what happens to it.   

[vc10man 732]

You have to remember...Mickey$oft own YOU...not the other way around

You could NOT have uttered a truer word. But their days are nigh. The days when they dictated to the world are coming to an end. Today's world will not accept such dictats.

 

If I only own the software and not the licence, how come when I install PMDG's 747-400X as I'm just doing and validate it with the supplied CD key, I do not have to go through the hoops to get it activated? It's into my FSX installation right away.

 

And even if a steak cannot be copied and a disk can, it nevertheless does not(a)take away who owns the steak and who owns the disk, and (b)even if a disk were copied, it'd fall at the first hurdle when the activation comedy started.

 

 

That software was made by Microsoft and they own and control what happens to it.

 

But they have long abandoned the Flight Simulator scene, so what gives them the right to control something that they no longer have an active part in? Kind of GM going defunct and 50 years later telling you that you HAVE to buy spare parts for your Oldsmobile engine from THEM! Eh?

[Floco777 2]

How many times you'll be able to use the steak again?

[JF_Rich 9]

But they have long abandoned the Flight Simulator scene, so what gives them the right to control something that they no longer have an active part in? Kind of GM going defunct and 50 years later telling you that you HAVE to buy spare parts for your Oldsmobile engine from THEM! Eh? 

 

But they do still have an active role Flight Simulator X. They still sell it in high street shops in the UK (and all over the world - I also saw it in shops in Germany and the USA last year). That means that they are still getting paid for their product. They might not be playing an active part in developing it further, but it's still theirs every bit as much as it was the day it was released. 

PMDG and MS are both doing the same thing - preventing people from copying their property. The only difference is the method they are using. If the question you posed was "why do Microsoft use such an awful activation system compared to PMDG, and most other people on this planet" then you would be spot on.

Another point on the active/dormant status of FSX is the recent Dovetail deal. Would Dovetail have been interested in paying Microsoft quite so much money for the rights to sell FSX if MS had decided to remove all the protection and make it open to anyone who wanted to download it. 

 

 

 

Also the steak is a really stupid analogy.

Alright, don't start a beef over it ;-)

[JSkorna 137]

 

 

I own that software and have paid hard cash for it, it is as much mine and mine alone

 

No it isn't your software. You are purchasing a license to install and use the software on a computer. That is why there is a EULA with the LA standing for License Agreement.

 

Microsoft is still selling FSX and is continuing to make some money from it, therefore it is not abandonware.

[Lowflyer 97]

Alright, don't start a beef over it ;-)

Haha!

[BeechPapa 32]

Microsoft could have been real D#@&S about it and had some software included on the

 

discs that after a successful install,  would self destruct in 5...4...3...2...1..Poof!

 

Now if you wanted to install on a new system, you'd be forced to buy another

 

copy.  I guess we're all "LUCKY" in the long run!

I'm pretty sure that would be illegal. We do have some protection as consumers, and if we don't take it on ourselves to stand for those rights, Microsoft certainly won't do it for us. When I exchange money for software, both the discs and the license, I don't consider myself lucky to have done so, it is simply a business transaction and both parties have responsibilities to that transaction.

[vc10man 732]

I'm pretty sure that would be illegal. We do have some protection as consumers, and if we don't take it on ourselves to stand for those rights, Microsoft certainly won't do it for us. When I exchange money for software, both the discs and the license, I don't consider myself lucky to have done so, it is simply a business transaction and both parties have responsibilities to that transaction.

Could not have stated in better. As for that steak analogy, it was the closest thing that sprang to my mind. I could not be bothered wasting time thinking of a much more apt one.

 

As for finding MS Flight Simulator software in the high street shops today.........................................................................!!!.....................must be really, really specialist shops because every major city I've been to and trawled through the usual high street gaming stores, it's been zilch. I must be dead unlucky!

[vololiberista 205]

Hi Jim

 

A good point. In fact a very valid point. But if I own that software and have paid hard cash for it, it is as much mine and mine alone as much as you buying a pound of steak at the nearest Walmart walking out of Walmart owning that pound of steak.

That's the difference between American and UK/European law. However much money you have paid for Windows as an example, under American law it's still not yours.  It's as it were a permanent leasehold with conditions attached. Under American law MS "own" everything that has their name.