Friday, January 21, 2005
Software Activation Goes Wrong
Posted by Jason Dunn in "ARTICLE" @ 06:00 AM
"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?"
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:
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:
