Product Activation Still Coming

from the will-do-nothing dept

Despite Intuit's failed attempt at adding "product activation" to their tax software, it looks like plenty of software companies are gearing up to offer some form of product activation in the near future. From the quotes in the article, it's clear that most of the people looking at product activation simply don't understand why it's a bad idea. They say that the reason people are pissed off is because of the privacy issues around product activation. While it's true that some are pissed off about it, many more are angry that when their computer crashes, or when they just do a simple reinstall, they're suddenly being told that the product they paid good money for won't install because it's been installed before. Meanwhile, the real "pirates" who are reselling copies of the software have already figured out ways around any copy protection. In other words, product activation does nothing to stop the problem they're claiming to stop, and does plenty to upset your legitimate customers. The only person in the article who seems to acknowledge this fact is a representative from Adobe who points out that they're going to have to "give something back" to users in exchange for product activation - recognizing the fact that they're making the product less valuable to consumers.