Filed under: Business, Internet
Does product activation suck?
Across two posts, Charles Miller describes an unfortunate experience with re-registering NewsFire, a popular Mac RSS client. NewsFire's developer, Dave Watanabe, implemented a registration system that simply asks for the email address used to register the software, which the app then checks against a central server Watanabe maintains.The problem arose when Miller tried to re-activate NewsFire after switching Macs and wiping Mac OS X a couple of times (he goofs around with OS seeds and a lot of software). After one too many activations, NewsFire eventually told him that his email was no longer valid, in which case Miller emailed Watanabe to see what was going on. Check out Watanabe's response:
While you may now activate your software again, the evidence suggests that you've activated your single-user license from a suspiciously wide variety of locations. An explanation would be appreciated. I don't want to have to presume this is breach of license.This 'interesting' response prompted Miller to explore the many and unfortunately ugly faces of product activation (as well as the fine line between customer service and disservice), and plenty of questions have resurfaced in the ongoing discussion of software and licensing. Is replacing a registration name and key with nothing but an email address a good idea? How about tying a key to specific hardware? Can we trust users with activation systems that *don't* phone home? Should these complications force product activation in the nether-regions of our hard drives, or is there a better idea on the horizon?
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bob Jones said 6:03PM on 4-17-2007
Microsoft has hit it just about right, I've rarely had trouble with Windows and never had any trouble with Office ... most importantly, their customer service department always, always, edges on the side of customer innocence - WGA has diminished that slightly though.
The response from NewsWire is shocking.
I think Windows software should rely on Windows license key for security, and leave it to Microsoft to weed out fraudlent users.
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Peter said 6:31PM on 4-17-2007
I agree with Bob. MS is really pretty good about it. I move licenses around a lot at work and need to rebuild machines when people leave. I've never had a problem reactivating.
The obvious problem with activation is that the company can never know with 100% certainty that the person isn't telling the truth about why they need to re-activate for the 24th time. Denying someone the use of software they legitimately paid for is the sure way to lose customers.
The best use of activation is to catch known pirated keys. So in one sense it does exactly what anti-piracy measures should do, stop real pirates while not inconveniencing the individual user.
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Phour ZwanZig said 9:50PM on 4-17-2007
I too have had to make a call to MS.. I have an OEM copy of windows and upgraded a year later, the whole pc, not thinking about the activation.. Well ofcourse it wouldnt go on its own.. A call to MS and 10-15 Mins later, I had it goin on my new system.. They didnt even really question if I was pirating.. They did ask if it was runnin on more than one, but that was it.. And no, its only on one PC.. Didnt wanna part with my Proc so I have a PC missing one now.. :)-
So anyone that thinks OEM has to stay with your old pc.. Its true, but not totally.. People at work were actually suprised MS did this for me..
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Matt said 10:51PM on 4-17-2007
What's ridiculous here is the way he's doing licencing. It's too bad he's using something public, like someone's EMAIL.
I agree with registration, and reasonable limits, but only if the product registration is predicated on something reasonable and private.
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Colin said 11:02PM on 4-17-2007
Mr. Watanbe's response isn't unfriendly, though I certainly wouldn't appreciate being accused of piracy either.
Mr. Miller should provide a succinct response, and we'll go from there.
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James said 12:27PM on 4-18-2007
The problem with activation is that it inconveniences regular users (like Mr. Miller), while truly malicious users will just bypass the activation check altogether. There has never been, and will never be on backwards-compatible PC architectures, an un-defeatable activation scheme, just like there's no such thing as unbreakable cryptography. You can make it harder to break; you can make it take longer; you can make it less attractive; you *cannot* make it perfect. I think there's a reason that Apple is starting to offer non-DRM music, and it's the same reason that software activation will remain unpopular: the market, though it took a while to do so, is at work, and is telling suppliers that activation is more trouble than it's worth.
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james 42 said 6:55PM on 4-18-2007
Flaky Adobe activation was a huge pain for me with CS2. I eventually got is resolved, but it begged the question, if they make is so hard to BUY a copy of their software when it is so much easier to steal it, why bother?
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shandy1948 said 6:08AM on 4-20-2007
Although the Newsfire experience was clearly negative, people can be unfairly critical on the issue of product activation in general. There's an intriguing article (from a non-Microsoft source) *defending* Microsoft Product Activation here:
http://www.robinontech.com/2007/04/20/in-defence-of-microsoft-product-activation/
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