About Piracy but not about that guy...

[Alex Tweedly]

Andre Garzia wrote:

> On the subject of piracy. Does anyone here remembers the Apple Newton? 
> Each newton had a unique ID that could not be spoofed, so the 
> combination of unique ID and the users own data was a good way to 
> generate serials, for example to register an app you'd open a webpage 
> and enter your email and your newton unique id. This way piaracy was 
> minimal for no one could forge or fake a newton ID... I think 
> computers should have the same thing, would make life easier.
>
You mean, if my machine breaks, and I replace it, I need to re-register 
all the programs I ever bought ?
What about programs from companies that go out of business or just 
disappear ?

I think that's a very user-unfriendly form of registration;  once I've 
bought software, I should be able to run it on any machine I want to - 
limited to one machine at a time if the software mfr chooses, or to one 
user id, or ...   But should not be limited to one piece of (breakable, 
losable) hardware without some guaranteed way to switch to a replacement.


Hmmm - I guess I would feel better about that kind of scheme if the 
registration (and re-registration) were used by multiple software 
manufacturers, and the registration was handled say by a third-party or 
particularly large company (e.g. Apple) or some escrow provider.

-- 
Alex Tweedly       http://www.tweedly.net



-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.322 / Virus Database: 267.4.1 - Release Date: 02/06/2005