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Reader Voices: Activation Reaction | 10 comments (10 topical) | Post A Comment
We control the cash flow ...[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#1)
by RocDoc on Wed Sep 10, 2003 at 07:54:18 PM PDT

Product activation. Copyright protection. The desire of the legitimate owners of their work to make a profit on the fruits of their labor in our capitalist society.

Outrageous pricing. Perceived poor value. The consensus of many potential end users of a vendor's product.

Reactive response - We choose to "pirate" the product. We justify it by saying "They'll never miss it, I'm just one small fish in a big pond" or "They're such a big company, they make so much from everyone else at the prices they charge" or "They deserve this treatment because they rip me off with their crappy product".

Proactive response - We choose to find alternatives to the "offending" product. Freeware instead of retail pricing. Open source instead of licenses. "Grassroots" musicians instead of record label execs. Linux instead of Windows. (No flames need reply).

We can choose to speak our minds in our society simply by letting remembering the adage "Money talks and B.S. walks!" If you don't like it, don't buy it. If you pirate it, then you sanction the response of the vendor, including product activation and copyright protection (not to mention possible legal action).

I dislike product activation. It hinders my use of the product. It induces consequences as outlined in Ed's story. I can choose to vote with my wallet and not buy any future product from the offending vendor. However, I hold the reactionaries just as responsible as the vendors for this situation. Their actions helped to create the issue, with a few exceptions (Computer Associates and Intuit quickly come to mind).

I have a choice. If I don't like a vendor's protection mechanism, then I don't use the vendor's product. If I can't find a suitable replacement, then again I have a choice. I balance the loss of productivity that comes from not using the offending vendor's product versus the acquisition of inconveniences by using the offending vendor's product.

In the end ... It's your choice .



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Reader Voices: Activation Reaction | 10 comments (10 topical) | Post A Comment
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