Re: It's evil and malicious
I am not defending MS or the DRM stuff but the entire reason it is there is because these companies see a need to protect their investment. Reactivation is a real pain in the arse particularly when there is no apparent need, it just wastes time and drives legitimate people insane. The arguments along the lines of the software/film/CD is a rip-off etc are not an excuse to use pirated copies. If you don't want to pay then find an opensource, free or cheaper alternative. Now that can be an issue if you need Windows to run a certain application but if there are no alternatives, then the OS cost is part of the overall cost of the software.
Most of the companies making a really big deal out of activation are large corporations that generally got to where they are by charging significant amounts of money for a product lots of people needed to use. It then became ubiquitous (monopoly?) and some have been taking the piss, increasing licensing costs and making compliance ever more onerous (Adobe).
Equally there are some niche software solutions that require license servers, dongles or activation where they simply have not choice. If they didn't then the hard reality is that unscrupulous people will use unlicensed copies impacting their ability to provide support and upgrades for legitimate users.
If you look at products such as Fusion 2020, Winner Design (both kitchen planning) and to some extent Sibelius (music notation) the investment to create, update and maintain is huge and the solution is used as a core part of a business to generate revenue. There are cheaper or free alternatives but they are simply not up to the job.
Open source and freeware has it's place but there is equally plenty of people who are prepared to pay for a commercial product for the benefits. Just don't expect the benefits of "free" by using
Biting the hand that feeds IT
