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My first thoughts were quite negative -- I hate it when a software vendor takes my money and gives me a product that doesn't work until I jump through all manner of hoops and hurdles to prove that I'm not a pirate.

In fact I was just a little outraged.

Why on earth should I (or anyone else) buy software from a company that presumes you're immediately going to rush off and illegally duplicate or distribute it?

Imagine if, when you walked into your local supermarket, you were confronted by a big burly security guard who hauled you off into a little room and forced you to prove that you weren't there to steal the shop's wares.

This would never happen in the "real world" right?

Well, after some reflection, I realised that it does.

Few shops will accept a cheque these days unless you have multiple forms of ID, and even then they'll ring the Telecheck people to ensure you're not a fraudster. Yes -- that's right, you have to prove you're not trying to rip them off -- just like with Adobe Photoshop.

Let's not forget also that most of Microsoft's software now relies on a PA code when you (re)install it. It seems that Bill doesn't trust us not to pirate his software but we're supposed to trust him to provide secure and "trustworthy" code -- hmmmm.

It's also worth noting that PA is really little different to the digital rights management (DRM) systems that are being foisted upon us. They also presume that every customer is a crook.

I have to admit that I'm still of two minds over this whole issue.

On the one hand I can see that software developers have a right to protect themselves from illegal duplication and the losses that this can represent -- but on the other hand I get awfully offended when someone presumes I'm out to rip them off -- especially after I've just handed over a huge wad of money to *buy* their product.

Maybe (for me) the distinction between acceptable and unacceptable PA systems is the way in which they're implemented.

I don't like Microsoft's PA -- it ties the software to a particular hardware configuration. Who bought this software -- my computer or me?

That's unacceptable -- I have several computers and believe that any sensible licencing and PA system should allow me to have a copy of any program I buy on any or all of those computers. After all, what's the difference between me using multiple instances of a web-browser on one PC or two separate copies on two different machines?

When *I* buy a word processor, I want to be able to work on my desktop PC and then pick up my portable and do some work while travelling -- without having to either first uninstall that program from the machine I left at home or buy another copy of that software.

In this regard, Borland have (or used to have, I haven't checked lately) an excellent licensing policy that effectively tied the licence to the purchaser rather than a single machine.

If you look around on my PC you'll see that lots of the programs I have here use product activation codes of one form or another. My MultiEdit program has one, TMPGenc has one, my licensed copy of PKZip has one -- but none are tied to the PC on which they run.

What you won't find here are any packages that tie a program to a machine. There's no Windows XP, no Office 2000, no latest version of Adobe Photoshop -- and there never will be.

I won't buy software from people who presume I'm a crook!

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