http://www.Curtis-M-Kularski.info
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Does Product Activation really affect you? Unless you are a software pirate or beta tester, Microsoft's Product Activation doesn't really affect you. Microsoft's product activation isn't as strict as many people claim it to be. 1 Copy, 1 Install -- The 1 license, 1 install rule can be a bit misleading. Product Activation is designed to not affect a normal person's re-install practices. If you reinstall on the same basic configuration, then product activation will detect this and should cause you no real problems. The Activation Wizard is designed to allow as many re-installs as needed on any single computer with the same configuration. Hardware changes – Microsoft is not stupid, they know that users sometimes need to change their hardware. Office XP and Windows XP handle system configuration changes in their own way. Office XP handles changes by allowing up to a 25% change in the Activation generated key. Windows XP allows a certain amount of devices to change in a certain amount of time. Phone Activation – In the event that the Activation Wizard doesn’t like something that you did, you may need to call Microsoft to obtain a phone activation authorization. Contrary to popular belief, the Microsoft Representative will not ask you a lot of personal questions, or even request a reason for the Activation. If you are calling for the 8th time in just a few weeks, you may be asked for a reason, or even be denied activation. Web Activation – Internet Activation is only allowed twice on Office XP. The most logical reason for this limit is because one day, someone might find a way to trick the Internet Activation system. Legal Limitations – It is Microsoft’s software, they can do whatever they want with it, but you don’t have to buy it. Microsoft is not breaking any laws with their Activation system, however; Microsoft is preventing people from breaking the EULA (End User License Agreement). How much info do I have to give? – During a normal activation for most users, the only information you will have to give is your country of residence. The registration after Activation is 100% optional, but I fill it out anyway. Why are so many people mad? – Most of the people who don’t like activation are software pirates. I have heard a lot of complaints from software pirates, but normal computer users and even power users are having no problems with Activation. Are the workarounds legal? -- I am not a lawyer, but from the way I understand the EULA, the “cracks” aren’t legal, because they change something in the software to make it avoid activation. The DATA.DAT workaround appears to be legal (because you aren’t altering anything), but it only works on the computer from which you installed Office XP. My opinion – I think that Activation is a good way for Microsoft to protect what is theirs. My only concern is what will happen if there is another Microsoft DNS failure like there was in Spring 2001. |
Curtis M. Kularski |
