DRM's- opinions?
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Was doing some light reading on a site linked from a previous lounge post and found an interesting article (http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2003/10/16/91235/006[^]) about Intuit's drm agreement and remembered my own personal experiences with this rancorous process. I can understand Intuit's (and other) software makers drive to make these types of drm's. For those of you wondering what I'm talking about: Specifically, Intuit's Turbo Tax 2002 did an online/via phone registration process at install time. After installing one, if you installed Turbo Tax on a different computer, it wouldn't work, unless you spent another $30 (whatever...exact price doesn't matter) for another license. On the surface, these things seem reasonable for someone (especially Intuit*) to do. Here was my 2002 Turbo Tax experience (and thusly, why drm's are annoying to us legitimate users): INstalled turbo tax on my computer which was, alas, on its last legs. Went through registration process, finished install-- ran program *BAM* crashed. Tinkered. *BAM* crashed. This goes on. I think "Eh well, up yours old computer". Pull out my laptop, install Turbo tax, register it, Intuit says "Up ours? Up yours! Already registered you bastard pirate! Go away or pay us $30". The date: April 13th. (For those in the U.S., you'll know exactly what I'm talking about). Long story even longer... I figured out what my problem was after about 30 minutes, but the point remains the same. I was a legitimate user on a deadline and the program was crashing due to a system problem (outside of the control of Intuit). Once it was registered, you're done. All options are gone except to either make it work on the first computer or pay the new license fee (or cry so convincingly to Intuit that they give you an out-- not likely) *Ultimately, I understand Intuit's desire to do this. Because a common thing to do with Turbo Tax was this: Jack buys turbo tax. Does his taxes. Gives the program to his sister Wanda. Wanda installs it, does her taxes. Gives it to her friend at work, Julie, who does her taxes... and so on. However, my particular experience is why so many legit users get annoyed. Does anyone have any opinions as to how to satisfy a corporations desire to fight real piracy vs. annoying the living crap out of legit users (like myself in the Intuit ca
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Was doing some light reading on a site linked from a previous lounge post and found an interesting article (http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2003/10/16/91235/006[^]) about Intuit's drm agreement and remembered my own personal experiences with this rancorous process. I can understand Intuit's (and other) software makers drive to make these types of drm's. For those of you wondering what I'm talking about: Specifically, Intuit's Turbo Tax 2002 did an online/via phone registration process at install time. After installing one, if you installed Turbo Tax on a different computer, it wouldn't work, unless you spent another $30 (whatever...exact price doesn't matter) for another license. On the surface, these things seem reasonable for someone (especially Intuit*) to do. Here was my 2002 Turbo Tax experience (and thusly, why drm's are annoying to us legitimate users): INstalled turbo tax on my computer which was, alas, on its last legs. Went through registration process, finished install-- ran program *BAM* crashed. Tinkered. *BAM* crashed. This goes on. I think "Eh well, up yours old computer". Pull out my laptop, install Turbo tax, register it, Intuit says "Up ours? Up yours! Already registered you bastard pirate! Go away or pay us $30". The date: April 13th. (For those in the U.S., you'll know exactly what I'm talking about). Long story even longer... I figured out what my problem was after about 30 minutes, but the point remains the same. I was a legitimate user on a deadline and the program was crashing due to a system problem (outside of the control of Intuit). Once it was registered, you're done. All options are gone except to either make it work on the first computer or pay the new license fee (or cry so convincingly to Intuit that they give you an out-- not likely) *Ultimately, I understand Intuit's desire to do this. Because a common thing to do with Turbo Tax was this: Jack buys turbo tax. Does his taxes. Gives the program to his sister Wanda. Wanda installs it, does her taxes. Gives it to her friend at work, Julie, who does her taxes... and so on. However, my particular experience is why so many legit users get annoyed. Does anyone have any opinions as to how to satisfy a corporations desire to fight real piracy vs. annoying the living crap out of legit users (like myself in the Intuit ca
Paul Oss wrote: Does anyone have any opinions as to how to satisfy a corporations desire to fight real piracy vs. annoying the living crap out of legit users (like myself in the Intuit case) and causing them to wander elsewhere for their next purchase? Show them the result of customers leaving because of this kind of attitude, and they'll get off their high hobby horse real fast. Best way to fight piracy: provide exceptional value for the money (and this includes support, documentation, product updates, and the product ACTUALLY WORKING RIGHT THE FIRST TIME).
Todd C. Wilson (meme@nopcode.com) NOPcode.com Skinning Toolkit MP3 Server for Windows And Lots More "The source, it was leaked : therefore, it must be rewritten."
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Was doing some light reading on a site linked from a previous lounge post and found an interesting article (http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2003/10/16/91235/006[^]) about Intuit's drm agreement and remembered my own personal experiences with this rancorous process. I can understand Intuit's (and other) software makers drive to make these types of drm's. For those of you wondering what I'm talking about: Specifically, Intuit's Turbo Tax 2002 did an online/via phone registration process at install time. After installing one, if you installed Turbo Tax on a different computer, it wouldn't work, unless you spent another $30 (whatever...exact price doesn't matter) for another license. On the surface, these things seem reasonable for someone (especially Intuit*) to do. Here was my 2002 Turbo Tax experience (and thusly, why drm's are annoying to us legitimate users): INstalled turbo tax on my computer which was, alas, on its last legs. Went through registration process, finished install-- ran program *BAM* crashed. Tinkered. *BAM* crashed. This goes on. I think "Eh well, up yours old computer". Pull out my laptop, install Turbo tax, register it, Intuit says "Up ours? Up yours! Already registered you bastard pirate! Go away or pay us $30". The date: April 13th. (For those in the U.S., you'll know exactly what I'm talking about). Long story even longer... I figured out what my problem was after about 30 minutes, but the point remains the same. I was a legitimate user on a deadline and the program was crashing due to a system problem (outside of the control of Intuit). Once it was registered, you're done. All options are gone except to either make it work on the first computer or pay the new license fee (or cry so convincingly to Intuit that they give you an out-- not likely) *Ultimately, I understand Intuit's desire to do this. Because a common thing to do with Turbo Tax was this: Jack buys turbo tax. Does his taxes. Gives the program to his sister Wanda. Wanda installs it, does her taxes. Gives it to her friend at work, Julie, who does her taxes... and so on. However, my particular experience is why so many legit users get annoyed. Does anyone have any opinions as to how to satisfy a corporations desire to fight real piracy vs. annoying the living crap out of legit users (like myself in the Intuit ca
Thanks, because of your story, I don't regret going to TaxCut last year. And as long as they don't have all the registration/spyware crap that TurboTax does, I'll use TaxCut again this year. So, ironically, Intuit lost a customer because it is trying to fight piracy. I think Intuit screwed up here though, it shouldn't tie the program to a copmuter and allow just one instance of the program - it should tie it to a user. For a tax program, that would work well... nobody will want to turn in a tax form with somebody else's name on it... If your nose runs and your feet smell, then you're built upside down.