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| ==Criticisms<ref>http://www.vttoth.com/CMS/16-articles/191-just-say-no-to-product-activation</ref>== | ==Criticisms<ref>http://www.vttoth.com/CMS/16-articles/191-just-say-no-to-product-activation</ref>== | ||
| * If a computer is stolen or destroyed, the activation records on it may be completely lost. It is only by the goodwill of the company that products can be re-activated. This makes backing up to guarantee prevention of substantial loss impossible. |
* If a computer is stolen or destroyed, the activation records on it may be completely lost. It is only by the goodwill of the company that products can be re-activated. This makes backing up to guarantee prevention of substantial loss impossible. | ||
| * It can cause inconvenience for the end-user, particularly if phone calls are necessary to complete activation or technical problems, such as ] blocks or activation server ], prevent the activation process from completing. |
* It can cause inconvenience for the end-user, particularly if phone calls are necessary to complete activation or technical problems, such as ] blocks or activation server ], prevent the activation process from completing. | ||
| * It can enforce ] restrictions that may be legally invalid. For example, a company may refuse to reactivate software on an upgraded or new PC, even if the user may have a legal right to use the product under such circumstances. |
* It can enforce ] restrictions that may be legally invalid. For example, a company may refuse to reactivate software on an upgraded or new PC, even if the user may have a legal right to use the product under such circumstances. | ||
| * If the company ceases to support a specific product (or declares ]), its purchased product may become unusable or incapable of being (re)installed unless an activation-free copy or final patch that removes or bypasses activation is released. |
* If the company ceases to support a specific product (or declares ]), its purchased product may become unusable or incapable of being (re)installed unless an activation-free copy or final patch that removes or bypasses activation is released. | ||
| * Although many activation schemes are anonymous, some are accompanied by mandatory registration which require providing the user's address, phone number, and other personal information before the product is activated. |
* Although many activation schemes are anonymous, some are accompanied by mandatory registration which require providing the user's address, phone number, and other personal information before the product is activated. | ||
| * Many |
* Many argue that product activation does not protect against piracy at all; pirates often find a way to circumvent product activation. | ||
| * Product activation has also resulted in many software vendors treating their customers with much more hostility than they did before they introduced it into their products. This can mean that all users, including those with no intention to illegally distribute their products or knowingly acquire or use bootleg copies, are suspected of being involved in activities related to piracy. | * Product activation has also resulted in many software vendors treating their customers with much more hostility than they did before they introduced it into their products. This can mean that all users, including those with no intention to illegally distribute their products or knowingly acquire or use bootleg copies, are suspected of being involved in activities related to piracy. | ||
| * Product activation where there is no straightforward way to transfer the license to another person to activate on their computer has been widely criticised as making second-hand sales of products, particularly games, very difficult. Some suspect companies such as EA to be using product activation to reduce second-hand sales of their games in order to increase sales of new copies. |
* Product activation where there is no straightforward way to transfer the license to another person to activate on their computer has been widely criticised as making second-hand sales of products, particularly games, very difficult. Some suspect companies such as EA to be using product activation to reduce second-hand sales of their games in order to increase sales of new copies. | ||
| ==List of known application software utilizing product activation== | ==List of known application software utilizing product activation== | ||
Revision as of 22:16, 7 January 2013
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Product activation" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Product activation is a license validation procedure required by some proprietary computer software programs. In one form, product activation refers to a method invented by Ric Richardson and patented (US 5,490,216) by Uniloc where a software application hashes hardware serial numbers and an ID number specific to the product's license (a product key) to generate a unique installation ID. This installation ID is sent to the manufacturer to verify the authenticity of the product key and to ensure that the product key is not being used for multiple installations.
Alternatively, the software vendor sends the user a unique product serial number. When the user installs the application it requests that the user enter their product serial number, and checks it with the vendor's systems over the Internet. The application obtains the license limits that apply to that user's license, such as a time limit or enabling of product features, from the vendor's system and optionally also locks the license to the user's system. Once activated the license continues working on the user's machine with no further communication required with the vendor's systems. Some activation systems also support activation on user systems without Internet connections; a common approach is to exchange encrypted files at an Internet terminal.
Microsoft Product Activation was introduced in the Brazilian version of Microsoft Office 97 Small Business Edition and Microsoft Word 97 sold in the Hungarian market. It broadened that successful pilot with the release of Microsoft Publisher 98 in the Brazilian market. Microsoft then rolled out product activation in its flagship Microsoft Office 2000 product. All retail copies sold in Australia, Brazil, China, France, and New Zealand, as well as some sold in Canada and the United States, required the user to activate the product via the Internet. However, all copies of Office 2000 do not require activation after April 15, 2003. After its success, the product activation system was extended worldwide and incorporated into Windows XP and Office XP and all subsequent versions of Windows and Office. Despite independently developing its own technology, in April 2009 a jury found Microsoft to have willfully infringed Uniloc's patent. However, in September 2009, US District Judge William Smith "vacated" the jury's verdict and ruled in favour of Microsoft. This ruling was subsequently overturned in 2011.
An 'unactivated' product usually acts as a time-limited trial until a product key—a number encoded as a sequence of alphanumeric characters—is purchased and used to activate the software. Some products allow licenses to be transferred from one machine to another using online tools, without having to call technical support to deactivate the copy on the old machine before reactivating it on the new machine.
An early example of product activation was in the MS-DOS program D'Bridge Email System written by Chris Irwin, a commercial network system for BBS users and Fidonet. The program generated a unique serial number which then called the author's BBS via a dialup modem connection. Upon connection, the serial number was validated. A unique "key" was returned which allowed the program to continue for a trial period. If two D'Bridge systems communicated using the same key, the software deliberately crashed. The software has long since had the entire activation system removed and is now freeware by Nick J. Andre, Ltd.
Some companies such as Adobe require users to "transfer" activation when moving a product from one computer to another, when replacing hardware in an existing computer, or when reformatting a system hard drive. Transfer may involve deactivating a product on the old system before activating it on the new system. Users may be required to be online and to transmit the deactivation to the software provider.
Criticisms
- If a computer is stolen or destroyed, the activation records on it may be completely lost. It is only by the goodwill of the company that products can be re-activated. This makes backing up to guarantee prevention of substantial loss impossible.
- It can cause inconvenience for the end-user, particularly if phone calls are necessary to complete activation or technical problems, such as firewall blocks or activation server downtime, prevent the activation process from completing.
- It can enforce software license agreement restrictions that may be legally invalid. For example, a company may refuse to reactivate software on an upgraded or new PC, even if the user may have a legal right to use the product under such circumstances.
- If the company ceases to support a specific product (or declares bankruptcy), its purchased product may become unusable or incapable of being (re)installed unless an activation-free copy or final patch that removes or bypasses activation is released.
- Although many activation schemes are anonymous, some are accompanied by mandatory registration which require providing the user's address, phone number, and other personal information before the product is activated.
- Many argue that product activation does not protect against piracy at all; pirates often find a way to circumvent product activation.
- Product activation has also resulted in many software vendors treating their customers with much more hostility than they did before they introduced it into their products. This can mean that all users, including those with no intention to illegally distribute their products or knowingly acquire or use bootleg copies, are suspected of being involved in activities related to piracy.
- Product activation where there is no straightforward way to transfer the license to another person to activate on their computer has been widely criticised as making second-hand sales of products, particularly games, very difficult. Some suspect companies such as EA to be using product activation to reduce second-hand sales of their games in order to increase sales of new copies.
List of known application software utilizing product activation
- ACDSee
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Adobe eLearning Suite
- Adobe Technical Communication Suite
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
- Adobe Photoshop Elements
- Adobe Premiere Elements
- Alcohol 120%
- AutoCollage 2008
- CATIA
- Daemon Tools Professional
- ESET NOD32
- ESET Smart Security
- Kaspersky Anti-Virus
- Kaspersky Internet Security
- Mathematica
- MATLAB R2008a and later
- McAfee Personal Firewall Plus
- McAfee VirusScan
- Microsoft Expression Studio 3 and later
- Microsoft MapPoint 2009 and later
- Microsoft Math 3.0
- Microsoft Office 2003
- Microsoft Office 2007
- Microsoft Office 2010
- Microsoft Office XP
- Microsoft Songsmith
- Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008
- Nero Burning ROM
- Nero Multimedia Suite
- Norton 360
- Norton AntiVirus
- Norton Ghost
- Norton Internet Security
- Norton SystemWorks
- Pianoteq
- Windows 7
- Windows Essential Business Server
- Windows Live OneCare
- Windows Server 2003
- Windows Server 2008 R2
- Windows Server 2008
- Windows Small Business Server
- Windows Vista
- Windows XP
- All Autodesk software products
- All Corel software products
- All Cyberlink software products
- All Native Instruments software products released after 2005
- Almost every commercial video game for PC
List of known products providing product activation for developers
| This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
- Agilis Software's Orion
- CrypKey
- ElecKey
- EnigmaProtector
- Flexera Software FlexNet Manager
- ICE Licence Protection
- OriginKeyring
- PELock
- Protection! Licensing Toolkit
- Serial Sense
- SolidLicense
- Wibu-Systems Code Meter
See also
References
- ^ http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/1998/dec98/regwizpr.aspx
- http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2000/feb00/apfeaturespr.aspx
- http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822244
- Moses, Asher (30 September 2009). "Aussie inventor's $445m Microsoft windfall wiped out". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
- http://www.vttoth.com/CMS/16-articles/191-just-say-no-to-product-activation
- AutoCollage 2008 EULA
- What is Activation: Expression Blend 4 Release Notes
- ^ Activate your Microsoft games and mapping programs
- Songsmith License Terms
- A Special Guide to DRM and Software Activation Tools A guide from the Dr. Dobb's journal
- Serial Sense