Herbert Graf wrote:
> Again, people can do whatever they want with their software, I'm just
> stating my view on the subject to help them decide on whether they
> should waste their time on these things.

OK, but what you want has a cost, and in a perfect capitalistic system that
gets passed on in the price of a product.  Let's say there's a piece of
software out there that you would like 3 people at your organization to use
unpredictably for up to a few hours at a time about 3 times/week.  The
software vendor has spent considerable effort to produce some features you
really want that are either not available or considerably more clumsy in
competetive products.  What if there were different prices for different
levels of protection:

$50 - Hardware USB dongle that looks like a small thumb drive.  You download
the software for free or buy the CD for minimal duplication charge, but the
dongle is what you're buying.  The dongle must be plugged into the USB the
whole time the software is running.

$70 - One time web registration so the copy on your computer is node-locked.
The vendor states up front that the license becomes invalid if you change
motherboards or possibly reformat the boot drive.  The registration can be
done online if you have internet access, or via email or via phone.  Once
registered, the software runs forever on that machine without any
interaction with the vendor.

$150 first, $50 additional - Simple unique key you have to type in.  The key
is on a sticker on the CD case.  The vendor ships every CD with a different
key, or you download the software and get a unique key when you pay on the
web page with a credit card.

So what would you do?

#1 - $150.  Buy 3 dongles, totally legal.

#2 - $50.  Buy 1 dongle and share it, totally legal but inconvenient.

#3 - $210.  Three node-locked licenses, more convenient than dongles but
licenses can't be moved to newer machines.  Totally legal.

#4 - $250.  Three CD-key licenses.  No hassle, can be easily moved, totally
legal.

#5 - $150.  One CD-key licesnse and use it on all three machines.

#6 - $0.  Use a CD-key you found on the web.  You weren't really looking to
do this, but you ran accross it accidentally and there it is.  Who's ever
going to know?

#7 - something else?

Let's further say the vendor has reasonably accurately adjusted the prices
to cover the loss from theft of each of the license types.  This is
hypothetical, so let's not argue the vendor got it wrong.  I'm asking about
your reaction to such a pricing/licensing scheme.


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