Here is an OT tidbit.
This one goes in the books as
"Stupid Things software companies do because of their ignorance about piracy."

My Friend, Indy just contacted me and told me this story about Fitaly Software.
It seems they sold him the Fitaly application but sent him a bad key. When he contacted them to ask for a good key they said they will not give him one becuase they don't like his Device Name! They asked him to modify his Device Name (which would break any other keys that use such a protection scheme, mind you) or they will have to refund his money!.
His device name is Ipaq3670, which IMHO, is not a bad name. It is 7 characters, descriptive, and perfectly fine, as many other vendors agreed, since they sold him thier software.

In any case I think a vendor that requests you change YOUR hardware to make THEIR software work is completely rediculous!
Their sole reason for using the machine name is for protection against piracy. And this is usually effective since most people will not change their device name to make pirated software work, even if it is a generic name. However any software that is worth buying will usually cause a pirate to hack the code so it ignores the machine name altogether.
Therefore their refusal to sell to people becuase the individual will not change his device name will only cause them to lose money and will have NO effect on piracy whatsoever.

As a programmer I understand the concerns about Piracy but I would certainly not lose money from legitimate customers
becuase of it. Piracy is going to happen no matter what protection you use.
If you want to fight piracy you need to watch the pirated software sites and track the app back to the person who payed for the pirated version. That is the only way you can effectively do anything about it IMHO.

Anyway, I thought you would be interested in this and I needed a place to vent my incredulity at such a practice.
I feel better now :)


Cheers,
-Techmaster