[geeks] Adobe's Software Activation

[velociraptor]

On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 16:17:16 -0600, Phil Brutsche <phil at tux.obix.com> wrote:
> kevin at mpcf.com wrote:
> 
> [snip product activation scheme]
> 
> > Does this sound like BS to anyone else?  I mean, you can repartition,
> > ease and change file system types all without low leveling a drive.
> > How (and where) could Adobe products actually write data that would
> > not get erased if I say.... repartitioned a drive and changed its
> > file system from FAT32 to XFS, then once more to NTFS?  None of this
> > would involve low leveling a drive, but it's hard for me to believe
> > that Adobe could stash data somewhere safe from all of that.  Are
> > they writing crap to the MBR or something or is this just BS?
> 
> No, it's not BS.
> 
> Yes, they are writing stuff to the MBR.
> 
> No, they aren't the first (someone else mentioned Intuit).
> 
> Businesses can get around this sort of crap by getting taking the volume
> licence route, but home/SOHO users are screwed.

I was under the impression that Adobe apps were "phone home"
apps, rather than "write crap to your MBR" apps.  If you register
your software, when you re-input your serial # after reinstalling
your OS, it's going to go "phone home" and find you are on the
same OS/hardware.

As an aside, it's crap like this that keeps the crack/patch writers
busy...I guess we should all be happy that software manufacturers
don't have the same kind of "togetherness" that the music/film 
people do...can you imagine the kind of bogus "digital rights 
mgmt" they'd be shoving down our throats if M$, Adobe, Oracle
had the equivalent of the RIAA/MPAA?

I can hardly stand to consider the idea.

=Nadine=