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Originally Posted by scarper
Activation is a consequence of piracy..not the other way round.
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This is true... however it also leads to a vicious cycle of ever more elaborate (and inconvenient!!) activation schemes.
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Developer releases Product. A few people pirate it. Developer releases next version with Copy Protection "A". People whinge about "A" impinging on their rights to backup said product. More people pirate cracked product. Developer releases next version with Copy Protection "B" which places further restrictions on the end user. Lots of people whinge about "B" and "A" and how they make backup impossible and product activation difficult. Lots of people pirate cracked product. Developer, claiming piracy is ruining their profit line implements draconian Copy Protection "C", requiring permanent internet connection for verification of activation key everytime the product is run. Much wailing and gnashing of teeth from people who can no longer run product because they don't have a permanent connection. Some people abandon product for free alternatives, many others just download the easier to use pirated cracked version. Etc.
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The debate is raging strong in the computer game market at the moment. I am, by the way, all for businesses protecting their intellectual property, as long as they don't make the end user jump through hoops to use their product. No, I do not use pirated versions of software myself... there is little point when there are equally good free alternatives out there. GIMP, Inkscape and paint.net satisfy my needs for image manipulation, OpenOffice.org and Google Documents fill in the office application hole. And so on and so forth. </rant>