SURVPC Digest - 1 Oct 2000 to 2 Oct 2000 (#2000-303)
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On Tue, 3 Oct 2000 11:13:07 +1000
Stephen Lloyd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi. I've heard that some newer microsoft products will only allow you to
> install them once. So if you try installing it on another computer, it
> won't work. How is it able to do this, the program comes on a cd, and you
> need a cd-burner to write to the cd.
You can probably install the software product as many times as you want,
but you can install it only on one computer.
The system might work like this:
First you install the software from your CD. The software won't run until
you connect with a certain MicroSoft web site in order to "activate" your
software. Upon connecting with the web site your software serial number
and the serial number of your computer's BIOS is automagically sent to
the website. Then you have to click on a link to download some kind of
key that activates your software. If you try to install the same software
with the same CD on another computer, then the "activation" process won't
work for you because your software serial number will not correspond with
BIOS serial number as recorded in the database maintained at the web site.
In this case the web site would not allow you to download a key. The key
would be designed so that it would work only with a properly corresponding
set of software serial number and BIOS serial number. Such a system would
be very hard to defeat because the serial number of your computer's BIOS is
sent automatically by means of program code within the software that
accesses your computer's BIOS so as to return the serial number to the web
site.
The above describes only one type of scheme that could effectively prevent
one from installing the same software package on more than one computer.
There are other ways by which software developers can protect themselves
from would-be license violators.
All the best,
Sam Heywood
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