Washington Post: From the Shareware Industry, Lessons on Keeping Downloaders Honest [via Slashdot: More on Policing Shareware]
[Ambrosia Software's] new system aims to stop people from using pirated registration codes in two ways.
First, after a user buys a program, Ambrosia e- mails him or her a personalized registration code stamped with the date of purchase. Entering this code into the program activates it and ends any trial-period limits — but the software won’t accept a code older than 30 days. (Once the code checks out, Ambrosia programmer Matt Slot said, the program won’t run any further tests.) [emphasis added]
This is true but incredibly misleading. Ambrosia’s system requires you to re-register programs when you move them to a new computer. The practical upshot of this is that, after Ambrosia goes out of business, all of Ambrosia’s programs will gradually stop working for their paying customers (as they move to new machines and can’t renew). This is not shareware, it’s rentalware. Just because the renewal price is currently zero doesn’t make it any better.
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