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I don't find this acceptable

gsnde

gsnde

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I have re-installed FSX Acceleration using a different disk layout. The hardware was unchanged if you don't count that I have overclocked the processor a little bit (I recently found a description on how to do it which even an office user like I am could follow).

Vista, FSX, Acceleration all re-installed (mind you, not for the first time) without any bad comment. Then I tried to install my addons.

Captain Sim - C130 FSX
Just Flight - Military Traffic Pack 1
Just Flight - Military Traffic Pack 2
Just Flight - RAF Tornado
Just Flight - F117

Can you believe that not a single one did install? Captain Sim was so nice to inform me that I already have installed it twice on different machines, while Just Flight just mumbled something about invalid codes.

Mind you, I appreciate that these companies are trying to protect their products against piracy. But if they do, the should do it in an intelligent way. It is not acceptable that I have to run around in circles to get things installed I have paid a lot of money for.

Microsoft Flight Simulator has been a fight for good performance these last years, so locking software to a combination of hardware components is not very clever. If you want to do that, go for the mainboard serial or the processor serial, these will more likely stay for some time.

If one of the MS products mentioned above would have rated my last installation as illegitimate, I would have been able to call a hotline or a phone system to get it installed right away. Not nice, but acceptable.

Not so with my friends mentioned above. "Our business ours are from..." Well, I am working during the week, and so if I am reinstalling things, I usually do it at a weekend. I appreciate that they have a weekend as well, but only if they let me use my software.

Aside from the fact that I feel upset because I am not in control of something I paid money for, there are two other things which makes me angry.

1. I can not even make bad wishes against those companies to calm my mood. What will happen if they go belly up? Do you believe the last thing they do is sending final versions without unlock code to their customers? More likely you can just forget about the software if it comes to this.

2. I really wonder if all the trouble the legitimate customers have to take in order to ... sorry, don't know why we have to take it... - is this really causing any trouble for the bad guys out there?

I would very much appreciate to hear if I alone feel this has stepped beyond an acceptable level.
 
No, Martin, I don't think that you have stepped beyond the limit.

Having said that, even Flight Sim add ons are pirated 9even FREEWARE Flight Sim add ons get pirated!!!), and the company that is trying to turn a dollar (pound, euro, whatever) from it must surely be able to protect its property from the free wheelers who believe that it is their right to take and never give back - anything.

Having said that, I don't think that it is the add on producers that we should be angry at, but rather the situation that causes them to act in the ways that they do.

I hate it even more than you do, I think, because I have to sit on the end of a very long, expensive, international phone call each time this happens to me - in the middle of the flaming night to boot!

So I feel the pain, but I for one don't know if and when we'll ever get to the point of eliminating these cretins and cheap skates who steal the property of others - perhaps a stiunt in a salt mine somewhere, if they are caught, would be a fair penalty.
 
I feel your pain too as it has happened to me too. After a recent HDD crash, I can no longer install my Phoenix Dash8-300 as they have shut up shop and I can't unlock my file now. :mad:

The big problem is that no matter how much effort they go to to protect their property, which they have the right to do, the hackers seem to be able to find a way to hack it and give it away for free to anyone who wants it. We who pay our well earned money on their products wind up getting a raw deal when we need to re-install, with the possibility of losing the product altogether. :banghead:

So is it really worth it? I really don't know, but sometimes I feel it's not. :confused:

Mark
 
Same thing

Over the years I have bought numerous Add-ons for FS. And especially if you download them. It is very hard to move from machine or upgrade the OS.Seems like your just wasting money
 
Just to be fair: I have received new keys for all products from both vendors meanwhile.

I have bought much more than the ones mentioned above and I will continue to buy in future. Nevertheless I expect that the vendors put some energy into this.

Scansoft PDF Professional e.g. will track your installations, but your de-installations as well. So if you de-install a version before re-staging the machine, you will be clear.
 
A week ago I tried to install a 3rd party GPS receiver that I bought last year to test some approaches I had written. The installer was so well protected that I found it easier to download a pirated copy of the GPS instead of going through all the backup CDs and searching for the activation key file.

Felt somewhat ripped off. : |
 
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