Quote
Originally posted by Glenn:
**Ambrosia uses time-limited registration codes in their newer products in order to cut down on piracy. Evidence from Ambrosia's server logs seems to suggest that it works. As you yourself noted, if you have a legitimate code, then you can easily obtain a new valid code when the old one expires. Once you've entered the code, it remains valid, and you will only need a new one if you reformat your hard drive or do something similarly drastic.
Before you get too excited about this fact, I would strongly recommend you read the long and thorough discussion about this matter on forums.macnn.com . (Unfortunately, I can't seem to access the server at the moment, but if you do a topic search on their "OS X Software" board for the words "ambrosia license", you should find the 2 topics in question without trouble.)
**
yes heres what Andrew had to say at MacNN:
"A few months ago, we started implementing license codes that would expire if not entered within about 30 days. The main reason for doing this was that we saw leaked license codes from just about every product under the sun were distributed in online pirated serial number 'newsletters'. Details on this license code system can be found in this article:
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/newsdisplay.cgi?action=topics&number;=14&arti;")http://www.AmbrosiaS...&number=14(/url) cle=000052
It is important to note that license codes don't expire once entered -- the only time you'll need to re-enter one of our license codes (and thus may have to obtain an updated code) is when you're installing the product on a new computer, or you've reformatted your hard drive. 30 days or so should be an ample amount of time to enter a license code.
I'd also like to point out that our server is never contacted surreptitiously -- if you enter a license code that is expired, the registration application offers to connect to our server to automatically obtain an updated license code, but only if you click a clearly labeled button.
According to our renewal server logs, 103 people connected to it yesterday (5/6/2002) to obtain an updated registration code. Out of those 103 connections, 71 were attempts to use a known pirated license codes (and thus were blocked).
68% of the people attempting to obtain an updated license code yesterday were actually attempting to steal a free copy of one of our products. This figure, of course, doesn't count the number of people who were trying to enter a pirated license code, but thought better of contacting our server to attempt to get an updated license code.
Let's assume the average price for a product is $30. That translates into $2,130 worth of known pirated attempts in a single day. Granted, it is likely true that many of the people who were attempting to pirate a piece of software will never buy it -- but some of them will, if stealing it isn't ridiculously easy.
In addition, simply because they would never purchase the product does not mean they are entitled to use it in perpetuity as our paying customers do.
We're a small Macintosh developer; software piracy has an impact on our ability to stay in business and keep working on cool new products. While our main focus is providing great products and services for our paying customers, things like this can't be ignored."
the thread can be found here: (url="http://"http://forums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=37;t=003285;p=1")http://forums.macnn....37;t=003285;p=1(/url)
------------------
Shift Pattern Graphics at [http://shiftprint.com
See](http://shiftprint.com<br />
See) CGE_Tips at:
http://coldroom.150m...f/CGE_Tips.html
