[geeks] Adobe's Software Activation

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 22, 2005 at 10:31:54PM +0200, Michael-John Turner wrote:
> 
>> My understanding is that when you activate, the vendor (Adobe, MS, etc)
>> stores your 'machine ID', your product serial number and the fact that
>> you've activated. When you rebuild your system and reinstall your app, 
>> you enter your serial number, the app calls home, sees that it's a
>> reinstall on a machine with the same machine ID and activates. This is why
>> reinstalls on the same hardware work - the machine ID algorithm results in
>> the same ID.
> 
> Generaly it does not matter what the machine ID is. If it gets used more than
> once, it's assumed to be a reinstall. If it gets used too any times
> (microsoft allows 3 times), you are asked to call customer support.

...at which point I get a crack and no longer have to deal with that crap.

All their security does it annoy the hell out of legitimate customers. 
The pirates disable it immediately and it never bothers them.