John Skelton wrote:

> It's also incredibly intrusive, it presupposes a web connection
And for people that cannot there would have to be a contingency plan -
whereby you could validate your registration without connecting. This plan
would allow you to validate the software by talking over the phone to a
technician (that might involve an slight fee).

> and a stable environment (as a sys admin, and ardent techie, my systems
are never the
> same from one month to the next).
A stable environment is not that unusual around MPE shops. Certainly there
should be certain types of hardware changes (adding memory, disk) that are
allowed for. And in the event of a complete unload reload to new hardware,
there should be a way to reset the certification of a particular softkey
completely.

>I for one would refuse to buy any product
>with this kind of b***s*** built into it.
And that is your prerogative with or without this type of license
certification. On the positive side for XP style validation-
 o  Minimal administrative involvement. User downloads via FTP, receives
softkey by email, validates by web against central certification DB.
 o  Maximum protection for vendors.
 o  Versatile for users, their not tied to a particular CD or dongle, they
can upgrade and recertify without talking to anyone.

Karsten Holland
{my views are my own.