SmithMicro and their over reaching EULA

[FloridaJo]

My first post, and it's a rant.  But I figure since Dave is known for his rants, this is perfect.


Imagine buying a car, and you decide you don't want that car connected to the internet.
Imagine that car is made by SmithMicro.  After two weeks you could be driving down the
freeway, and the car tells you that you only have one week left to use this car before it becomes totally useless.

That is analogous of what happened to me with SmithMicro's software that I paid for legitimately.
I bought a license to use it.  But I wanted to use it on a computer that no longer was on the internet.
After only two weeks the program became inactivated and gave me seven days to reactivate it or it would become unusable.

Upon writing to SmithMicro technical support and waiting over a day, I finally get this email:
"...As for your Debut, that just means you need to activate it again. Per the license agreement, the program occasionally “checks in” with our activation server to make sure your serial number is still in good standing (and [sic] example of why it might not be is if it was returned for a refund)...."

Well isn't that dandy.  What if I wanted to go on a retreat to create some masterpiece.  I'm up in a cabin on some mountain top writing away, and then after two weeks boom! you're software is no longer activated. 

According to this EULA I now have to come down from my mountain retreat, go to some computer with an internet access point and upload a text file, get back a certificate text file, go back to my cabin retreat and continue my work.  And I have to do this every two weeks!!.

I thought I bought a license to the software, but evidently their lawyers have crafted some kind of license that is only temporary.  It needs the life blood and sustenance from the internet.

Here's another scenario; there is a major attack to the internet back bone by a terrorist and you and the country/world has lost internet.  Let's hope that the software you are using from SmithMicro is not helping you and the world restore internet access, because you only have two weeks to do so before your software becomes inactivated, and three weeks before it is useless.

There is only one word for a EULA that says the software has to be 'checked-in' on to be viable; "OVER-REACHING"!!!!!!!!

[joeqsmith]

For any software, read the EULA before you buy.  If you can't agree to their terms, just return it. 

[amyk]

That's what cracks are for.

You paid them already, and it's not a subscription type of thing, so I have absolutely no qualms about just cracking it.