Charles Lindsey Posted January 11, 2003 Report Posted January 11, 2003 FYI This article in Extreme Tech Talks about the addition of DRM (Digital Rights Management) to a program and how upset some people are. The discussion is here. Most hate it and only two people that I saw sort of agreed with the DRM but they admitted they didn't like it either. This is a Ziff Davis partner (?subsidiary?) called Extreme Tech and I got the info from the news letter. It has three DRM links. The other two are about Hollywood and the new hard drives implementing DRM. Tiny new drives may incorporate DRM. Hollywood out to control with DRM? Enjoy. I can forward the letter to anyone interested.
Raven Posted January 11, 2003 Report Posted January 11, 2003 Disgusting, truly disgusting. Piracy always has been and always will be a problem, but trying to crack down on it like this is ridiculous. The problem is that it restricts legitimate users from, well, using the media or software.
Guest Fox__Trot Posted January 11, 2003 Report Posted January 11, 2003 I dont honestly see why you'd attempt to restrict like this it can be broken just like any other security measure just a stupid idea imo Its not like windows xp's activation wasnt broken in a matter of days (heck may of been hours)
GREG MILLER Posted January 13, 2003 Report Posted January 13, 2003 Yep, will be a TaxCut this year for me as well. TaxCut can import last years TurboTax data. Woot!!! Here is the ZDNet Article on the subject. When I found this out, I poured over the data in there support FAQ about PA. The only thing that really stood out was if you Formated your HDD, or the HDD failed, you had to purchase a new license to print your Tax Data. I went home after work and opened up a live chat with their support staff, beings it will cost you $15 to call. The lady did nothing to ease my concerns about having my 2002 Tax information held hostage by Intuit. When she figured that she wasn't making headway with me, this was her last ditch effort: "Product Activation protects the security and privacy of our customers' data." And this was my response, "Product Activation has NOTHING to do with privacy, and everything to do with Software Piracy!" Needless to say, I didn't get a response to that one. I have to say I don't really blame them for doing it, but there is no way I will allow my data to be held hostage by any company. I did notice at Sam's Club yesterday, there were a lot of unpurchased TurboTax boxes sitting on the pallet.
Serondal Posted January 15, 2003 Report Posted January 15, 2003 Is DRM the way they make it where you can install it once then the disc never works again? I hear they are making DVD's that destroy themselves after you watch them once so you can have them delivered to you so you can watch the movie once then it's over. Seems like it would be a lot cheepr just to buy the movie, no shipping and handling and you can watch it over and over again. Even cheeper still to just get the movie from direct T.V. for a night I hate this stuff, as you guys seem to. I guess I won't be using Turbo Tax this year either
Raven Posted January 15, 2003 Report Posted January 15, 2003 First of all, the DVDs don't destroy themselves, they have a coating that when exposed to oxygen turns blue (or maybe green, but I think its blue), I believe it's an oxidation reaction but I don't recall for sure (I posted a link some time back). The disk is intact, but it can't be read because of a blue (or maybe green) coating. Oh, and it's based off of time, so when you open the package you have a given number of hours before the DVD dies. What we're talking about here is a much different form of copy protection. I'm not 100% sure on the procedure, but it appears that when you get a copy of the software and install it you then must activate it over the internet, and you will never be able to activate the software on another computer, and it may have problems on that computer if the hardware is considerably changed.
Serondal Posted January 15, 2003 Report Posted January 15, 2003 I would consider that being destroyed. If you can no longer use it or gain access to the information found upon it then to ME it is destroyed. But thanks for clearing that up any how.
GREG MILLER Posted January 15, 2003 Report Posted January 15, 2003 Serondal, The DVDs you speak of has already been tried before. Circuit City launched a program at the start of DVDs, and called it Divx (Not the Divx CODECS of today). They thought everyone would sign on to this because it was like renting, but you didn't have to return the disk, just toss it. Basically you bought a special Divx player from them that also connected to your phone line, and setup an account. You purchased the Divx disk, and took it home to play it. Once played, it had a 24 hour shelf life. After the 24 hours was up. You could either renew the 24 hour rental for a fee, buy the movie outright, or just toss it. Needless to say, this program died a quick and horrible death as nearly nobody signed on.
Charles Lindsey Posted January 17, 2003 Author Report Posted January 17, 2003 There are a few follow up articles. One is on the page of pcmag.com down towards the bottom. Here are the others in the form of an excerpt from a new newsletter ->Security Alert: TurboTax Customers Upset By DRM http://extreme.ziffdavis.com/cgi-bin10/flo...7l3m0FBU0tpK0AG ->Jim Lynch: Buy TurboTax? No Way! http://extreme.ziffdavis.com/cgi-bin10/flo...7l3m0FBU0tgF0A1 ->Intuit Soothes DRM Fears With TurboTax Uninstaller http://extreme.ziffdavis.com/cgi-bin10/flo...7l3m0FBU0tpL0AH ->Macrovision Offers Closer Look At SafeCast/C-Dilla http://extreme.ziffdavis.com/cgi-bin10/flo...7l3m0FBU0tpM0AI Poke around the various sites and you will see that American Megatrends is shipping its first DRM enabled BIOS. Look around a bit more and see that Lexmark is using the DCMA to sue replacement cartridge maufacturers and refurbishers because a chip contain in an OEM Lexmark cartridge is copyrighted. No more cheap aftermarket cartridges for you. The implications of some of this stuff are, as DragonLady would say, horrid. Some ramblings on Turbo Tax: If the C-Dilla messes with other programs that's bad. Every company has a right to protect their software to some degree. Even having to have a game disc in the machine is a form of DRM. I bet tax software is the most casually pirated software there is. It performs a useful function although only once a year. Isn't that why you buy tax software? To do taxes? I'll do mine, my mom's, my brother's, etc. That's why you buy it. What about a CPA who shadetrees friends and family on the side? Don't people who use tax software buy a new version every year ANYWAY to get the updates??? What's the prob? I'm having a tough time trying to form an opinion on this one. I did my own taxes till last year. Then I went to H&R Block and will probably go back. They didn't do any better than I did on the fed but the state they kicked some major rear and got mem a ton back. I can sort of see Turbo Tax position that they don't want their software casually pirated but I feel you buy it in the first place to do taxes. It shouldn't matter whose, how many, or where you do them that's why you buy the program. It would be different if I let my dad copy it to do his and my brother to do his and my sister to do hers and so on but if I'm the only one actually doing them what then? Very difficult to think about.
Charles Lindsey Posted February 21, 2003 Author Report Posted February 21, 2003 For anyone interested. This is still going on. New article with lots of links to various other article including the first and second part of testing to see what actually happens to your machine.
Tyrn Posted February 21, 2003 Report Posted February 21, 2003 This whole situation is unacceptable to me and I wish I had seen news of this earlier. I'm in the process of dumping Intuit, anyone know of a good alternative to Quicken (no I don't want MS Money). Product can be either Linux or Windows based.
GREG MILLER Posted February 24, 2003 Report Posted February 24, 2003 Here is a whole webpage dedicated to the issues at hand, with relating links to check out.
Supreme Cmdr Posted May 19, 2003 Report Posted May 19, 2003 heh, that'll teach 'em. [ 05-19-2003, 07:24 PM: Message edited by: Supreme Cmdr ]
Charles Lindsey Posted May 19, 2003 Author Report Posted May 19, 2003 No; he just got an extra character in the link somehow. Just remove the = at the end. http://business20.com/articles/web/0,1653,49577,00.html Edit in: Fixed in either case.
GREG MILLER Posted May 20, 2003 Report Posted May 20, 2003 It is about time that these big companies figure out that we, the consumer, provide their paychecks. They need us a lot more then we will ever need them. I am a bit muffed though that the real pirates are giving us legitimate users a black eye within the software industry in general. On a related note, TaxCut worked so well this year, I don't know if I'd be willing to give Intuit another chance. If I do, I will be playing by ear again next year before I make my purchase.
Tyrn Posted May 20, 2003 Report Posted May 20, 2003 quote:Originally posted by Greg Miller: On a related note, TaxCut worked so well this year, I don't know if I'd be willing to give Intuit another chance. If I do, I will be playing by ear again next year before I make my purchase. I won't and I've dumped all my other Intuit software as well. Other action I took as a result of this fiasco: Stopped recommending Intuit software. Refused to provide techinical support (side job) for any machine with installed Inuit software. Inuit lost 15 loyal customers as a result.
GREG MILLER Posted October 9, 2003 Report Posted October 9, 2003 Intuit to TurboTax users: We're sorry lol!!! That is what you get for making a deal with the Software Devil. Ye made your bed Intuit now lie in it! I'm almost sure it will be another TaxCut year for me. Trust is easy to lose, but hard to earn back. If I remember back then, the Intuit CEO bascially said a really small group of users were unhappy with TurboTax 2002. Small group my a**!!!
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