I have a number of applications that perform this type of serial number checking Almost all professional apps do this kind of thing, one way or another. I fyou want to play with these kind of toys, you deal with it. The fact that Poser now does this doesn't effect my intentions toward either using the current version or buying future versions. That doesn't mean we have to like it, especially when it's sprung on us cold. >I don't see what the big deal is Here is the big deal. Poser has never used this kind of thing before, no mention was made of their intention to do this, and they posted a new patch, with no indication on their web page of this. Given the circumstances, with Siggraph and all, this was understandable, but still it caught people off guard. Curious Labs couldn't have introduced this in a poorer fashion if they had deliberately tried. >If you use the products legally, you'll never have a problem. Not necessarily true. Honest paying customers of Real Networks have had their names, addresses, email and even credit card numbers transmitted, in the clear, to Real. I'd call that a real problem. And since we had no forewarning on the Poser thing, nobody really knew what to think. When Curious Labs announced Poser 4.0.3, people were intrigued. Most people assumed there might be new goodies and/or bugs fixes. Considering the past disappointment with Metacreations, this was exciting news. And when the 4.0.3 patch showed up, a lot of people probably felt like maybe we were getting an early Christmas present. The fact that no mention of what the patch contained made it even more intriguing. Thus it was doubly disappointing when it turned out to be the same 4.0.2 patch, with the Curious Labs branding, AND of course, to find your firewall triggered because of Poser was not a happy surprise. A cynical mind might find all this quite deliberate. Get people excited about a new verison, but don't specify any thing concrete. Slip your network serial check in, then post the new patch, knowing that many of your customers will download it expecting new features or bug fixes. Of course, had they programmed the serial check better, no one would have been the wiser. Ok, I don't think that's what happened. Curious Labs is a small startup company, they had Siggraph to worry about, and you can see how this kind of thing could have happened. But calling people paranoid and Chicken Little because they have honest and justified concerns about their privacy is wrong. >It must suck to have to periodically kiss the collective butts of the users of this forum And as far as Kupa kissing but, well, Curious Labs chose to put this code in, and they chose to post it with no explanation. They have an excuse, but being busy doesn't abdicate your responsibility. And battling Piracy is not an excuse for wasting your legitimate customers time on a wild snipe hunt, when all this could have been avoided with a few simple paragraphs before hand. >People sure seem to want a lot for a couple hundred bucks. It's about respect. Curious Labs wants (and has a right to expect) people to respect their Software License. At the same time, Curious Labs should have respected the privacy concerns of their customers. In my (not very) humble opinion Regards- Lemurtek