Yes, that kind of paranoia can be the downfall of a company. In the late '70's through the first half of the '80's most of the 3D CAD companies tried to force their customers to use THEIR software on THEIR hardware using THEIR support personnel. Everything was proprietary. Applicon, ComputerVision, Calma, Prime. All dead now. Companies that try to maintain a captive audience die when someone comes along that offers more flexibility, more tranlatability, more options. I think customers today demand software products that can communicate with as many other applications as possible. We want as much choice as we can get. Applications that can't communicate are going to become very minor players, if they can survive at all. Heh! Pet peeve of mine. Probably of a LOT of people. At any rate, it does appear that this product was locked on purpose. So I may be SOL after all.