Anthony, what if the security program is not transmitting actual configuration information and serial numbers, but rather a number based on them? Something like the last 4 digits of your hard drive's serial number, multiplied by your processor speed, divided by (I dunno) the amount of L2 cache you have (or something like that). This would give everyone their own unique code, that could "survive" a hard drive re-format and yet this information could not be reverse-calculated by CL unless they already knew two of the three variables.

That's just a guess at they way they might be handling this I have no idea. But if they A) based the configuration information on major internal hardware components, so unplugging a zip drive or adding RAM wouldn't effect it AND B) handled the code in such a way that they could not reverse-calculate the number into any serial numbers or configuration info, then this is something that I personally would be fine with. And I don't think it would violate the Data Protection Act.