Since I am not sure about this topic, I'd like to ask the forum: do the several Vue-6 version need a software activation or just a serial number?

Thanks

Both - you need the serial number to activate the software.

Thank you, Agiel.
That means, I have to look for a different software. There is no way I buy software I have to activate.
Too bad, I liked Vue quite a lot.
I hope at least Poser remains free of this plague in the future.

Lots things in Vue that are forced on its loyal custome base.............

Vue 6 Infinite and xStream need activation codes;  Vue Esprit and Easel do not.

Geez guys! 

Every expensive 3d product in the world requires an activation. Truespace, MAX, MAYA, Deep Exploration, Polytrans, Windows......

This is the only way currently known to more-or-less prevent copying/pirating of expensive software products. Or do you want the companies to go out of business courtesy of Guidong Province?

Forester if you register to some news groups you will find all version of Vue 6 on them for download with serials and actavation codes that don't need calling to e-on to get an actavation code so does it work and installs.  Does it stop piracy........NO   Will it stop piracy........NO

You would be surprised at the images posted in gallerys that are used with these warez products.

Now you see why I try and support a company that has a good product so I can get updates and questions answered when I need them.

Every product you mentioned can be found on warez groups such as news groups and p2p so no it dont work.
 They can make keygens that will actavate a serial to a computer or application so you dont need to be online or call in for one.      If its made it can be broken. :)

What keeps a company in business is good customer support and public relation..........
Something e-on needs to work on. :)

Almost everyone using a computer is aware that any piece of software can be stolen with sufficient time, effort and expense.

However, it is reasonable to try to protect a product against casual theft, and in fact, it is required of most businesses. Certainly any company doing a multi-national business. If any reader is not yet aware, no nation in Western Europe or the Northern Hemisphere is able to make a legal case for their nation to pursue copyright or product patent theft if they cannot demonstrate that they first exercised "due diligence,"

That is, the large software manufacturers are not able to make a legal pursuit of product theft in other countries unless they are able to demonstrate that they first made a "due diligence" effort to protect their products against theft. In fact, the US will not even allow the raising of an ordinary complaint against another nation if this requirement has not been met.

Case law requires that the "due diligence" effort be in proportion to the value of the product being protected. So, my cheap models require a very small amount of protective effort - in fact, only that a notice of copyright be attached to them in some manner. For an expensive and complex piece of software, I would be required to institute some stronger form of protection.
I cannot get insurance for my small model-building business unless I demonstrate various forms of due diligence. Would the E-On company be under less requirement?

Product activation is increasingly the form of product protection of choice because it is thought to be less onerous to the end user than some other things. (Thought to be so rightly or wrongly.) Product activation generally imposes more cost on the company than on the end user. Users must have a telephone or an internet connection, but the time requirement for a product activation usually is just a few minutes.

It is annoying, no doubt, compared to just installing your software and typing in a simple serial number, or maybe not doing even that. No software protection. But a company doing an international business lacks the option of vending their software products with a total absence of theft protection. And no one in the insurance of software legal field considers a simple serial number to be "sufficient theft protection" these days.

It must be that kyraia uses a MAC or some Linux-type operating system, no?

Does any of whaat you ahve sazid mean anything to pirates or 3rd world countrys where pirating is a fact of life.
  I can't buy it and if it were the case microsoft with all its billions would stop the pirating of vista which was on newsgroups 3 days after its release.
  Talk is cheap but stopping it is another story.   Why would anyone pursue a pirate with a 10.00 model and cost thousands to try it in court where even a judge or jury in the end may side with the pirate.    Lots to consider. :)
 
In a lot of cases the people who use the pirated software may like it and then buy a legit copy so its not all bad as some want to make it out. :)

Stolen or not ... you might as well see this issue from the opposite point of view: the companies steal from us:
the problem with activation is: you cannot use your software for which you have paid a lot of money  if the company doesn't activte it. Maybe they are being sold to some investor from Mars who decides to stop this product line.
This has not yet happend frequently but it will be a big issue in the future. There are still people out there who use DOS software. If activation had been invented 20 years earlier they would not be able to do use it any more. And this is theft.