When buying the upgrade to poser 5 online they ask for the serial number up front. If your number gets spread around that blows your chance at getting the upgrade for cheap. This is why giving out serial numbers is bad.

IM Glad im a legitamate propack owner!! I get to upgrade for $129 Yee haa!!!

Yup, 1 Upgrade per serial number. If you shared yours and someone else uses it before you won't be able to reuse the serial.

Same goes for your new Poser 5 serial number (when you get it). The pirates will be spreading Poser 5 like wildfire as soon as just ONE serial number gets leaked. Don't let it happen!!! Don't let it be yours, because it will get blacklisted and you'll find yourself unable to get any future upgrades for Poser. I hope CL will be requiring input of valid registered Poser 5 serial numbers to download service packs and plug-ins for poser 5 as well. Maxon is doing this now, and it's a brilliant way of making things a real pain in the ass for the warez dudez. It works like this: in order to download say, the Poser 5.0 to Poser 5.1 upgrade, you will have to input your name and poser 5 serial number. If the info doesn't match their registration database, no download! -Adam

vue d'espirit was doing the it (the serialization through the website in order to get the update) BUT everywhere on the internet you STILL have all updates... don't bother... just rely on those who purchased(after all CL has a database of their own)

It's not like this topic hasn't been beaten into the ground or anything, but ... Couldn't DISAGREE more. That would just be one more example of making life difficult for the honest user. The warez people will just hack the updates just like they do the original version. It does nothing to slow piracy. Also, some people do NOT want to register ... you should not be forced to register. Obviously CL and other companies can demand what they want, but it doesn't make it right. As a software publisher myself, I do sympathize with CL and others, but the simple fact is copy-protection schemes are a joke, and they simple inconvenience the honest user. Look at the nightmare taking place with the music industry. 2 cents deposited.

Timoteo1, you're absolutely right. It can potentially inconvenience legit users, and I have to agree with you. In fact, here's what I posted in the last "Piracy Rant 2" thread: Software companies should do what the paying customers want, because those are the people they need on their side. If R'osity folks want a PDF Poser 5 manual early, they should get it. If this makes the software easier to use for warez pirates.. too bad. As much as I am against piracy, I am even more against anti-piracy measures that inconvenience or limit benefits to paying customers. I will not even buy software with a dongle or keydisk system after an experience I had with my legally purchased Pro Tools 4.3. Toolbox. People who steal software will steal software. No amount of copy protection will turn these people into paying customers, they are leeches who use what they can get, and they are willing to devote hundreds of hours to tracking down the warez. Hours that any reasonable person would understand the value of, in terms of time better spent making art!!! -Adam I should listen to my own advice!! :-) -Adam

Re: Serial numbers... More often than not, a workable serial number is sussed from deciphering the algorithm used to interpret the CD key into a "good" or "bad" signal...this is often called a 'keygen', or 'crack'. Otherwise, other versions are 'cracked' by hex-editing the .exe into accepting damned near anything. Of course, it is much easier if someone has a valid serial number in the first place. But that leads to an interesting question: Why would someone be stupid enough to buy a product for a ton of cash, then pass around his serial number, thereby tracing it back to him or blowing any chances of upgrades? Seems rather stupid if you ask me. /P

The only time I hate registering is if the info ends up on a spam mailing list ... which is quite often. If there's a privacy statement, I register. If not, I don't. Just a thought.

I just mail in the cards now (if I can be arsed to remember), and don't include an e-mail addy... otherwise I don't bother. /P

I have not registered a piece of software other than games, since 1996, not including Lightwave and C4D. Reason being, I was too often ending up on some hellish mailing lists yet when I went to upgrade the company would not have me on file, even though their marketing department did! ; ) I'm not interested in paying to be a market demographic, so I just buy software and use it. Figure my "registration" comes from my name on artwork and tutorials. : ) If a company would track users well and not use my name and address to make side money by selling to marketers I would be much more inclined to register. But my purchase of a product does not give the manufacturer the right to know me personally. So far Newtek and Maxon have been very responsible with my personal information FWIW.

Couldn't agree more. A dead giveaway its going on a marketing list is when they ask you hobby, job, purchasing patterns, and other personal type questions. I throw those in the trash immediately. And like many people, I'm wary about giving out my email address. If you own your own domain, you can easily track who is spreading your email address around by using the company/event/website name/etc.@yourwebsite.com. It works great, and I have blasted a few companies and even received a settlement from one for selling my email address. _Tim

I register all my software and use my real name. Ron

Hey pirates, here's my poser serial number - FU41CLF-0023995-NOXXF79CBL-8889125-WVM-XF10MBG-0500020-4QALL Have fun:-)

I have a domain, and provide information because it is required. I really don't think all that personal information should be available to the public. There is no need for everyone to have access to my address and phone number. My domain is a "personal" web site now, and has no commercial value. I invented a company name just to fill in that blank. I was a bit irritated to get a call from Pitney Bowes (spelling) trying to sell me a postage meter, etc. I didn't register my domain just so I could make a telmarketer some money. In the end we took care of that problem. We changed our phone number to a non-published number, and then never updated the phone number in my registration info. I will most likely get a PO Box to take care of the street address issue. I really resent having to go through all that, but it's good to get control of your personal info again.

Actually you can get "in trouble" for having a non-function phone number in your domain registry info. Just get a freebie voicemailbox and use that number. I do that and the PO Box this, and add DELTHIS (etc.) to the email address. You'll start getting tons of junkmail otherise, as the spammers have programs to pull these from whois lookups automatically.

The freebie voicemail boxes are not reliable. I had 250 business cards printed with one voicemail number, and the company cancelled its service. So they want us to be open to all those unwanted business phone calls and any crackpot who gets mad at us and wants to come to our door to settle the score?! (I've received threats before.) If they don't like the fact that I haven't updated my phone number, then they can pay for an alternative that will keep my private info private. Or they can change the rules.

LOL - I remember back in the days of rs.internic.net! As the owner of spark.org at the time, a HUGE flame-based site, I listed the address to the main campus bldg. of the University of Arkansas, the phone number to the local library, and the admin@spark.org email addy simply diverted to /dev/null before it could even get past procmail at my ISP. Like Ron said - the last thing you need is some humiliated punk showing up at your door wanting to kick yer butt over something that got said online. Oh, and the threats are real easy to deal with - I would trace their personal info as much as possible and include their home address and phone number in my reply, then ask if I could call them over the phone and discuss it with them. You'd be amazed at how quick someone decides not to follow up on their threats once they discover that they're not anonymous any longer. Besides, 99.9% of email threats are all bluff and bluster anyhow, and none of the threats I recieved had ever been followed up on in e-mail, let alone in real life. Had it rigged for three years like that, with nary a complaint from the InterNIC. /P

really don't think all that personal information should be available >to the public. That is specifically what ices me about the whole thing. My address and phone number are readily availalbe if only the marketers were willing to walk into one of several public institutions and look them up. But they are not even willing to do that work so I'm certainly not going to go out of the way to give them the oportuniity to piss me off. That is the same reason I wont wear clothing with logos on them. I'm not going to purchase the oportunity to be a walking billboard. We recently purchased a house and I am stunned at the freakish amount of phone calls and door visits we get from marketers, and as of yet not a one of them has had a thing worth buying! I would probably feel differently if they offered something of value. ; ) It is the same with software. You give all your personal info to a company at registration time because during install they harass you with pop up boxes begginf for you information. Then it takes a week to get an email back from them about a tech support issue. I hope you werent using that for a living! Or you pay long distance charges to wait for an hour on the phone to find out why your paid-for update software will not install. No thanks. See, I dont GET anything in return for my personal information. I feel the my money for their program is an even trade, but my personal information will cost them extra. ; )

In the days before the Internet, I was involved in "one of those situations," that exposed my phone number, name, address, etc to people on Fidonet, a network of BBSes around the world. I received a few death threats on my answering machine. I wrote a message to the bbs network that basically said anyone who wanted to try and kill me should bring the beers. We could have a few together, and then "tap dance." No one ever took me up on the invitation, then I changed my number to a non-published one eventually.

Quoll - Usually I will put my name on mailing lists of software companies I trust - esp. 3D Art proggies. This gets me info on updates and patches. But like someone said earlier - no privacy policy, no info. Also, as a crusty old sysadmin, I'm registered with Red Hat (Linux), IBM (AIX), and the KDE mailing lists... I was even on M$' TechNet for awhile. With operating systems, you cannot get info on security patches fast enough :) But then again, all this goes to my work e-mail addy, where a slew of spam-blockers and internal filters chuck the spammers into /dev/null, where they belong, and on an OC-48, time isn't a problem. /P