The thing with all of these type of 'security' is that the legit users (the majority of this forum, myself included) are the ones that have to put up with all these security codes. Where as the pirates just get hacked versions by-passing the security. It is kind of annoying having 7 dongles sticking out the back of your pc as one picture I have seen for example. Serial number, dongles, codes are in the end a complete waste of time as the only people who actually use them are the legit users. I have so many serial numbers, dongles, auth codes to do when i do a clean install and it takes an ages, where as a pirate will bott up his system and have all of 'his' programs on 1 dvd with codes etc and he is up and running quicker than the legit users. Nothing much can be done about it and yes it sucks as the legit users pay for the cost of the pirates in the end.