I assume Dizzie is perhaps running Linux and has virtually little if any commercial software written in the last 10 years (or more) on his/her system. I sympathize. I haven't upgraded my Windows Media Player because I don't want the new DRM control, despite the fact that I've never downloaded a commercial MP3 or video and don't plan to. I don't have XP because 2000 works fine, but I will eventually upgrade to Microsoft's next OS which will undoubtedly have some form of security built in. The product is more valuable to me than avoiding inconvenience. The point is that software protection is reality, it is not going away. To think that CL wouldn't use it is completely unrealistic. They may be nice folks, they may be more warm and fuzzy than Microsoft but they're in business to make money like everyone else in the world. If you want this to go away then you'll have to come up with a new economic system first. Technology is wonderful but it comes with a pricetag. Ask the people who pressed vinyl records for a living. We can try to minimize the negative impact on our lives, but at a certain point, you become like the apocryphal workers throwing wodden shoes into the machinery in attempt to stave off modernization. Great idea but it didn't work. If anyone is interested, I have an AMD K6-350 and two 100 MB drives I'll sell cheap, including a copy of Poser 2 and Windows 3.11 on diskettes. No copy protection, no activation, no hassles.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken