While I don't condone CL's newest plan to thwart piracy, because as others have said in this thread, it probably won't work and will be more of a pain in the butt for the real users than the pirates, I doubt CL cares at this point what this community or anyone else thinks of their new scheme.

Many have said, if you don't like it, don't buy it. Okay, we belong to a community that has a great forum for Poser. How many people are going to buy this product in a store, or on a website because they saw a render from it somewhere without benefit of knowing the license? It's not exactly going to say on the box the provisions involved in registering it. Nor will there be a banner that says "NOW WITH ACTIVATION REQUIRED SOFTWARE PROTECTION TO PROTECT US FROM PIRATES!" It isn't going to happen and if it does, you got to know it will be in the finest print available.

Once they get to the point of finding this out, they've already opened the box and thus cannot take it back to the store they got it from. Will CL offer refunds for people that are unhappy with the scheme? I somehow doubt it. I also know that once you try to install it, very few actually quit at the EULA if they read it at all. So that theory of don't buy it if you don't like it doesn't really apply.

Curious Labs knows their market very well. I doubt they invested this money lightly. They know that really no matter what they do under the guise of "Otherwise we'll go out of business" will be accepted, maybe with grumbles, but accepted by those who make up their market. Just as many have said above that they still plan to buy Poser 5, despite this, and that is enough to make it chrystal clear for CL that their market is secure, despite the bad PR. They also know that those that don't buy it now, upon seeing the great renders, will probably give in eventually. After all, did you see Pentium 3 send Intel into bankruptcy because of the serial numbers? Nope, in the end, no one really cared as long as it was compatible enough to run what they wanted. Poser holds a place that few software companies reach. It has found a niche market that it does better than any other, and has created a community that is just short of addiction to support it. Not to give them ideas, but I'd be willing to bet that if they charged a monthly fee to use Poser 5, people would still use it. It has become the user's favorite tool, their artwork, their passion and CL knows that very well...

The whole software licensing deal and how it takes rights away from consumers, while giving more rights to the companies is beyond this thread, but I guess my point is, this is not surprising. It's also not surprising that people will accept it without question. It's human nature and CL can cash in on that...

My 2c. Will I buy Poser 5? Probably. Because when all is said and done, I want to use the new features and like most, I'd probably just wind up accepting it anyway not to be left behind...