Shadow and Ironbear,

You are justafiably pissed. I'm not taking that away.

However, some people want to attribute nefarious motives to CL's efforts, or lack thereof. I don't buy that.

From the sound of things, CL shipped a product in a state that would be unacceptible to me, so it is no surprise many other people find it unacceptable. If I had spent the money and had the same problems, I would be extremely pissed myself.

However, I am willing to believe that CL found itself in a ship-or-die situation. It happens. It sucks, but it happens.

This does not make it okay to ship a broken product. No one wants to pay to be a Beta-tester. But it does mean that CL can redeem themselves by fixing the problems ASAP.

If CL shipped with malicious intent, they wouldn't give a rat's ass about fixing anything, because they already got your money. As it is, they are going to need to do a hell of a lot to soothe a pissed off customer base.

Meanwhile, I find it more productive to encourage people to work hard and fix a problem than to call them a bunch of jerks for creating the problem in the first place.

Mind you, sometimes I also find it a lot more satisfying to vent, sometimes quite rudely...

• G

P.S. I agree the protection scheme is bogus.