can anyone explain what is meant by "periodic product activation" for poser 10.  I am thinking of getting POser 10 upgrade from Poser 7 to run on windows 8.1 but I dont have internet on that machine.

I have PP2014 and I haven't had any instance of knowingly calling home.  However, the Game Dev does periodically.

You may want to verify;  On Poser's product page, the system requirements for all 3 versions of Poser now say "Internet connection required for periodic product activation service".

Hmmm ... did they sneak something into the last Service Release? Because only PoserPro Game version is supposed to do that?

Hmmm ... did they sneak something into the last Service Release? Because only PoserPro Game version is supposed to do that?

Not certain about that, but from the revised system requirements it sounds like it's in the other versions via some service release. If you followed the thread at RDNA (page 9-10), originally Steve Cooper said that only the game version had it. However when pressed about whether other versions of Poser would have it, he said he couldn't discuss future plans. Granted it doesn't bother me if the program phones home since I've paid for it and I have my internet security software active and updated. But there is concern that the program would deactivate even when my internet is active. I have 2012 pro installed and have yet to install Poser 10, but I'm glad I did not invest too much into the cost (bought Poser as part of a bundle) as I would not be pleased with an program I could no longer use if Poser ceased development or accidently deactivated even though it should not have.

on start, p10 will try to connect to sevl. sites for content access, but it don't check SN AFAIK.

 hence you don't need internet unless you wanna download it and get updates.

This seems to be an overall blanket update of their product pages.  Up until the deactivation debacle back in late December of last year, only the newer versions of Anime and Manga Studios listed a need for internet access for periodic activation.  Though Steve Cooper kept claiming it was listed on the Game Dev requirements page, it was not.  Since we have had no deactivation issues with either Pro 2012 or 2014 (our in-house workstations they are installed on do not have internet access), I's hazard guess the web guys just wen ahead and changed it to cover their butts.

Well I would be very upset if it decided to phone home while my internet was out -- happens whenever we get power failures in my area, which is unfortunately more frequent these days until they finish upgrading the system and that could take another year at least -- and I lost access to my fully bought and paid for copy of PoserPro. If the unstated (real?) purpose of this new "feature" is to weed out folks running pirate copies, I've a feeling it's going to be a problem for many legitimate users too. Just like every other form of DRM.