Product activation Posted December 29, 2003 at 12:00 am

With it being the first Monday following Christmas, things started to return to normal as people are returning to work. Most of my coworkers are still on vacation but the person I work with most was back and we attacked the workstation backlog with renewed vengeance. I picked up my first paycheck before I left for the day.

A belated Christmas present, Dreamweaver MX 2004 was waiting when I got home. I initially selected Dreamweaver due in large part to it’s solid feature set but also largely due to it’s dual support of both the Windows and Mac platform out of one box. I expected that the EULA would allow for a supplementary installation on a portable and it does, but that secondary system has to be of the same platform. What the hell? Furthermore, I’ve discovered that while you can select either platform initially, you cannot switch to the other platform later if you change your mind. All this, folks, thanks to the new product activation scheme that Macromedia has implemented across its entire Studio MX 2004 suite of applications. Does this mean that the Macromedia products are now copy-proof? No, because any resourceful user intent on bypassing the scheme can find a key generator that will produce a key for a site license that will bypass the activation requirement entirely. I should know; I’ve seen it myself. So in the end it’s the same old story: I, a paying customer, am prevented from making a legitimate use of a product because of an activation scheme. Thanks a lot.