October 17, 2002

Handling piracy and customer registration

Info World: A FEW WEEKS ago I was contacted by a market research firm working on a project for an unnamed software company. Their client wanted "a better understanding of how the market perceives anti-piracy initiatives, especially as they relate to product activation and registration," and they were hoping I could share some of the feedback I've gleaned over the years on this subject from readers.

For a variety of reasons, I don't usually participate market studies like this, but the questions they were asking made me stop and think. Not knowing which software company this was, it was possible they were sincere in wanting to know how their customers might react to their implementing product activation. If I don't tell them, who will?

So, Dear Company X, thank you for asking, and I hope you don't mind my sharing my answer with a few hundred thousand of my closest friends. How can you win greater customers for your anti-piracy and product activation efforts?

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