Robbed again by a crooked activation scheme!

[HandsOff]

Hello, and Merry Christmas, and I don't want to be overly negative, especially this time of year, but...

...I hate activation. It is a complete and total rip-off to the consumer. It amounts to, "Pay us for something and maybe it will work, or maybe not. We couldn't really care less. We have your money and we don't really care beyond that." Yep, I'd say that about sums it up. With activation you WILL NEVER KNOW if you can install and run the product you paid for at some time down the road when you really need it. No argument will ever blunt that basic fact. You can only hope your application will install when you need it. If it has been more than 30 days or whatever, you are the proud owner of nothing! Thank you, software industry! Thank you consumer protection laws!

Anyway, now that that is out of the way, some of you may recall how satisfied I was with a product that I bought a couple years ago. It was by 321 Studios the bundled products were Xcopy Platinum and (something like) DVD xRescue. Now the product I was really stoked about was DVD xRescue. I only ever used it a couple of times, but it really worked. The product can take a scratched up unplayable DVD and use some special techniques to read the disk and let you burn the contents to a blank disk. This was soooo cool! So cool in fact, that I soon quit making backup copies. Hell, if the DVD doesn't work, I'll just make a new one! Oops! No can do! 321 studios is out of business cannot call them to activate the product...

This gets worse...These scum bags not only took the money and ran...their telephone help number has be converted to a sleazy phone sex setup. Stealing just wasn't enough. Now they are literally hitting me below the belt! I've heard people defend activation here. Well, defend this!

So here I am, watching a movie purchased from blockbuster a few months back...84 minutes into it...a psycho has wounded the victim and is attempting to escape...the end. (For me anyways).

If anyone knows any programs that repair DVDs (and don't have activation!!!) please let me know!

If anyone is considering buying software that has activation: Heed my words and find a legitimate product instead!

Merry Christmas!

-HandsOff

[lodore]

I hate activation as well.
I have dvd copy express from 321 studios. im lucky because ive never had to reinstall it.
im sure there is other programs that do that job such as clone cd it makes dvd's as well.
cant you use scratch repair systems that use sanding discs or liquids?
that work really well.
i normally only buy new dvd's so i dont have the problem of damaged discs.
lodore

[Ice_Czar]

considering 321 was forced out of business by the RIAA & MPAA maybe your wrath deserves a different target.

activation and restrictive licenses due suck
but then the fringe benefit of being certifiably paranoid is the ability to work around (http://www.searchlores.org/warning.htm) those little problems

[lodore]

i thought 321 studios where forced to take out the bit of the product that removed copy protection but could still make the product if it didnt.
other than the fact that the copy protection remover was one of the main fuctions IMO.
lodore

[Ice_Czar]

exactly the point not much use if it couldnt decrypt DeCSS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCSS)
damn Millenium Act

of course forcing them to do that just killed 321,
but the next day everyone was using DVDecrypter\DVDshrink

[HandsOff]

Thanks for your answers, I'm glad you understand where I am coming from. for those who don't, consider: I save all of my programs, all of my data...I consider it a form of wealth, or knowledge, or power. I have many programs that only run under windows 9x which I haven't used for at least four years. But I save them all because they were fun or interesting, or puzzling, and someday I might want to use them again. I guess that is a problem for the software industry. In short, they have to actually improve upon an existing product, or else force the obsolescence of what you are using by compatibility issues.

Anyway, I guess the best I can hope is that smarter people than I will always find good logical approaches, and someone will be here to point the way! For me that might be the strongest lesson I have learned here. There are people who have figured it out, and little by little I can learn too!

Merry Christmas!

- HandsOff

[Peter2150]

-{ Quote: "Thanks for your answers, I'm glad you understand where I am coming from. for those who don't, consider: I save all of my programs, all of my data...I consider it a form of wealth, or knowledge, or power. I have many programs that only run under windows 9x which I haven't used for at least four years. But I save them all because they were fun or interesting, or puzzling, and someday I might want to use them again. I guess that is a problem for the software industry. In short, they have to actually improve upon an existing product, or else force the obsolescence of what you are using by compatibility issues.

Anyway, I guess the best I can hope is that smarter people than I will always find good logical approaches, and someone will be here to point the way! For me that might be the strongest lesson I have learned here. There are people who have figured it out, and little by little I can learn too!

Merry Christmas!

- HandsOff" }-

Hi Handsoff

I understand your frustation and wrath, but I think the target is wrong. You are mad, understandly at companies because of activation, but stop and think about why they do. If no ripped off the software folks, they wouldn't need the activation. Thats were the root of the problem lies. It is a sad state indeed.

Pete

[Ice_Czar]

yeh but its a little hard to swallow from my viewpoint when a company sells a product that does exactly the same thing as readily available freeware\opensource, and then throws activation in and sells to to n00bs with a slightly easier interface for idiots

:dry:

[chrome_sturmen]

handsoff, i know what you mean regarding saving your data, im like that myself. give dvdfabdecryptor a shot, its good at reading and recovering data from damaged discs.

[iceni60]

-{ Quote: "
If anyone knows any programs that repair DVDs (and don't have activation!!!) please let me know!
" }-
maybe this program will do it. i'm not sure exactly which program they're talking about here though ??? i suppose it's either testdisk, or PhotoRec. they both work well with windows. i used testdisk once and it was helpful :)
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/CDRW

it does say cd though and not dvd :|

[feddup]

I thought DVDXcopy was still around but went overseas. I haven't checked lately but they had a forum at afterdawn.com . It's been a year or so but i remember getting an update there.

[nights]

Sometimes I do buy software from small companies to suppert developers.
I wanted to buy LooknStop firewall, but I decided not buy it because it needs a activation, so now I am using LooknStop for free with a key**n.

Product activation is beyond evil and should be banished.

[Bubba]

-{ Quote: "free with a key**n.

Product activation is beyond evil and should be banished." }-Reminds me of the pot calling the kettle black it appears ::)