"E. Segen" wrote in message
And incidentally, the trial limitations are intentionally implemented to prevent individuals from getting around the trial use period.
You are correct about that. However, an individual who would do that is just as likely to pirate the software in the first place. Also, a determined enough individual can easily circumvent the trial enforcement software anyway. The only thing that’s stopped me from removing the trial enforcement software is lack of time and motivation (it bugs me, but not enough to prompt me to do something about it).
This is a classic debate in the computer world — "copy protect or not?" — and I’m not suggesting we start it up here. I promise to limit my say on the topic to this message. Suffice to say, it is my opinion that copy protection of all sorts (including that used for enforcing trial periods) does way more harm to legitimate users than it benefits the software publisher using it.
I also prefer "broken" demo versions to time-limited trials. I tried to check out Adobe Premiere, using the trial version. However, I found it difficult to use the first time I tried it, and then it was a month before I had a chance to look at it again. Of course, since the trial had expired, I had no way to spend any more time with it to find out if I’d be able to learn it, and whether I liked it enough to make it worth paying nearly $1000 for it.
There are, of course, pros and cons to both methods, and obviously no major software publisher is going to release their software on a "shareware" basis (that is, allow users to use a completely unrestricted version on an "honor" basis). But whenever someone else does something irreversible to my own computer, I am just a little ticked off.
Pete
