Thanks for trying, but I disagree. Even those methods can still be hacked/cracked and released without the necessary information to trace the origin of the serial. You may make it just a bit harder for the casual pirate, but you wont change anything in the long run. Not to forget that such methods require resources that a little shareware app as Scrivener wouldnt exactly be worth the hassle.
I doubt you will see “kracked” versions on the internet because the process is honestly way to easy to beat.
[–SNIP!–]
So my suggestion? Simple. If the product is serialized but not “activated” the first time then allow it to work, fully functional, but after 90 minutes have the program shut down (Your demo time has expired). The program would then instruct the user they must validate this copy (one time thing). They “activate” it and the 90 minute self terminate code is removed. They of course can just restart the program for another 90 minutes but the idea is over a long period of time this becomes annoying which would encourage them to activate without losing functionality and without the program “begging money” from a user (think annoying shareware dialog boxes)
Now if a person is in a odd situation where they have to completely reinstall and have their serial number but cannot activate they can still use the product, still work on their files, still fully function. They would just have to restart the program every 90 minutes. (small inconvenience). Once they get an internet connection the 90 minute shut down code is removed or deactivated.
That will actually do a better job at keeping people honest without leaving them in the cold without a working product if they are in a strange situation not accounted for by people who would think normal use.
This would also circumvent the very easy Little Snitch Krack I already demonstrated.
Of course then a “Kracked” version of Scrivener could hit the internet but then again a “kracker” could just modify the existing program to think the “demo mode” has never expired. They haven’t done it probably because SCR is niche program and I doubt there is a big demand for pirated copies of SCR because it has such a nice fully functioning demo period that allows a person to really try it out (Most software is pirated because people want to try before they buy and many “demos” are limited in function or time to really use the program).
And the biggest thing is the price is very very reasonable for a legal copy. And since many writers are concerned about Copyrights etc I would say a large majority would feel like a dirty pedophile if they created their own works of art using someone else’s stolen art as a tool.
So Yes I think activation is needed. I think it should be just a tad more stringent. Because if all a person has to do is turn off the internet or block SCR from calling out, that is rather too easy to circumvent and in doing so makes the activation process nothing more than one more step for a legal user to go through with no real benefit to the consumer nor the developer.
What of people who don’t have Internet access on their computers?
Are there such people here in the technological vastness of the future?
Shoot, I think even my toaster has internet access now. (Perhaps this explains why my homebaked bread always burns.)
I’ve gone as long as two years without Internet access at home, and more recently around eight months (just got wired back up a couple of months ago). I would guess it isn’t all that uncommon, but as long as there is a way to somehow verify and activate the application over the phone you can get around most situations.
I posted this on another thread earlier today –
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8248056.stm
a possible solution, though I’m not sure I fancy it myself …
Martin.
I’ve only just come across this post and I now have an Icky feeling in my belly. I’ve just updated to 1.52 and as of yet haven’t started Scrivener. When I start it up am I going to find myself in a rather sticky situation because I don’t have internet access? 
Also, as it looks like I’m not going to have the internet on my computer for the foreseeable future does this mean I am stuck at 1.51, or as someone suggested earlier is phone enabling going to be available?
Eldritch, as Keith has said, if you don’t have an internet connection, Scrivener will just let you get on with your work … it does NOT shut you out. Presumably, if you hook up to the internet later, it may then do so, and believe me, the process is so instantaneous – unless you’re running a pirate copy, presumably – that you hardly know it’s happening … an alert comes up, you click OK, your licence code is sent and the alert goes away instantaneously and you carry on working.
I’ve just done it on my MBA, so I know that’s the case.
Mark
Cheers Mark, started reading this from the back and most of it seemed to be arguing about esellerate or hacking techniques. Being short on time I just posted. As for running a pirate version, oh ho ho, noooooo sireeeeeeeee, I’m a proud, upstanding, serial number owning individual. 
And one who can’t understand why anyone would need to pirate a piece of software that is such outstanding value for money and surely well within anyone’s affordability range. Less than a cheap night out on the town.
I purchased Scrivener last week, and I’m impressed with the product. I’m also pleased by the approach taken with the activation process.
Copy protection can be a nightmare, as it was with version 4.x of Final Draft (PC). They sent a floppy disk with two product activations. At the time I had only hand-me-down computers, and they crashed constantly. That activation floppy went bad as floppies often did. Every months or so when something went wrong with Windows (virus, etc) I’d have to reinstall the OS, I’d call FD support and that the floppy disk was unreadable. They treated me with suspicion and finally told me that I had to upgrade to version 5.
The whole episode left a bad taste in my mouth. I’d paid full price, between $200 and $300 for the program at a time when I didn’t have much money. So I never did upgrade, and when I recently returned to work on a screenplay, I ruled out Final Draft because of the product activation nightmare. CeltX is good enough.
My point is this, product activation is understandable as a means of preventing casual piracy, but it’s not a good idea to treat real customers as criminals. I’m grateful for the approach Scrivener is taking-- it’s very reasonable and respectful of users.
Taking the long view, what happens to my copy of Scrivener if eSellerate goes out of business, or if they decide to stop supporting Srivener for whatever reason? I used to have a great tsr program called noblink. I had a word processor for BeOs as well. Both companies are gone, but I still have the software and can use it. There must be a solution that doesn’t involve a third party, code added to the program (can’t possibly be beneficial) and the cloud.
Keith, I’ve come to get to know you through your exceptional product, your presence on the forums and through the update process. I trust you enough that taking your word for a vendor is easily done.
Bike locks. Why do we lock our bikes, to keep away the hardened criminals, the professional bike thieves? No, we couldn’t do that. We lock our bikes to keep away the wandering ne’er-do-well who’d grab it out of mischief.
Doing nothing invites casual theft. Doing something minimally intrusive, as you’ve done, let’s the passers-by pass by.
Scrivener is an app I’ll continue to use many years after it’s become technologically irrelevant. As long as I can install it after the eSellerate servers have gone offline and Keith (God forbid) gets hit by a bus, I’ll be satisfied.
He’s already been hit by a bus once. There is a rumor the bus was damaged as a result and he is still getting over the trauma and feelings of guilt.
The bus actually did a runner. It was a bendy bus, too. Apparently. I have no recollection of anything other than stepping off the kerb wishing that the taxi had parked on this side of the road, then waking up in an ambulance. 
mokane - if you read the posts above and my original explanations, you will know the answer to your questions, but in short, you’ll be fine.
All the best,
Keith
The Scrivenerati bus! I knew I should have switched to Full Screen before I slapped the damned thing into drive.
Wow, I didn’t know about the literal bus. I was only referring to the metaphorical one. So glad you seem to be doing just fine.
Somehow Scrivener activation doesn’t seem so important in light of an actual bus-coder collision…
Imagine what scrivener would have been if the bus hadn’t knocked him half loopy.
Just caught up with this.
The argument that Scrivener, via eSellerate, puts Stuff We Don’t Know About on our computers seems spurious. EVERYTHING puts stuff we don’t know about on our computers. Sometimes it’s in the app packages themselves (anyone know EXACTLY what all those files in Word actually do?), sometimes elsewhere. At least the eSellerate frameworks operate under their own name, so we can think “Hmm… wonder what that is? Something to do with eSellerate, I’ll wouldn’t be surprised.”
We shouldn’t forget that >90% of the computing world has to live with the Microsoft registry…
Yes, and I really really HATE it that my car demands I put the fucking KEY in before I can drive away. It’s MY CAR. My relationship is with Volvo, not with the FUCKERS who made the KEY. 8)
I do agree with the poster who said he hated eSellerate because they’ve got a dire and silly name. I dropped my .mac account because I couldn’t bear the idea of being @me.com. How Hello Kitty pubescent egomaniacal. But THAT decision was ENTIRELY RATIONAL and anyone says otherwise, I’ll hold my breath until I go blue. And throw up. And drop down DEAD.
So I suppose I’m in the “Don’t care” category…
(and not sorry I used the Rude Word at all, frankly.)
wot rood werds is`at Micky 
rat
“car”