🚀 go-pugleaf

Will you shut the fuck up????????????? It's old fucking
news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

--
Regards,
Hank Arnold
"Jim Anderson" <sp2and@vision.net> wrote in message
news:v4vjin7qc2mo67@corp.supernews.com...
> Financial software and services company Intuit is facing a growing number
of
> consumer complaints over anticopying technology included in the latest
> version of TurboTax, its market-leading tax preparation software.
>
> Intuit announced last year that versions of TurboTax for the 2002 tax year
> and beyond would employ "product activation," a controversial but
> increasingly common technique used by software companies to lock a copy of
a
> program to a specific PC.
>
> But current and former TurboTax customers are complaining in online forums
> such as FatWallet and in user ratings at online store Amazon.com that the
> technology is hampering their use of the software and is prompting them to
> consider alternatives, most notably H&R Block's TaxCut. Intuit
> representatives say most of the reports are baseless.
>
> Complaints center on potential problems in getting TurboTax to run after
> changing PC or PC components. They also focus on concerns that years from
> now taxpayers who need to retrieve information from previous years won't
be
> able to get older versions of TurboTax to run.
>
> Lee Boszak, a retiree from Inverness, Fla., said he's used TurboTax for
more
> than 10 years but switched to TaxCut this year because he objects in
> principle to product activation. "If I upgrade to a new PC or replace my
> hard drive, I can't install or reinstall without calling Intuit," he said
> via e-mail. "I have purchased TurboTax for many years, since it came on
> floppies--this activation is a slap in the face to a loyal customer."
>
> Instead, customers are assigned an activation number from Intuit, either
by
> the Internet or phone, when they install TurboTax. The activation number
is
> tied to the product "key" for that particular copy of TurboTax. Anybody
who
> tries to install the software using that product key after it has already
> been activated using the number will be refused and invited to purchase a
> valid license.
>
> In most cases, customers who need to reinstall TurboTax on a new PC or
hard
> drive simply have to enter the original activation number they received,
> Gulbransen said.
>
> "Product activation does not prevent people who want to upgrade their
> equipment or have to deal with a hard drive crash from changing their
> hardware," he said. "We've heard from people who installed TurboTax right
> away and then got a new PC for Christmas. For most people, they can
> reactivate the product without even contacting us."
>
> The same will hold true in future years if a customer needs to fire up an
> older version of TurboTax, he said. "The bottom line is, if you hold on to
> your activation key and product key, and you aren't going to have a
> problem," Gulbransen said. "That's why we're suggesting that people keep
> those numbers with the product disc in the same place they keep a copy of
> their printed tax return from that year."
>
> But TurboTax user Joel Bradford, an educator from Eugene, Ore., said it
> wasn't that easy for him when he switched PCs last month. After removing
> TurboTax from his old PC, he was unable to reinstall it on the new one,
and
> Intuit customer support offered no help.
>
> "I tried contacting Intuit through the online tech support," he said in an
> e-mail interview. "The...representative was nice enough, but he offered no
> other solution than for me to buy a new license. I had the same experience
> with the senior support person (telling me) that I need to buy another
> license."
>
> Customers are also complaining about Safecast, the Macrovision security
> software Intuit uses to verify activation numbers. Reports have surfaced
in
> discussion groups and some news sites classifying Safecast--also known as
> C-Dilla for the company that provided the technology to Macrovision--as
> "spyware," programs surreptitiously installed on a PC that track and
report
> how the PC is used. Spyware programs such as Gator and Brilliant Digital
> have prompted growing concern among PC users.
>
> "I have used TurboTax for eight years, but this year they have used a
highly
> intrusive, insidious spyware/registration/copy protection scheme called
> C-Dilla," said a user in a comment on Amazon's product page for TurboTax
> Deluxe. "They don't tell you they're going to install it, there is no
option
> not to install it, and there is no way to get rid of it...I won't let it
on
> my computer."
>
> But Gulbransen said the complaints are unfounded. "The whole C-Dilla flap
is
> based on misinformation," he said. "It's never been spyware; it has no
> spyware components. It doesn't monitor anything; it doesn't tell us
anything
> about the user, their system, their PC activity. It just checks on the
> random number generated when you activate the product."
>
> Michael Glass, senior product marketing manager at Macrovision, said
> Safecast simply checks for a valid license file when a program is
launched.
>
> "It's absolutely, categorically false to call this spyware," Glass said.
"We
> don't send any information about the user's system to either ourselves or
> the software publisher. We don't monitor what you download, which Web
sites
> you visit, or anything like that."
>
> Glass invited skeptics to use firewall programs or other security software
> to monitor what Safecast-enabled applications are doing with their
Internet
> connection. "If people don't believe us, you can take an application like
> ZoneAlarm and see that it's not passing information back and forth to us
or
> anyone else."
>
> While Gulbransen said Intuit isn't concerned about losing sales due to the
> activation dispute, the company has compiled an extensive online FAQ about
> product activation in hopes of debunking common complaints.
>
> Competitor H&R Block doesn't use any type of activation technology for its
> TaxCut software and has not made any definite plans on whether to do so
with
> future editions, said Chrys Sullivan, the company's director of software
> products.
>
> "We think it's an interesting development in our industry," she said.
"We're
> watching this closely to see how the industry reacts."
>
> Sullivan added that H&R Block has given customers a legitimate way to use
a
> single copy of TaxCut on multiple PCs with a new "platinum" version that
> comes with a license allowing multiple installations in a single
household.
>
> "We listened to our customers and we know that a lot of them want to be
able
> install the software on multiple computers in the same household," she
said.
> "We're glad to be able to accommodate that."
>
>
>
>
>