Software piracy is a big issue nowadays, and as a result we are now in age where DRM techniques like product activation are a reality. For some categories of software – most of Microsoft’s high-end software line, as well as most big-ticket programs – product activation is an accepted, necessary evil, and has been the status quo for some time. What was the most recent version of Photoshop, for example, to not feature some sort of activation? 6?

In other markets, customers aren’t as used to such heavy-handed DRM. Look at the videogame industry: the PC versions of BioShock, Mass Effect, and most recently Spore, raised quite a stir over their well-known use of DRM. In some cases, consumer outrage resulted in a lawsuit; in others, ill-fated calls for a boycott.