>>Again, taken in isolation, each individual step may not be particularly onerous. It is the aggregate that begins to appear more threatening...(many of the individual issues have been mentioned in this thread) to me, at least.
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>Like I said, what are those steps? You install it, activate it, and use it legally. If you can't activate it instantly, you get 30 days or somethign like that before the software disables itself.

Obviously you don't mind the new and ever deepening intrusions, Mike.

But as you can see by this thread, there are a wholelot of people that do.

For instance, when have I ever had to register your average basic off-the-shelf software product before??? And I certainly could decide to do it if/when I felt like it, if ever.

And how does MS propose to do this for people who do not have internet access?

And what about all the years (still on-going) that I did register my purchase with MS, only to have it actually ignored by MS for anything but marketing purposes??? Once I've registered I'd have thought I'd get some benefit, like being recognized as a legitimate owner when I made a call. But no, there is all kind of repetition involved.

I must admit that I generally see younger people willingly giving up little "freedoms" all the time. I have attributed it to simply not ever having seen things any other way - they get out into the work world, are told to do something, and they just do it. Like, for instance, fast-food workers who are told to wear those headsets and keep them on, giving up any privacy they otherwise might have in complying. Or call centre personnel having their calls "monitored" regularly without first indicating that monitoring might be helpful in a specific case (only). Or......
But this is a little different, Mike, because even you have seen the "old" style of doing something.

I guess that the goodies that a MVP status provides curbs any urge you might otherwise have to 'pirate' - you simply don't have a need that might translate into such action. You just might see it differently if you were buying all this stuff yourself on your current salary.