Use a hacked serial & lose your data

[Si Veteran]

I think this may be going a little too far :|

The author of the Echelon decided to take his fight against software piracy to the next level and then threw in the towel. After someone began posting new serial numbers on a well known hacking site, the author took matters into his own hands. With version 1.0, entering a hacked serial number causes the software deleted the user's Home directory. Yes, you read it right, the software completely erases it (aka rm -rf ~). A variety of people have voiced some some strong opinions on this.

News source: Slashdot

[Rob Veteran]

Bloody hell that's insane! No doubt he covered his arse by mentioning it in a huge license agreement.

[Bearded Kirklander]

He only deletes his own program, right?

Not that big of a deal to me. Not as bad as what that CDRWIN guy did.

But if the dude nuked anything other than his own program and data, then that is bad.

[8tImER]

Reading is hard, isn't it?

He deletes the entire home directory.

Not only his program.

[whitedragon]

I smell lawsuit!

[+dave164 Subscriber¹]

Come on man.. whole home directory.. thats like making a virus :s ^^^ what he said

[Emon]

Neat ! thats how it should be !

[Bearded Kirklander]

Reading is hard, isn't it?

He deletes the entire home directory.

Not only his program.

Home directory? What mean home?

[mark52230]

In all honesty I'd have to say I'm not suprised that someone has decided to do this. Nor am I objecting. Serves you right for using illegal serial numbers.. That's my opinion anyway..

[Si Veteran]

Home directory? What mean home?

Equivalent of My Documents and anything under (Y)

[Groovedude]

LMFAO... thats funny.

[Vice]

If that happened to me I would sue him.

And what happens if you bought it legit and someone makes a serial keygen and your serial ends up being posted because the keygen maker brings it up?? next update you lose your Home Directory (like the Mac version My Documents + Programs folder on Windows) even though you bought the software.

That guy is completely mad, and this has really hurt his software because now everyone is giving it bad reviews on version tracker, and he has had to turn off his little delete feature in version 1.1 cause of this. The guy has a screw lose.

[OldeCrow]

no lawsuit needed, by installing any piece of software you agree to the licence agreement and every licence agreement says in some form or another "were not liable for damages that this software may cause to your system or data" and since useing a pirate key or some other hack to use the software illegaly constitutes improper use of the software too your just S.O.L.

personally i think its a great idea and one that you will probably see more of in the future

[Bearded Kirklander]

Equivalent of My Documents and anything under (Y)

Well that is just EVIL!!!! That is like what that CDRWIN guy did!

Are we sure about this? :omg:

Horrible, if true. :(

Wait - this is only on MAC computers? Oh - ok - no biggie... :devil:

Edited September 13, 2004 by Bearded Kirklander

[rob2090]

ooh..now let's see Microsoft implement this ;) :D

Edited September 13, 2004 by SpinningCPU

[boogerjones]

no lawsuit needed,  by installing any piece of software you agree to the licence agreement and every licence agreement says in some form or another  "were not liable for damages that this software may cause to your system or data" and since useing a pirate key or some other hack to use the software illegaly constitutes improper use of the software too your just S.O.L.

personally i think its a great idea and one that you will probably see more of in the future

Yeah, well if I have you sign a license agreement that says I can kill you if you use a bad serial number on my software, that doesn't make the murder legal. Sure, that's an exaggeration, but it's the same idea. One EULA to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them!

[empty]

regardless of whether or not the license says this it is still very unethical. you rip his software, he ****s your pc... i was always taught two wrongs dont make a right?

[amr_01]

I think it's perfectly reasonable...you want to install his software with an illegal key, you get what you deserve. you might not think it's right, but obviously making activations don't do any good, there's always ways around it, so you have to get creative.

[Si Veteran]

Wait - this is only on MAC computers? Oh - ok - no biggie... :devil:

Whats to stop someone who writes Windows software to get this idea?

[Bearded Kirklander]

I think it's perfectly reasonable...you want to install his software with an illegal key, you get what you deserve. you might not think it's right, but obviously making activations don't do any good, there's always ways around it, so you have to get creative.

He should ONLY be able to delete his own software and data related to that program. To nuke peoples entire "My Documents" folder is just unacceptable.

[Vice]

yer but like I said, what if someone gets your serial via some other means (trojan or something) or even a random keygen maker brings your serial up. then the next update you are ****** because this moron wants to keep his software safe... :pinch:

[Bearded Kirklander]

Whats to stop someone who writes Windows software to get this idea?

Twas a joke, and the CDRWIN guy already did something like this, with data corruption, I believe, didn't he?

[empty]

haha, i bet if microsoft decided to format your pc if you entered an invalid cd key wouldnt be met with such support.

[amr_01]

while this software is for mac, i use linux, and i would hate for my home dir to be completely removed, shouldn't be using software illegally without expecting to get something in return. how is deleting his own software going to teach you anything? it's not, it's just going to keep you from using it, until someone finds away around it. where if he delete everything it might make you think twice.

[Elmo]

wow talk about over the top