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Intuit Drops DRM from Future Products
MisterKoffee writes "ExtremeTech has a story about Intuit dropping Product Activation and Digital Rights Management for most of its future products, including TurboTax, in response to a customer backlash."
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Effective copy protection -- and frankly, theirs was pretty darn effective, compared to most -- at this point has to be intrusive to actually work.
The only way around it would be to patch the code to prevent the lookup, and that's more work than your average person is willing to do.
Theirs certainly was intrusive. Aside from the possible damage to my machine from questionable tactics such as boot-sector munging, their policy of requiring only a single PC being able to use the software is the biggest real objection.
I have multiple PC's at home. I do most of my work in the living room, but it would be nice to be able to alternately work on my taxes from the upstairs office. No can do, without a second license. At least Micro$oft's Activation method lets you have two copies in most cases.
If they really want effective copy protection, the product should come with a USB dongle. That's still annoying, because it may cause you to go out and get a hub and still use your other USB devices at the same time, but I'd live with that.
Would it be fair to then hand my USB dongle to my buddy so he can do his taxes? I'd say yes -- because I would not be able to use it while he has it. Intuit would probably say no. On the other hand, my buddy would probably be more likely to go out and get his own copy for next year.
Ooh! And give a discount to those who have last years' key!
That contrasts with their current policy of offering early versions to registered users, and a price usually $20 higher than BestBuy will have just after XMas.
Design for Use, not Construction!
They lost my money and my future business because of the tax software registration/lock down fiasco. They showed the software industry about how much the general public will take in terms of software liscensing.
I'm one of those people who protested to Intuit. I had purchased the software, so I used it, but never again.
While I am very glad they have seen the light, there is still their implicit accusation that every single one of their customers is a thief (which, IMHO, is what DRM implies). I'm glad they're dropping DRM, but they should be groveling to their customers. Until they do, I'll be buying from their competitors (that don't use DRM, of course). Intuit should be made to feel pain, and I mean deep hurting where it counts, their bottom line. While the RIAA and MPAA are out there making examples of people, it is time we made an example of Intuit. Despite this turnaround, they should be made an example to the whole corporate world that technologies of control are unacceptable to consumers. If Intuit's revenue were to drop 50%, believe me, it will chill the market for DRM products.
Here's what I suggest if you, like me, are a user of Intuit software:
1. If you are a TurboTax user, switch to a competitor next year (one that doesn't use DRM either).
2. If you are a Quicken user, either switch to something else, MoneyDance, GNUCash, etc., or at least DO NOT UPGRADE. If you seriously think about it, what could a new version do for you that the current one doesn't?
Hit 'em. Hurt 'em. Teach 'em a lesson.
No more Intuit products for me. And I have NEVER copied a single product of theirs. EVER. In fact, that's why I'm so angry with them.
Software companies that offer real value for money have little need to resort to copy protection. It's the ones that don't that always wind up resorting to nonsense like copy protection. But, of course, the copy protection lowers the value of their product even more, which simply makes the decision to jump to a competitor even easier. Even Microsoft is starting to see this.
My understanding (perhaps it's merely a rumor I'm repeating) is that H&R Block was going to use the same Cactus crap to protect their software starting in 2003 (that is, for the 2003 tax year which is actually going to be in 2004), but the minute they saw the flap starting over Intuit's use of it they very quickly backpeddled and put on a nice public face (while secretly saying, "there but for the grace of God go we").
So I guess H&R Block is the lesser evil, but I don't believe they're entirely innocent here.
I wonder if US/Canadian tax software is something more than an plain electronic form
what, they where supposed to read your mind before the institute a new capability?
Hell, this is a company that is responding to customer complaints. they also posted a removal of the boot sector 'feature' pretty damn quick.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I installed Turbotax on my work computer (well, doing my taxes seemed like work) and then the IT people came and took my machine away because the lease had run out and they gave me a new one. Turbotax was the only software I couldn't reinstall. I know I kept tech support on the line for a least two hours (to activate on a new computer they wanted to know the date I activated it on the first computer: how the heck am I supposed to remember that?), as well as filing a bad review at Amazon and sending a nasty letter to their CEO. I am sure they spent more money on me than they would have saved if I was a pirate.
That said, I like the software and the fact that they listened to my complaints mean I will probably buy it again next year.
Milo
While the QNX stuff is generally of excellent quality the FlexLM thing is a persistent source of problems. Installation and upgrade have never gone smoothly, with obscure services not starting or being misconfigured by the installer, client authentication going wrong more times than it should (i.e. ever), and occasional file-locking problems that require a reboot. At least in my case, licence management seems to generate as much traffic with the QNX support folks as does their actual product (host and target) in its entirety.
Worryingly, the licence is bound specifically to one licence server. I _imagine_ that if the machine (a laptop) were destroyed, lost, or updated, then there would be some means whereby I could persuade them to issue another licence, but it's bound to be a sticky point.
I wouldn't care if everything worked properly and transparently, but it doesn't. My vendor is essentially treating me like a thief and simultaneously making himself look like a bozo (which he isn't - the rest of the QNX stuff is great).
On the last occasion it took several days to resolve the licence manager issues - had this been at a more critical time then this would have been a dealbreaker. It leaves me with a rather bitter taste in my mouth, and I'd think twice before recommending QNX to another client, purely for this reason.
So is their bizantine DRM saving them money, or costing them? I think Intuit can answer that for them.
## W.Finlay McWalter ## http://www.mcwalter.org ##
shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
They lost me as a customer. Taxcut did just as well for me and I have no reason to go back to TT from Intuit.
BC
You cannot do what Microsoft does until you have what Microsoft has -- complete market dominance
And MS itself doesn't do all of the activation crap in product segments where it's trying to prove itself, or win a PR exercise. Case in point: SQL Server has no activation. Neither does VS.Net.