Taxing for the user

The fact that the activation remains active even when TurboTax is not in use was particularly galling to some. “I’m offended and outraged by their casual assumption that they can install applications[that remain active] after their software has been removed,” wrote another longtime customer. “Why do I have to care if the product activation software works correctly or not ? I don't want it. I've dutifully bought TurboTax every year and registered it. I've been an honest user. But this scheme of theirs assumes that I'm a criminal and I need to be protected from myself. Nope, not gonna do it.”

Intuit’s decision to use product activation to prevent users from transferring the program to another computer struck many readers as a violation of their rights. “There must be an anti-piracy scheme that does not punish the honest to the extent Intuit's solution does,” another reader wrote. “Surely fair use should at least allow the purchaser of the software to run the software on multiple personal computers as long as it is not running simultaneously on two or more computers, i.e., two persons aren't using the software at the same time.”

The question of what fair use should and should not allow was one that elicited quite a variety of opinions, and we’ll return to that topic next week. But what everyone seemed to agree on was that software publishers are repeating the mistakes of two decades ago, when copy protection drove users to rebel. “A pox on all product-activation and copy-protection schemes!” wrote another reader. “The software and entertainment industries have come together to attempt to repeal virtually all of the fair use doctrine that has been a part of copyright law for over a century. For the record, I abide by software licensing agreements and pay for all of the [nonfree] software I use. Being a software developer myself, I feel honor-bound to do so. Ironically, Microsoft's takeover of the office software market from Lotus was fueled in part by Microsoft's lack of copy protection at a time when Lotus' schemes were driving customers mad.”

It is indeed ironic, given that not just a few TurboTax customers now blame Microsoft and its XP product activation for leading Intuit to believe TurboTax customers would accept this. But Intuit, despite its dominant marketshare in tax software, is finding out it’s not Microsoft. Software publishers take note: Unless you happen to be a convicted but unpunished monopolist, embrace product activation at your peril.