Dear Kirk, Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, this came when I was already on the job.
Yesterday it was so huge trouble with the customer. The festival photos could not be seen quickly enough, sorted, labeled and uploaded. The fallback workflow was just too slow! Especially the IPTC caption for so many pictures is a pain when you can not work with the right software...
The photographers of the agencies were waiting for the pictures even use Photo Mechanic, were shocked.
It is the most horrible nightmare. A few hours before an important job, Windows gets hiccups. You install an emergency system quickly, but you can not install an important program. Because you are only allowed to repair five times the operating system. On the weekend. The manufacturer is at the other end of the world. Calls cost EUR 1.50 per minute - you do not speak English...
It is completely unacceptable not to be able to repair or reinstall the operating system if it is required. Away from the internet and phone in the middle of the night or on the weekend on location if needed. Presumably, this is a kind of protection against piracy. I respect the manufacturer's wish to protect its product from the mass-copying. But if the customer needs to reinstall the operating system and can not re-run the software he bought, this is the wrong way.
I think if a threshold of X installs per month with a license is not exceeded massive, it is an indication that the customer does not engage in abuse and activation should succeed - because if cracked licenses are circulating on the Internet, the threshold will be very very high. As it is, paying customers will be punished and brought to distress.
I hope the problem can be solved by e-mail, so I do not have to pay too much money for international phone call to United States.
With best regards, Michael
