Foo - Was this piracy, should I feel bad?

A friend bought software online from a retailer, it came as CD with a little activation key. Using this key you register online to get yet ANOTHER key, the registration code. You install the software, and enter the registration code. Well the registration code did not work! After trying it, attempting to contact customer support, I found a crack and cracked it. Needless to say, the software works fine now. Now the question is...
Was this legal?
IS this piracy?
Should I feel bad?

I can see how it is shady, I did crack. But the software was rightfully payed for, the full retail. BEcause of their complications, the software could not be used like it should. For that, I don't feel a gram of shame.

Jesus, man, live a little.

It's not piracy, but it is a violation of DMCA (Felony). The specific violation is a circumvention of a protection mechanism.

Best advice is to not talk about the program you cracked anywhere by name.

Well, I have no intention of mentioning names. I will make another attempt to contact their customer support for a proper registration code that works. I just figured, it was payed for rightfully, it should be able to be used.

That's my belief as well...if the program does not work right out of the box, and CS fails me, I should have every right to make what I bought legally work right.

Sadly the DMCA screws the consumer, while not doing an actual thing to stop piracy.

You should worse about your bad spelling.

You should worse about your bad spelling.
You should feel worse about your general use of English. ;)

Probably somebody else's registration code generator got it already.

You paid for it, you've got a receipt, eat some pie and you're all good.

I remember reading somewhere (I think bash.org) about a guy who wanted an illegal key for some game, went to ebay, looked at the pictures of the game for sale until he found one with a nice picture of the CD -- complete with key.

I remember that...I think the game was Diablo2.

edit: here's an archive of the auction: http://www.mangoat.net/archives/diablo2key/

You should feel worse about your general use of English. ;)
I don't speak English.....Termiteese here. It's close, but not so close.

You shouldn't have said anything, now the CIA is going to be after you! RUN!

Why would you buy a software?

Why would you buy a software?
Because software engineers that create software need to feed their families too.

Probably somebody else's registration code generator got it already.

You paid for it, you've got a receipt, eat some pie and you're all good.

I remember reading somewhere (I think bash.org) about a guy who wanted an illegal key for some game, went to ebay, looked at the pictures of the game for sale until he found one with a nice picture of the CD -- complete with key.
That is pretty good actually.

On a side note, how do these registration code things work? In my case, is there some trick where the registration keys given by the company match some other existing set of #'s within the software? Even if there are thousands of registration keys that work, the chance that you can guess the long number with letters is slim?

arrh! a pirates life for me!

don't forget international speaking like a pirate day, sept 19th i think...

That is pretty good actually.

On a side note, how do these registration code things work? In my case, is there some trick where the registration keys given by the company match some other existing set of #'s within the software? Even if there are thousands of registration keys that work, the chance that you can guess the long number with letters is slim?

It's not a guess. There is acutally a methematical scheme uses to calculate what the key should be. In the Case of Diablo2, it was verified client side (on your own computer), thus how a key crack could fix it until the next patch. A Keygen does not remove the protect, it just calculates a key that SHOULD work.

Problem is most programs do function over the network. In the case of Diablo2, once that key was found on the internet, Blizzard banned it from battle.net. This leads to the original buyer to having to get a new game usually....instead he turns to the keygens and this cycle starts anew.

Once I tried a windows XP OEM keygen, on the 50th attempt, I got a useable key....it even worked on windows update. reason why I tried it? I stuck the *$&# OEM label on the back of my keyboard....the same keyboard I threw out when moving to Florida....DOH! So I ran a keygenned version until my new OEM edition came in the mail.

thats one thing I really dislike about all these activation keys. What if you lose it? Are you expected to buy a new copy?

I have a question about piracy too - the other day, I was out puttering around in my boat, when it ran out of gas. Me and my friends then proceeded to board a neighboring boat with guns and knives, killed everyone on board, raped their women, and took their gas and food. Is this piracy?

thats one thing I really dislike about all these activation keys. What if you lose it? Are you expected to buy a new copy?

Yes. If you lose it,most software publishers expect you to get a new copy. In essence, the key IS the license. The actual license doc is pretty much just the legalese that won't fit on the license key sticker.

If you noticed, on most high dollar software, the activation key is actually on the EULA.

Basically....you know that t-shirt with the squirrel with a stick and the message "protect your nuts"? Well that's about how one should feel about their software keys. I now keep all my key stickers on the sleeves I keep the CDs in. It may not be EULA compliant having the sticker there, but screw it...if the sticker is the license, then I'll put it where I damn well please.

Sometimes keygens have the formula used to create a key, based on the code that deciphers it, but sometimes they just have to randomly generate one and check if it works.

Like in the Windows XP keygen that I have, it generates a random one and runs the code to check it, and saves a list of the correct ones that it finds. Sometimes it'll happen to get a good one on the first try, sometimes it'll take a hundred tries or something. Since windows XP has to be distributed to so many people, even with 25 characters in the key there's still a decent percentage of the possible combinations that will be valid keys.

A 25-character key on a program that would be distributed to only a few thousand people would be pretty hard to generate a valid key for without the code they use to create it.

I just can't see myself buying a brand new software if I lose the key. TO me, I payed for it rightfully, that means I bought the rights to use it. Oh well, thats why I use Linux. I can only scratch my head at the people that put up with this crap everyday.

By the way,
what happens when a keygen works and generates a CD key that has never been issued by Microsoft? Pirate X goes and does his 30 day activation with microsoft and all is well for him. Then consumer A buys a genuine copy of XP with that same key but issued by Microsoft. I am assuming Microsoft would not issue a key which has already been activated, but what if this key had already been issued and printed on CD and was sitting on the store shelf when pirate X happened to get the same key. Then consumer A buys it, attempts to activate, and cannot. Does microsoft say Sorry you've been pwn3d? What happens?