The latest version of Norton AntiVirus has been released. The latest version includes several tweaks of the 2003 version and for the first time requires Product Activation. Product Activation is a technology being used by more and more software vendors to help prevent software piracy. When Norton AV 2004 gets installed you have up to 15 days to run the activation process. If the product is not activated it will stop working. The process of activation combines a unique software key included with the program with certain hardware details of the computer it is installed on to create an activation code which is then embedded in the program. At that point the original program CD can not be used to install the program on another computer. If you change certain components of your hardware configuration or buy a new computer you must reactivate Norton. Currently, you can reactivate up to 5 times.
Product Activation is used by many vendors including Microsoft. I don't really have a problem with it as long as; 1. It is fast and easy to do, both initially and for reactivation. 2. No personal information is gathered from the workstation and transmitted during the process.
Intuit tried Product Activation on their TurboTax product last year and took a lot of heat for it. They have now announced they will remove it this year. It seems many customers said they would rather use another product rather than activate. McAfee has released their latest version of their AntiVirus product and for now it does not require activation.
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