Software Registration question

Many software companies encrypt there programs with instructions that require the user to input a serial number or registration number at the time of installation. Some software companies make registration numbers available only by calling their support line, in cases where the original installation was wiped out and the program had to be reinstalled. These registration requirements are presumably there to help protect the software company from piracy. The software will not work unless registration is completed.

However, no registration requirement notice is provided at the time of purchase, and no registration requirement is memorialized in the licensing agreement contained on the software envelope. Since the registration requirement was neither a term of the software sales contract, nor a term of the software licensing agreement, are software companies that place such a demand on end user engaged in an unfair trade practice.

Can a class action prevail, based on privacy issues, that would compel software companies to make registration optional?

Leo Smith
<barter[_at_]ntplx.net> Received on Thu Jul 17 1997 - 00:17:17 GMT