i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

As we left the saga yesterday, Adobe (Macromedia) Studio MX 2004 would not "transfer license" online and Adobe support was unavailable telephonically.

...

I do know how this works -- as soon as you start talking to tech support, they tell you to use the "online transfer tool" -- and it works. So, I tried to use the online tool three more times, using the option in different programs in the suite. Eg., Flash, Dreamweaver, etc.

Of course, it did not work, and kept referring me back to telephonic support.

So today I called tech support. I suppose I need to watch more Bollywood movies or something. I do eat a lot of Indian food, but it doesn't seem to help, as we are both speaking English, but we nevertheless have a difficult time understanding one another.

So, I spent 15 minutes online with two separate Adobe support techs., interspersed with a period of time listening to terrible hold music. The first tech determined that he needed to send me to a different department.

I know from experience how this works to -- the line hangs up when they try to transfer the call. But surprisingly, this time the hand-off actually worked and I spoke to another support tech, who also had no idea how to solve the problem.

She, naturally (I know how this works), told me to use the online transfer tool in the program. I, naturally, told her I had tried repeatedly, only to arrive back at tech support's phone number, which is why I was calling. She then advised me that I should uninstall the program(s) and reinstall them on the new computer -- but it must be the same operating system -- and then magically all should work.

Or if not, call back again.

This did not sound the least bit promising. But, as I have noted, I know how this works. So, while she was explaining to me that she could not solve my problem, I ran the transfer tool YET AGAIN, and somewhat in mid-sentence it advised me that the transfer was "successful."

Well, thank you for that. Finally.

Aren't copy protection schemes helpful? They don't work the slightest bit against people who wish to use the programs illegally, but they are a total pain in the backside for people who have actually purchased the product and are using it as the license agreement allows.

BTW, I will mention that I remember when Microsoft Word required the use of the original floppy in order to start up. Not surprisingly, Word was not a really popular word processing program. Also not surprisingly, any enterprising computer user could hack the startup disk and make a copy "in case the original gets lost" (wink, wink). So the program was both Not Popular and Easily Stolen. However, it also was slow to start up and unreliable because of its dependence on the original floppy (at least until the hack to get it to start from the hard drive went viral).

Then, Microsoft had a revelation -- they could take over the market if they would remove the copy protection. This is due to the fact that the format would become the de facto standard based on the illegal copies in use; while at the same time, commercial users would actually buy the program.

So much for copy protection schemes -- although as far as I know the internet-based "phone home" registration schemes make hacking programs more complicated (and therefore less pervasive). But, the programs are massively inconvenient when you do not have an internet connection or are offline for some reason.

At the same time, most of us cannot actually afford all of the software we need (or at least want) to use -- so thank goodness the "shareware" and then "open source" movements came along. How many linux programs am I running and what would it cost if each one were $100? I don't even want to know the answer to this question ...

Unfortunately, Adobe has been very good at getting government agencies to adopt their repressive format and requiring the public to use it. This is a marketing con that, like so many other hustles, uses governmental power to make money for private interests. (In my view, if the government is going to require the use of some standard, it should then also provide functional software to FULLY use the standard. -- In the case of PDF, I am constantly facing forms that "You may print but not save." Highly inconvenient for people like me who make a lot of typing mistakes and inevitably have to edit the form data. The social cost of government sponsored software -- which then ought to be made open-source -- would be far lower than the "tax" imposed on professionals in favor of Adobe.) And BTW, DJVU format is far more compressed than PDF, if the question is "how should I scan and store documents?."

But unfortunately, the free world has not produced a pdf editor that successfully edits and saves pdf forms+data in a way that rivals closed source pdf software. I'm unclear as to why that is, but in the meantime a hole remains in the business-based free world. There are some work-arounds, but not convenient or time-effective ones that I know of.

In any event, the adobe support techs were pleasant and the problem is temporarily "solved."