Software ethics PCMIA

April 11, 2004 9:11 AM

I frequently use a certain piece of software, obtained 100% legally. It offers two usage options: 1. register a maximum of one(?) machine and use it sans CD, 2. use it with the CD in the drive on as many machines as you'd like. I use the latter method on three of my four machines, however, I also have one laptop with only one PCMCIA slot. To use the program without registering requires not using my PCMCIA wireless ethernet card. I don't remember exactly what steps are required to trick the software into thinking a local (hard drive) copy is a CD. I also am not sure just how illegal this would be. Advice? Thoughts?
posted by Sinner to computers & internet (7 comments total)

If it were my software, I'd download a warez copy and install that on my machine.

It's kind of sad, though, that downloading software is often easier than dealing with copy-protection, even after you've bought it.
posted by Jairus at 9:53 AM on April 11, 2004

Daemon Tools is (are?) what I've used to mount virtual CDs. You'd probably be violating, in letter if not in spirit, the license agreement, but I'd view it as a work-around for a hardware problem (a shortage of PCMCIA slots on your laptop).
posted by TimeFactor at 9:54 AM on April 11, 2004

I'm sleepy. Ignore the 'downloading' part.

Use some software (almost all cd-burning software can do this, plus a few freeware apps) to create an image file of your CD. Then, use Daemon Tools to mount that image on a virtual CD-Rom drive.
posted by Jairus at 9:58 AM on April 11, 2004

It took a long time for me to deduce the relationship between your number of PCMCIA slots and your CD problem. I presume your CD drive connects to the laptop via PCMCIA? If so, you could get a CD drive that connects in some other way. If you've got USB, a read-only drive would probably be pretty cheap.
posted by jjg at 12:05 PM on April 11, 2004

I also use Daemon Tools to keep mounted images of game CDs on my computer, to save the trouble of inserting them. I use SlySoft CloneCD to make the images, but only because they're so-called copy protected discs. Anyway, if you have trouble reading off an image file, CloneCD is free for the first 20 days and I recommend it.
posted by scarabic at 12:24 PM on April 11, 2004

all (re: daemon tools): downloaded, installed, but have yet to reboot and give it a shot, but assuming it works, thanks very much for the referral(s). I had been thinking more along the lines of doing this through windows via partitioning or some such. Assuming this works, thanks again for a perfect explanation and another testimonical to the beauty of Ask.Me.

jjg - long story, but put briefly, i have the pcmcia drive already and buying more peripherals defeats the purpose (of allowing me to easily use the s/w on this machine without spending money).
posted by Sinner at 2:40 PM on April 11, 2004

Just chiming in to say that Daemon Tools is excellent, and much much easier to use than other similar tools (such as the one built into Alcohol 120%, for example).
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 8:26 PM on April 11, 2004