I stumbled on this site today. Amazing that there's so much attention being paid to technology like DRM when the real software pirates are right under our nose. After taking a look around the site and thinking, "Gosh, $149 for a copy of Photoshop seems much too cheap," I read the fine print . Read paragraph #9.

Yes, that's right, even though it looks like you're buying the software, you're only actually buying an "electronic backup" of software you already own.

Riiiiiight.

You sure wouldn't understand that from the rest of the site.

I haven't delved into this too deeply, but there are two possibilities:

(a) These guys are going to get shut down by someone sooner or later, or

(b) They're doing it in collaboration with Adobe and the other software companies, and the software won't work unless you buy a separate license code from the vendor. In other words, you pay twice.

If I had to guess, I'd go for option (b), simply because of the time and energy they spend in the terms and conditions emphasizing the no-refunds no-chargebacks policy. I imagine that in this scenario they get more than a few angry customers who pay $149 for the "software" and then discover that they still have to pay full price to make it work.

In my humble opinion, either way, this is one of those things which besmirches the reputation of slugs and leeches.