Intuit getting sneaky?

[Doctor Q]

From an Informationweek article titled Isn't Tax Time Already Frustrating Enough?:

Intuit has decided that it needs to protect itself against people sharing TurboTax without paying for it. The company has installed Macrovision's SafeCast/C-Dilla digital-rights management technology on every TurboTax disk it sells. As a result, honest users are inconvenienced and have less flexibility. For starters, you can't make a fully functional backup copy of your CD. In addition, if you activate the program on a machine and then have to replace major system hardware, the program may not print your tax return. What's worse, Macrovision's technology keeps chugging along like the Energizer bunny, eating up machine cycles and monitoring your computer whether or not TurboTax is running.

Full story: http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20030227S0008

On their site, Intuit implies that SafeCast does not gather information to transmit to Intuit. They say "It does not examine, modify, or gather information about your computer, your computer's contents, or your activities or behavior, nor does it transmit any such information to Intuit." But on another page they admit how it works: "When you install your TurboTax CD-ROM for the first time, numeric codes are sent to Intuit in exchange for an Activation Code." If you read carefully, they are probably making correct claims, but this over-defensive explanation is just the kind of thing that worries people who care about their privacy and security.

As a software developer, I understand that companies worry about protecting their software, but driving good customers away is bad business. I've already switched to TaxCut so I no longer use TurboTax for Macintosh (MacInTax), and Intuit isn't yet using a software security technique for their Macintosh products, but I think this article makes good points that Mac software developers and users should pay attention to.

 

[bousozoku]

Intuit is welcome to do whatever they want with their products. If they need other suggestions, I have one.

I switched to TaxCut last year. Unfortunately, they went to a higher-priced version instead of Deluxe. It's $39.99 for Platinum vs. the $24.99 for Deluxe last year. I like it though.

Now, if they'd just do a Quicken alternative.

 

[jethroted]

Ya, I got burned last year. I was doing some trial runs, trying to see what would give me the best outcome and next thing I knew, I had used up my 5 returns. I was like WTF? I paid $39 cdn for software I am only going to use once in my life, then they lock me out? Screw them. They can suck my left nut this year.

 

[bousozoku]

Originally posted by jethroted
Ya, I got burned last year. I was doing some trial runs, trying to see what would give me the best outcome and next thing I knew, I had used up my 5 returns. I was like WTF? I paid $39 cdn for software I am only going to use once in my life, then they lock me out? Screw them. They can suck my left nut this year.

Umm...that kinda talk...because you gave the other last year for taxes?