I'm 100% for making sure that keyclone is protected from piracy. We definitely want to keep the revenue coming so it keeps growing. And again I love the program and I'm greatly impressed by the level of support. But as a customer, I have to honestly tell you that I'd prefer a model where we would get a key, it's validated by the server and we're then good to go on that system without having to do a check against the authentication server every time we log. In a nutshell my concern is that Keyclone will only work if the authentication server is up. If it goes down, or if for whatever reason, the developer decides to move on to other things and discontinue the tool, we are left with an unuseable tool.

I'll give you an example. I still use a little program to draw icons that was originally built by a freelance developer for Windows 98. I paid my $20 or so to this developer, authenticated the software, and I've been using it ever since. The developer's website is long gone, but my program still works. I love that little program because it's quick and simple so I still use instead of modern tools. I realize I won't be getting any updates for that little program, but I can still use it in it's original form.

I realize that if a big software house makes a seven figure offer to our great author,we won't be getting more updates any time soon, but I hate to think that we would also loose the ability to use what currently exists.