I’d like to be able to finish framing the photo with different edges… maybe softening the image to achieve a fading out from the middle. In other words… it is an easy way to make a good image fun to share but it doesn’t do enough to make me want to buy it. I’ve used Paint, Kodak and Picasa. I have Corel Draw but that has been hard for me to use…after several months I still shy away from it.

So, I’d keep “Play with Pictures” if it was free but with the limitations on what it does for the money I would not buy it at this point. (I don’t know how to get a free copy. When I downloaded it nothing was given about that…only to go to help to buy it.)

Yeah man, I understand your concern. It turns out quite a few software companies use the 3rd party protection service so we will look into how they handle the ‘always on’ issue and if there’s a way to turn it off.

I will let you all know when we have a decent answer.

I am sure that your software – and the 3rd-party copy-protection utility – is not malicious – it is just not good computing practice. It puts your product into an area that will raise eyebrows with your computer-literate customers.

I accept that some software companies have the desire to protect themselves from piracy using technology. Fair enough, but please do it when your software is up and running, not the other 99.9% of the time I am using my computer.

This means don’t install something that goes in my startup – only start everything when I launch your app. Only things that are critical to a working computer should be launched at startup, or as a service. Daemons and Windows Services are for things that need to be available all the time.

When there are companies’ utilities running in the entire time on my computer, or launching every time I start the system, then I have lost control of my system. I have no idea that there isn’t some “update” occurring sometime, or phoning home, or a port open – all this for a program I might run occasionally.

I hope that you do find a good solution that can give you the protection you need while not scaring off customers. I will be glad to try out your software at that time.

Thank you

I am the community manager at Play With Pictures.

Thank you all for you comments about the licensing software being ‘always on’ when your computer is running. I have told the head developer about this and are discussing what we can do about it. He is also writing a more technical response to the issue which he/I will post here.

I would like to re-assure everyone that Play With Pictures is a totally legit software program. We would never deliberately do anything to affect our reputation in our relatively small community. I can guarantee you that whatever is running in the background has no malicious intent so you can install it with confidence.

I will get the head developer to address these initial concerns and will try and see if there is a way to avert this issue in the next update.

Please get in contact with me at jon [at] vertustech [dot com if you have any other concerns.

Are you talking about the full version?
How could I tell if it’s misbehaving?

Let these guys reply and then go from there.

Sime

“Oh, and can you say with certainty that this little piece of important code isn’t doing something bad in the background – while I’m not using their main app? This code is from a 3rd party. Sony made that same mistake.”

You’re running Linux then? Cause surely you wouldn’t make a statement like this if you were on a windows machine / mac. lol…

Second, it’s not just annoying, it’s potentially dangerous. Any app like this makes your system a wider target for attack. It may also use my resources. That’s an important word: my. It is MY computer, not any one else’s. It is for me to decide what will run all the time. Don’t try and slip something past me, and have something running I may not know about.

Third, if it is technologically absolutely necessary to do this (can’t imagine why though), then document it clearly. Tell me what the software is doing when it needs to be running all the time. Tell me it’s there for one thing, and make it clear that you think your software is so important it must become part of my regularly functioning system.

Until people start taking a stand on these things, others that know less about what’s going on will be victims to this. Most people will just blindly click OK and do anything that’s required to look at the pretty software.

People like us need to not simply say “guys – next release you could address this?”. We need to tell them we will NOT install this mystery piece of “necessary” code.

If you recall, Sony was also not completely up front about their methods of anti-piracy. Their music CD’s quietly installed rootkits on people’s systems. They played dumb about it, but when I was emailing one of their VP’s about it, he didn’t give a rat’s a** about my concerns. Their secret software was a good demonstration of how the technically-inclined community needs to keep an eye on these things and prevent them.

So instead of asking them to consider changing these policies, we need to just say no. Don’t run software from companies with these attitudes. And Sime, now that you are aware of what they are doing – and with your technology experience – you need to help prevent this. Don’t go recommending that people try this kind of thing.

Oh, and can you say with certainty that this little piece of important code isn’t doing something bad in the background – while I’m not using their main app? This code is from a 3rd party. Sony made that same mistake.

Just say NO.