Living in another country this mightn't mean much. If it's your business and you work from home get business insurance that does cover all these things. I was told by my domestic insurers "yeah, no worries sir, it's all covered" but somehow they wouldn't put that in writing explicitly. Their business insurance division put me straight and no it's not covered. The added, tax deductable cost of getting business insurance which included public liability has put my mind somewhat at rest.

And no, why should / would a software vendor issue another licence for free? Do you get a free car if your old one gets stolen? I'd hope that every software vendor (yeah, some hope I know) does keep a register of stolen licences to assist theft prevention.

Bob.

"And no, why should / would a software vendor issue another licence for free? Do you get a free car if your old one gets stolen?"

Well, it may sound like a dumb question, but if you think about it, it's really kind of a gray area. A car is something you can touch, while a software license is virtual and it merely gives you the right to use the software. Software vendors do it all the time but it's not quite as blatant and obvious as this. Take for example a new install of Vista on a new machine. They will cancel the license on your old install and give you a new one for the new machine... and you're allowed to do this a set number of times.

And no, why should / would a software vendor issue another licence for free?

Not sure why you'd need to. All you have to do is download the software again and type in your serial number. Sony even keeps the serial number online for you in case you don't have it saved somewhere.

Granted, the thief could use the copy that's already installed on the computer, and I suppose that would constitute a violation of the license terms (especially if he starts up Vegas same time as you ;), but what are the odds of the thief being interested in video editing?

All (slight) kidding aside, the question's not as black and white as first thought. Farss' immediate response is the ol' "if your car is stolen, do you get a new one for free?" This is a similar response I have when people want to have their stolen / damaged music CDs replaced for free, but it's a bit different here.

For one, we don't register music CDs with the manufacturer. Sony knows what you've bought and, unlike a car, the purchase is easily replaced without additional materials cost to them. The only question is, is it a financial hazard to them? Would they lose money if they don't charge you for a new license? Or would they lose you as a customer if they do charge you for a new license? If it were possible to deactivate the old license so no one can use your stolen copy, I think it would be perfectly reasonable for Sony to issue you a new license. (Note I didn't say perfectly reasonable to demand they do so -- it's no fault of theirs if your software is stolen.)

Trouble is, although they could probably deactivate the serial number (software vendors do it all the time when it's obvious that one has been distributed at large), that deactivation will be moot until someone actually tries to register the software. Until then, the thief could merrily use the already installed, already registered copy on the ill gotten computer.

The only way to be sure is, of course, for Vegas to have a "call in" function that checks with Sony by Internet to see if it's properly registered. And I think we know how most Vegas users feel about that.

So...what's left?

Rob

My neighbor's daughter went to college and her laptop had one of the
biometric scanners built-in. The BIOS uses it to boot ns encode the drive.

She has to place her finger on the scanner while booting.

I'm trying to remember the last time I upgraded Vegas, didn't we enter a number
that was on the booklet?

What does your insurance agent say about replacements including software?

As a side note there is software that will render the computer unusable. Basically you set an alert online and the first time that computer connects to the Internet it wipes out the entire drive. Naturally they could always format the drive and start fresh but at least they wouldn't have your personal data. I'm less concerned about the software than my personal files (photos, finances, journal). I don't remember the name of it but it does exist. I think I would be a bit nervous about using this type of service.

My gut feel is that someone stealing a PC is doing it not for the information it contains but because of what it might be worth to a local pawn shop. The object is to get quick cash. Since a very nice new PC is only, say, $500, I'd think the most valuable components would be a big LCD display, a color laser printer, maybe a 1TB hard drive. If I wanted to rip off something valuable I would immediately zero in on a newish laptop. Now you're talking $1,000+ with an item easily transported and converted to cash.

The Windows login password can be bypassed. A hard drive-based password is much tougher. There are ways of resetting even that, but they involve erasing the contents. Go on the boards filled with people lamenting that "my ex-wife changed my password on me, and now I can't get in, and I can't go to Dell because blah blah...". Apparently, laptop makers don't roll over very easily.

As with hopefully most people on this Board, I have a backup regimen so that if the PC disappears (or far more likely, smoke pours out of it one day) then I can be back in business in a matter of hours with new hardware. Am I worried that someone could get all my personal data out of my PC? Man, they'd have to work really hard, since passwords are in a software vault (Zdnet's 'PasswordPro') and what are they going to rip off, anyway? My SSN? Big deal.

If I have a company laptop with extremely valuable information, there is software out there that encrypts all data going to the hard disk on-the-fly. Then the only risk is choosing a lousy password. The encryption process slows the machine down slightly, but only maybe 2-3% on a new system.