Have you ever been scammed with pirated software on ebay?

[Donkey_Kong]

A couple years ago I purchased CorelDraw4 on ebay. I was suspicious about the software being pirated when I received it, but it worked nonethe less so I was content. I did notice the seller had listings removed by ebay shortly afterwards, this reinforced my suspicion, but I continued with my software anyway, not knowing what else to do.

Fast forward a couple years, the program is hanging up on when I open it so I uninstall it. Go to load the program back up with the disc, and now I get 'Key is Invalid' after entering the serial#! DOH!!

Any advice? Other than the obvious about how I need to be more careful with ebay sellers...etc etc. I appreciate that. I'm just looking for a long shot here, is there any recourse what-so-ever for me? 

[NiN^_^NiN]

There's a few ways you can use it again but i won't go into them.

As for a recourse there is no way for you to do anything besides if the ebay seller is still selling you can report him on ebay and to corel etc.

[SavannahLion]

Sort of.

I purchased an OEM Win98 from a class mate once. TBH. According to MS's website, the DVD I have shows some signs of being legitimate (security ring exists) but also show signs of being fake (fine print on DVD smudged. Security strip on manual fake). The DVD also has a nasty tendency to "slip" while in the drive. The key has never been denied or whatever so I used it right up until I went to Linux.

On eBay the closest I've come is buying "rentals" from ---Bad words, bad words, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when saint censors you?--- buyers who either A) fail to describe it was a rental B) use a "stock" photo that clearly does not show the rental security stickers or C) all of the above.

As for you being scammed. You're basically SOL and you'll have to resort to what NiN^_^NiN won't talk about. The closest I've ever heard of any company doing anything is offering a discount to purchase their software. Though that is exceedingly rare.

[patrickl]

How can the key be invalid all of a sudden? It's the same disc right?

[TOK]

How can the key be invalid all of a sudden? It's the same disc right?

They find the one thats been used for hundreds of installs and remove it from their activation server.

[Silas (son of Silas)]

...until I went to Linux.

    

[Level42]

Lesson learned: Never pay for your pirate software.... 

[patrickl]

How can the key be invalid all of a sudden? It's the same disc right?

They find the one thats been used for hundreds of installs and remove it from their activation server.

Then disconnect from the network when installing the software?

[Hoopz]

How can the key be invalid all of a sudden? It's the same disc right?

They find the one thats been used for hundreds of installs and remove it from their activation server.

Then disconnect from the network when installing the software?

Or have Zonealarm or another program block it from updating if the update buggers the program.

[TOK]

How can the key be invalid all of a sudden? It's the same disc right?

They find the one thats been used for hundreds of installs and remove it from their activation server.

Then disconnect from the network when installing the software?

If it even has the feature, it has to phone home eventually or its going to shut down. What would be the point if it was that easily defeated? Not sure about Corel stuff.

[HaRuMaN]

I knew an IT director that would deliberately buy pirated copies of Windows online, file a chargeback on his credit card, report the sellers to Microsoft (they were handing out $250 rewards back then), and install the software anyway.

He saw nothing wrong with this.  And no, it was not me.

Pure profit! $$$

[patrickl]

How can the key be invalid all of a sudden? It's the same disc right?

They find the one thats been used for hundreds of installs and remove it from their activation server.

Then disconnect from the network when installing the software?

If it even has the feature, it has to phone home eventually or its going to shut down. What would be the point if it was that easily defeated? Not sure about Corel stuff.

Yeah CorelDraw 4 is from the early nineties. Back then people didn't generally have internet. So indeed it's not likely that it will atually check the key.

Or are we talking about X4? I threw my CorelDRAW 4 away.

Maybe the key was simply typed in wrong? Sometimes it's difficult distinguishing a 0 from an O or 1 from an l or g from a q and such.

[Donkey_Kong]

Yea, correction... it's CorelDraw X4.

I'm going to try and disconnect from the network when I install, hopefully it works. Thanks for the help fellas.   

[SNAAKE]

you can always "obtain" whatever software you already paid for.

just saying

[hypernova]

I agree.  "Obtaining" is good.

As long as a virus isn't embedded in it.