Roger Merchberger &lt;zmerch(a)northernway.net&gt; wrote: To me, the problem is with the person who finds the software in the dumpster and assumes that equals a license. It's not. The original owner might've even been told by Autodesk to destroy their old media. I can't see why the license owner shouldn't be free to do that, and although I love to read the fine print, I do not recall ever seeing language to that effect. To argue otherwise would only encourage rampant pack-rat-ism. Of course, members of this mailing list don't need an extra dose of that. :-) "James L. Rice" &lt;jrice(a)texoma.net&gt; wrote: I think they did once upon a time. Today they tend to use dongles to protect software, so there's no way to use dumpster software as-is. Uncle Roger &lt;sinasohn(a)ricochet.net&gt; wrote: It can depend on the company policy. Some companies are happy to take money from anyone - legit owner or not - when it comes to upgrades. Others are more careful about tracking serial numbers and might not allow the upgrade. - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>