Mine came the other day. I tried installing it this morning on a system that is not internet connected. As a result, I had to get an activation key from the NFPA by phone.
So, they tell me that the serial number I gave them off the CD jacket has already been activated the maximum number of times allowed. Evidently, someone has found the loophole in their DRM system.
It seems to me that, in spite of all of the (increasingly onerous) hoops we have to jump through to 'protect' copyrights, the hackers are breaking this stuff faster than ever.
This one is supposed to be crack proof. The 2005 NEC on disc was a PDF protected format, and I broke the password in about one hour with a $25 PDF cracker made in Russia. Mark Early told me they have gone back to the old format for the 2008 NEC that is practically a compiled version to stop the cracking. PDF was so handy though. It was much better and cleaner than the one they use now. But if your version hs already been bootlegged maybe they will just give up and let us have the PDF again.
The '05 NEC (the one I bought) came in two versions. There was the proprietary viewer version and the CD also included a PDF. I never had to 'crack' anything to read the PDF, although some features may have been inhibited. I could even read it using the Acrobat reader on my Linux laptop. No password required.
When I called to get my key for the '08 version, I asked about the PDF (no longer included). The support person mentioned that they had received a number of requests and comments about the desirability of the PDF.
As far as the new version being 'uncrackable', it appears that no 'cracking' is needed. All one has to do is to guess a correct (and unused) serial number. That and a (free) copy of the CD and you've got it. I'm not sure how difficult this guess is, but since my copy had already been 'guessed' to its install limit prior to my receiving it, it can't be difficult.
From the nature of the reply I got from phone support (they reset the S/N, no questions asked) it seemed to me like they have heard this problem enough times to give an "Oh no. Here's another one" response.
I imagine it is simply any number that "self checks" (an algorythm of adding the numbers and generating the last "check" digit. They simply play games with how you handle the carry. Credit cards work the same way. Back in the olden days IBM had a keypunch that generated credit card self check numbers with relay logic.
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