AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition now complains (as of 2 days ago) if it detects you have more than 1 machine at home running AVG Free Edition. It then displays a popup message with a hyperlink to 'become legal'. Clicking the link brings you to AVG's website where you are offered the paid professional version to purchase. It welcomes you with what I took as a sarcastic "Welcome to the legal AVG community!".
Popup message with link asking you to Become Legal
AVG became very popular with many users since it essentially offers a feature-packed anti-virus program free of charge with free antivirus signature file updates. Unlike many antivirus software solutions, this "free" offer isn't simply a trial - it's perpetually free. The only caveat is that you are only supposed to use their software for personal use and not business.
I believe the AVG antivirus software is tracking IP address connections to their virus update server. If it notices mutiple PCs from the same IP address downloading the updates, it assumes you are using it in a business environment. I haven't fully tested how or when AVG displays this popup, but I wish AVG's algorithm would at least set the number of PCs to >5 before flagging as an ilegal copy, since many people have multiple PCs in their homes.
I actually received this error on a shared corporate laptop. Technically, the AVG antivirus software (free version) shouldn't have been installed on the laptop since it violates their licensing agreement. However, often times users take these laptops to tradeshows or hotels, outside the protected corporate network, get infected with a virus, google "free antivirus software" and find AVG as one of the search results. They then just blindly install it. They're supposed to read the licensing terms, but who does these days?
This phoning home tactic by AVG certainly seems to be borrowing a page from Microsoft which has instituted their WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage) pirated software utility to "track" supposedly illegal copies of the Windows operating system.
AVG deserves to be commended for continuing to offer free anti-virus protection to end-users, but I'm a bit leery of their methods for attempting to detect business users breaking their licensing terms, which will no doubt result in false positives. Unfortunately, software vendors are becoming more draconian in attempting to enforce their software licensing even if they do throw the baby (legal users) out with the bath water (pirated users). What say you?
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Please see:
http://free.grisoft.com/doc/avg-anti-virus-free/lng/us/tpl/v5
The license agreement reads:
AVG Anti-Virus Free is for private, non-commercial, single home computer use only. Use of AVG Anti-Virus Free within any organization or for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited. AVG Anti-Virus Free is absolutely not for use with any type of OEM bundling with SW, HW component or any service. Your use of AVG Anti-Virus Free shall be in accordance with and is subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the AVG Anti-Virus Free License Agreement that accompanies AVG Anti-Virus Free.
That's right, single home computer use only. Meaning if you have more than one machine or have AVG Free on multiple systems, you are in violation of the license agreement. As far as being on corporate notebooks for "cleanup purposes", there is a 30 day trial of the paid product available - and it will do a much better job of cleaning up since it does detect adware/malware/spyware objects.
Ignorance of the license agreement because the user didn't take the time to read it isn't an excuse. Try telling that to the cop the next time you get pulled over for speeding and see how far you get. Grisoft knows that users don't tend to read the agreements -- this is probably why the reminders have been added to the software.
You are correct that many manufacturers are implementing copy protection schemes to ensure licensing complaiance, something that numerous companies have been doing since the 80's (using parallel port devices, cd copy protection schemes, and license keys).. Validating license keys is merely the natural evolution in copy protection technology.
An alternative to AVG Free Edition is:
http://www.antivirus.comodo.com/
Free for everyone it looks like.
I have stopped using AVG a while ago and started using Avast! home edition. This latest twist with AVG seems to justify my decision.
The thing I like about Avast! is that firstly it looks better, AVG still looks like a windows 98 application. Secondly, after you install it and the updates, it gives you the option to run a full system scan before booting windows so you can make sure you are clean, if you believe you are infected.
http://www.filehippo.com/download_avast_antivirus/
Grisoft has stopped this campaign:
http://forum.grisoft.cz/freeforum/read.php?5,74483,75742,page=5#msg-75742
You can't have everything for free. If you need it on 2 computers go to http://best-antivirus.org and buy it.
The above site (posted by Gregory Davis) is to a service that charges you for free downloads.
Don't be scammed into paying for what you can get for free from:
http://www.grisoft.com
Besides, if you're going to pay for it, you might as well go with a paid edition from the only US based distributor/reseller of AVG that offers UNLIMITED (US BASED) PHONE SUPPORT!
http://www.avg-antivirus.net
Avast is one of the very few really antivirus programs that offer real-time protection for home PC security. Czech guys did a great job! AVG and Avira seem to be the only competitors. Finding a full-featured free antivirus is tough these days, most of the so-called “free” programs are either time-limited trials, or simply on-demand scanners without real-time monitoring. To my mind, avast! has the best interface of all free AV’s available for personal PC security.