So I am sitting in an airport shuttle heading from Boston to Framingham. Looks like the ride might take a bit, so I fire up iTunes to play an Audible book on the way.

Oops. I haven’t yet enabled Audible for this machine. No problem, I always have the latest tools. In goes the EVDO internet card. Of course I am savvy enough to keep passwords in secure storage, so I even can lookup my rarely used Audible password.

I type in my credentials, to prove that I own what I own, and this comes up: “You cannot enable this Audible account on any more computers. To enable on this computer, you must first remove the Audible account on at least one of the other computers.”

Well, thanks a lot. As a power user and a technophile, I go through a lot of computers. Two of the others are in my office in Chapel Hill, backups in case this one goes down. I buy premium (priced!) hardware and software, and I buy lots of it. I am an intellectual property Boy Scout, because it is the right thing to do, and because it is in my professional interest. And what thanks do I get? A big fat “You don’t own what you paid for until you travel home and prove it (again).”

Damn it!