Der8auer reports that Lamptron is selling illegal AIDA64 keys with its LCD-equipped products — including LCD air coolers and dedicated LCD hardware monitoring displays. FinalWire Ltd., makers of AIDA64, confirmed to Der8auer that Lamptron is bundling free invalid AIDA64 keys with its products and has been doing so for some time. FinalWire has requested that Lamptron stop this shady practice, but it has not. Der8auer suspects that Lamptron is using some sort of key generator to generate fake AIDA64 keys that will validate, but only on select versions of the software.
The German overclocker first discovered Lamptron's shady tactics through one of his employees who heard about Lamptron AIDA64 product keys not working on a forum two years ago. Deciding to see if this was true or not, Der8auer pulled out a "free" AIDA64 key from his Lampton ST060 air cooler to see if it would work.
He found that the key works as advertised. The box says the AIDA64 key is a "free version and does not support online upgrades." Plugging the key into AIDA64 activates the product without any issues. However, updating AIDA64 caused the key to become invalid (just as the box info says).
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After contacting FinalWire, the AIDA64 makers confirmed that Lampton's "free" AIDA64 keys are invalid and illegal. It reports that Lampton registered as a reseller two years ago but only placed a single order for AIDA64 Extreme. FinalWire finally reveals that it is unclear if Lampton ever bundled valid licenses with its devices.
"We understand your concerns regarding the "FREE VERSION" license included with the cooler. Unfortunately, we've discovered instances of Lampton bundling invalid AIDA64 licenses with their products. When we became aware of this, we immediately contacted Lamptron and requested they cease this practice. Although they registered as a reseller two years ago and placed a single order for AIDA64 Extreme, it's unclear if they ever bundled valid licenses with their devices."
Der8auer tested several other Lampton AIDA64 keys from several other products and discovered that all of them were invalid. Some of them were labeled as different versions as well, including AIDA64 Extreme and AIDA64 Business, even though Lampton only officially bought AIDA64 Extreme at one time.
Lampton is using its free AIDA64 keys to power its LCD displays. The company's displays don't have any software included and thus requires 3rd party software to operate. AIDA64 has a feature that allows users to make their own OSD specifically for secondary hardware monitoring displays.
The German overclocker shared all five additional keys he tested to FinalWire. FinalWire reported back that all keys were invalid, which strongly suggests Lampton is using some sort of key generator.
"Unfortunately, none of the product keys you shared are valid in our system. This strongly suggests they were generated illegally using a tool like keyGen," stated FinalWire Ltd.
For now, no one has taken legal action against Lampton for selling illegal AIDA64 keys. But if it continues to provide these keys against FinalWire's wishes, the company is obviously at continuous risk of serious consequences.
