CD key violation

[Zooko]

Ugh, in the 2 vs 2 vs 2 vs 2 vs 2 game that I'm hosting and playing in, I got this message for one of the two nations that I am playing: "CD Key violation. Your CD key has been used on multiple installations. Your orders have not been executed.".

Some questions:

1. Why did this happen this time and not any of the other times?

2. Why did it happen for one of the two nations that I'm playing (my own), and not for my brother's nation for whom I'm subbing in while he is away?

3. Can I just turn off networking during the "checking your cd key" moment to avoid this? Hm, actually it's probably being done on the server. Maybe I should configure networking on the server to disallow that check...

[Zooko]

4. Is this going to happen every turn from now on until I do something different?

Hm, on reflection I think my brother might be using my CD key. Although unless he lost his during his recent move I don't know why anything has changed today as opposed to all the other days that I've been using this product for the past eighteen or so months.

[Cainehill]

That's probably it, and it'd only come up when you and your brother were playing a server-hosted game together; possibly pbem hosting as well.

[Zooko]

So my Mac laptop just got back from the shop. I already did part of my turn using my Linux desktop. If I put the same CD key on my Mac laptop (I only have 1 CD key), and then try to play the rest of my turn, or try to play my brother's turn, then I might be forced to stale again?

This sucks.

[Zooko]

Oh -- waitasecond. Forget about my brother, and forget about my Mac laptop. Consider the fact that I have two Linux computers here. I've been playing from either one of them, depending on whether I was out in the garage or in the house. Is it the case that I so far got lucky and did each separate turn with only one of them, and then this time I got unlucky and used both of them for the same turn, and that's why my orders were ignored?

[Zooko]

So, am I allowed to log in to my brother's position in our 2 vs 2 vs 2 vs 2 vs 2 game in order to see what's going on with his nation, or is that going to force me to miss another turn?

What are the rules that I have to follow in order to not get forced to stale?

:-(

[Zooko]

Um, now when I try to connect to our game nothing happens after I enter the hostname and before it prompts me for the port.

I don't know whether this is some kind of copy-protection scheme or just random bugginess.

Sorry for the delay, folks. I'll play my turn as soon as this product works for me.

[Zooko]

Well, after the server was restarted I was once again able to connect.