[UPDATE] Out of the blue, HBR refunded my money for the purchase. In fact, I had purchased a hard copy as well due to the printing issues I was having, and they refunded that too. No explanation, just my money back!

I just purchased an article from the Harvard Business Review site and it came in 'sealed media' format, which means that you have to be connected to the Internet to even open the damn thing. Not a customer friendly solution and little more than a royal pain in the ass. Thanks for nothing HBR.

There are a few points about this little turd that really suck.

1. No matter where the file is located, you must be connected to the Internet to view the file. You will need to have Internet Explorer 5.x or 6.x installed (Ass Clowns - I'm usually remote, and like Mozilla)
   
2. You must download additional plug-ins. (more shit on my already overwhelmed PC)
   
3. Look for a username/password for the file. (super, another one that I'll forget. God help us if you need a unique one for each document you order)
   
4. Print a paper copy...due to the limited access to this file, we suggest you print one paper copy for your personal use. (If I wanted a paper copy, I'd have f__ing ordered one. I want to electronic version to read on the plane. Thanks again, for nothing)
   
5. You can't print to any other type of electronic media such as a normal PDF or FlashPaper with this, thus rendering any 'normal' for of distributable electronic media useless.
   
6. This little bastard won't install on our corporate comptuers (or any that have Win2K or WinXP w/user install access locked down) so those of you that are buying HBR articles inside the corporate firewalls might be SOL.

HBR's sealed media is sorta goofy, but you gotta live their cartoons!

we hear the staff at SM UK are crapping themselves as they have one months capital left - then its plug pulling time on the product which is driving them mad as it's so badly coded. they are trying to VC funding - have been trying so many sources for a LONG time - their very last resort is a couple of Germans - if they don't go for it then its curtains by January end

Like you comedians ! SealedMedia is still alive and so is their product. The settings on which you complain, dear Dana, are done by HBR and not by SealedMedia themselves. Everything is optional you know, i can perfectly send you a Sealed doc and you will be able to open it remote. Of course i don't want you to stock is as e.g. a pdf, it's my document, that's why we purchase doc protection apps like SealedMedia. To Buster : try again. Germans ? LOL