<< Now, if the started using seriel dongles or keys like that, then you'd be in trouble. Larger software firms do this, but that is for the high dollar stuff. Not $50 games or $150 WinXP. >>
I woulndt put too much stock in Dongles if i were you. They have been around and they have been cracked too. If i remember correctly, 3dsMax requires a Dongle, and they crackers didn't have much problem bypassing it.
The only thing copy protection really does is annoy legitimate buyes and foil casual users trying to copy thier friends bought CD. The pirates in the underground have pretty much have never been stoped (unless you count CD keys for blizzard games to log on to their servers for multiplay, but thats a different story).