TOLEDO, OHIO- When Jack Pearson purchased his HP desktop computer last May, he picked up an extensive anti-virus software package to protect it. And now a year later, even though what he read of the license agreement mentioned nothing about it, the software exhibited a special bonus feature: expiration.

Now after every startup and several times throughout the course of the day, his screen fills with pop-up reminders that he needs to renew the software he once thought he had purchased outright. Pearson says that even though the pop-ups often disrupt his work and even force occasional fatal system errors, he appreciates how hard McCrappy Anti-Virus is working to retain his business.

"If only it were as tenacious about viruses as it is about getting me to renew, I may not have lost all that work during the 'ChristmasCard.bat' fiasco last year."

While the pop-up reminders are certainly invasive, many industry observers have expressed admiration for their innovative technical approach.

For example, Pearson says that McCrappy Anti-Virus has the ability to rummage through one's digital photos and cut and paste them into scenes of horrific violence. One day, he found an image of his family with auto-scripted blood trickling down their smiling faces. "Oh, my God! Everyone's going to die!!!" read the pop-up along with a McCrappy logo at the bottom.

Another pop-up featured photos of his children along with various clown-like figures composited outside the windows. The caption read "UNPROTECTED: I'M GOING TO PUT MY EVIL IN YOU!!"

Pearson says that recently McCrappy has been altering the subject lines of his e-mail messages to read "DO NOT OPEN- PROBABLY INFECTED." It also went through his Outlook address book, sending messages to everyone he knows explaining that Pearson was "too cheap to think about the virus security of those around him."

Of course, the processing time to create these innovative pop-ups is considerable. It is only natural that a computer with McCrappy installed will be unusable for several hours each day. Finally ready to renew the software he had purchased outright just a year before, Pearson loaded up the McCrappy web site to find...more pop-ups. Ads for, of all things, other anti-virus packages and upgrades.

"Anti-virus Gold protects you from 50% more system-killing viruses than Anti-Virus Silver," read one full-screen pop-up ad.

Pearson discovered to his dismay that the package he purchased had been renamed Anti-Virus Bronze shortly thereafter.

"Security software is a hard sell since it does nearly all of its work silently, and for the average computer user real viruses are quite rare," said McCrappy CEO Dennis Ponzi. "The mind-numbing pop-ups let you know its working."

We still wondered what could make fully software suite expire like that. According to Ponzi, what Pearson bought last year was very similar to the time-limited demo available for free download...except that it came in a large carboard box and cost him $49.50.

"I'm glad I'm protected and everything," said Pearson. "But I have to admit I'm going to miss the pop-ups."

Good news. While the upgrade includes new virus definitions and new techniques for eradicating malicious code, McCrappy's pop-up boxes have also undergone extensive enhancements. Next year at this time, Pearson and thousands of users like him will be treated to system-locking pop-ups, kiddie porn e-mails sent from their accounts, and deleted bank accounts all in an effort to get them to renew software they thought they owned.