Is there, perhaps, some advantage to having a personal subscription to the on-line OED? I found the following at O's website:

-------------------------------------------

The Oxford English Dictionary Online is available to individuals by prepaid subscription. You may select either an annual or monthly payment plan:

( ) Annual Subscription: $295.00*

( ) Monthly Subscription: Pay only $29.95* each month. For your convenience, your subscription will be automatically renewed each month unless you decline renewal prior to the expiration of each monthly term. Instructions on how to decline renewal will be sent to you via e-mail within 24 hours.

----------------------------------------

This would eliminate the 90-day re-verification process of which Mav (and likely the rest of the world) complains. But one wonders if this on-line service runs in the background like the disk -- I doubt it -- and is therefor less desireable.

And why is it all so remarkably expensive?