I got the latest free key, and the latest cdrecord binary (2.01.01) for i686 Linux, but cdrecord still stops with an Alarm Clock when it starts to burn; i e, the key seems to not work. What's up with that? Someone getting this to work? What am I doing wrong?

Solving my own problem again: The free key doesn't work for the 686 version of cdrecord -- but works fine with the (slightly older) 586 binary. Go figure.

I wonder if someone could just write a completely open-source DVD recording program. It's not rocket science -- just work...

Do you already know about "dvd+rw-tools"? It's what I've always used to burn DVDs since I bought a DVD burner.