While waiting for Tech Support to respond - I continued experimenting and found a way into the software by 'Editing' a picture - while it still wanted to activate - it would leave me in the software when I gave up.
Once in the software I tried using the menu options - still no luck - but then I found a option to sign into ACDSee (apparently this option is only visible if the software isn't activated). When I tried that - I got a different message: Invalid Password
Well - I know the password is right because I use a PW Manager and I could log into the Web Site...
When I looked at the password - I realized I had auto-generated it from the PW Manager because it was: 3;3g^c4"}=;9DQCAc7Rv
Well - seeing that I came up with a theory. First - I confirmed that if I purposefully use a bad password - it gives me a 'Invalid eMail or Password' message. So I knew that it was somehow knowing that the password I was using was correct.
So I went and changed the password on the ACDSee Site to a much less complex password. (Letters/Numbers and just a - for a symbol).
Lo and Behold - the software would now activate

I suspect that their Software Activation process doesn't handle one or more of the characters I had in the password properly - but it interprets it as a 'Network Error'
Hopefully this helps others out. I've provided the feedback to ACDSystems in the hopes that they will also fix the problem long term in the software...
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