If you are unable to activate your game and see this message pop up restart the game don't touch any buttons and wait for the social club notification to pop up in the to right corner of the screen and then sign into rockstar social club and your game will activate.

lol, if only i got that far, my game crashes before you even get past the legal screen...

I have the exact same problem, but your solution didn't work. I also don't quite understand what you mean. How should waiting for the notification make a difference to the error?

Thanks anyways for your input.

Funny how the people who have cracked their game are avoiding this problem and those who stick with the retail .exe are dealing with this headache. Seems pretty backwards huh?

If I crack this game, am I still able to activate it with my key and play online? If that's the case, I know what I'm gonna do.

Cracking it didn't give me the option to enter the key, it did however make the game work. Ive since uninstalled but am considering just cracking it again and getting on with it.