properly when the developer disappear or their company goes bankrupt, in which case what should be the better legitimate alternative sadly risks becomes quite the opposite. I'm thinking in particular of the Challenge/Response authorization system some companies use. I see where they are coming from, but I should be able to use what I buy thirty years from now, whether the company that created it still exists or not. I've stopped buying software from companies who use this, and pool my resources to those who operate under a more customer friendly paradigm and use graceful copy-protection: (Audio Damage, Wusik and Synapse Audio come to mind). All in all: - My advice to producers: support the scene, get your stuff with a clean conscience and enjoy the added benefits. - My advice to developers: point towards the added value users get if they buy your stuff. And above all: don't break your software trying to stop piracy!
And now, David Baer: Piracy! Arrrrrh! Actually, the degree to which I loathe software pirates is proportional to their level of economic well being. If 60
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there's an impoverished genius out there who could become the next Mozart ... let her have the software by all and any means. Software pirates aren't inherently evil like, say, the filthy scum who seek to hurt people they've never met by writing viruses. But the individuals who pirate software they could afford to buy, they are at best ethically challenged. They hurt all of us, not just the vendors, as can be attested to by anyone like me who has recently upgraded their DAW. I've invested close to 40 hours in this process so far and a good half of that has been trying to get all the various music software I've accumulated registered. Every company has a unique solution, often times a rather elusive one (and I'm thinking about you, IK Multimedia). To date, I've avoided acquiring anything requiring an ILOK because that just rubs me the wrong way. But at this point, I'm wishing every single program was in fact ILOK enabled. It would have saved me half a standard work week.
be a key evaluation factor in selecting which software to buy. Just as an ILOK requirement has kept me from buying from certain vendors, not using the centralized service would be a very negative factor for future purchases. A central registry would benefit everyone including the vendors who today often garner the wrath of paying customers who experience registration frustrations. It needn't be (indeed, shouldn't be) complicated. Anyone who has bought software from Cakewalk, for example, appreciates the ability to log on to their account to see every serial number and authorization code for all their Cakewalk software. Ideally, you could log onto a centralized service, download a single file, and every piece of software from participating vendors would be ready for action.
I wouldn't even mind a requirement that the authorizations be updated annually, as long as it could be done with one logon and one download. As for security, there's no reason a centralized registry would be less I think the vendors have a lot to secure than the parochial solutions answer for in this regard. I'm talking now forced upon us. I also would not about the major players here, not the object to a requirement that the small operations run by one or two process uses an internet connection developers. There's no excuse that for maximum ease. This doesn't mean they haven't collaborated to offer a that your DAW needs an always-on centralized registry service. Once built, connection, but rather just an the cost per registration transaction occasional one. I cannot imagine how should be miniscule, thus allowing difficult my DAW upgrade would have them to offer the small vendors been if I had had to use a separate access at minimal or no cost. If such a machine for authorization code access. thing were in place, it would shortly Of course, an offline alternative would October 2011
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