License protection

[C-note]

Hi Ruben
e-Licenser or iLok is fine for me as I have to have both those anyway for other software.
If you can use Urs method that is fine too. The main thing I want to see is that your hard work is protected. As a dev of commercial biz software I can certainly appreciate protecting your investment!

Also... Do not be afraid to charge for your work, i.e. new features/products. Lennard and now a team I guess, creates great alogos for music, best around in my estimate. I would encourage you to bring new creations into the world so we can all enjoy your work. But protect it in whatever way you think needed.

[tehlord]

Absolute 100% no to dongle.

I have an elicenser for Cubase, but I also use Sylenth on two machines, one is my main DAW and the other is just for sound design.

I guess the thing to consider is that if I have to move my dongle to one machine for Sylenth2, I then can't use Cubase on the other one. It's very, very inconvenient to the legitimate paying customer.

[Kriminal]

Serial only.

[cotdagoo]

Sylenth1 seems to be one of the most ripped vst plugins and to be honest it's one of the reasons the 64-bit version has been delayed for so long.

Just to be clear.. due to piracy, Lennard's current (paid) customers on OSX have honestly had their 64bit AU delayed on purpose while Windows users had 64bit in 2008?

[chk071]

Where do you read that they did it on purpose? He simply said that it was one of the reasons.

[cotdagoo]

Where do you read that they did it on purpose? He simply said that it was one of the reasons.

I read what I quoted.. Doing something because of a reason would be "on purpose", much as not doing something because of a reason would also be "on purpose".

edit: all I'm asking for is clarification whether the update was delayed (since 2008) due to piracy, leaving OSX customers out in the cold intentionally..

[chk071]

I read what I quoted.. Doing something because of a reason would be "on purpose", much as not doing something because of a reason would also be "on purpose".

Not really. Imagine someone writes a software, everyone uses it illegally, noone pays for it, and the dev is forced to get another job to make a living, leaving no time to further developing the software. That would be hardly intentional. I don't want to say that it is the reason here, it is just an example which should show that saying that piracy is one reason for the lack, or slowdown, of development, doesn't mean that it was intentional to let down OSX users, if you want to call it "let down".

[Regnas]

What's the point of this poll if you will change the protection anyway?

[Ruben(LD)]

Well...we do feel the need to change some small things at least to ensure the hackgroups will not hack the release the day it comes out. We're obliged to the paying users to do at least that...

Lennard is pretty simple, he wants a good plugin for easy use. He really doesn't want any fancy dongle system or so...but the paying customers deserve a decent protection against ripping.

So, it's probably not gonna be the dongle thing...restricing to 1 PC is ridiculous so we have to find a way to get it protected besides that

[Nielzie]

Well...we do feel the need to change some small things at least to ensure the hackgroups will not hack the release the day it comes out. We're obliged to the paying users to do at least that...

Lennard is pretty simple, he wants a good plugin for easy use. He really doesn't want any fancy dongle system or so...but the paying customers deserve a decent protection against ripping.

So, it's probably not gonna be the dongle thing...restricing to 1 PC is ridiculous so we have to find a way to get it protected besides that

Ruben, you might want to contact your fellow dutch music software developers Rob Papen and Frederik and Floris from FabFilter to have a chat about protection of plugins and how they do it and why. Those companies seem to do fine with fairly simple non-intrusive protection.

Baat het niet dan schaadt het niet

[golemus]

Please no dongle. Dongle is a solution from last century, we are in 2014 and a lot of people (including me) are doing music with their laptops. For a laptop user dongle is the same as pissing on the customer:

- imagine being on a vacation trip, composing while at it (like I do) and then you lose the dongle. It is like USB-stick, very easy to lose. If that happens, you need to stop working. You cannot continue composing until you order a new dongle and if you are in the third world (Thailand, India, Bali, whatever) getting a new dongle and licenses transferred to it can be extremely difficult and time consuming, there could be period of weeks that you cannot compose music.

- does lennar digital want to be the company whose customers are grinding their teeth for weeks while waiting a dongle, and while doing this all inspiration, all the musical innovations and ideas that are born in the head are not realized because of copy protection.

- it should be always a priority to optimize experience for paid customers, not to let copy protection to disturb their experience.



- In my opinion the way Ableton Live takes care of copy protection is a good way. Although it has not prevented cracked versions, at least it is more secure than a simple serial number.

- Ableton allows using in two computers. In my opinion you should allow Sylenth to be used in three computers. Well I have three (one studio desktop, one big quadcore laptop and a smaller dualcore laptop

[NNevez]

Any method, except dongles

[VitaminD]

As a prospective buyer, I'd only choose dongle based licensing if it meant a generous reduction in the price of the product. Otherwise, I'd opt for a simple serial key.

However, I'd like to also say your company seems to be very strict on sale/discount pricing, which probably also turns people off from buying (and more to just stealing it). That is off-putting to this prospective buyer at least. Not that I'm suggesting I'd steal this or anything else, only that I could imagine that scene occurring by others sadly.

Seriously, you guys need some kind of sale or discount promotion. Even u-he has the dinosaur crossgrade discount. The synth, while still desirable, isn't as interesting as it was back in 2008 (the last time it was updated).

I've bought quite a bit of software in the past 6 years. Out of those I've bought, all were bought on sale/discounted pricing. None were bought at retail pricing. The market is competitive and you're not being too competitive.

Likely, I'll find it off the marketplace instead if I decide to buy. But I think with such a synth so long in the tooth without any updates, you should consider a reflection of this in the pricing.

[murnau]

we want to state that it's really unmotivating to see so many google hits on downloading Sylenth1, or torrent files that have been downloaded thousands of times each...and that has indeed been a reason for slowing down the programming of the 64 bit.

i find this is an odd thinking even has much as i understand that a crack is VERY frustating it can't be that a developer nearly stop to enhance a product because of that.

this is a bad sign for existing and future customers of yours. also i dont know the backgrounds and start guessing i believe that at least a considerable number of people would buy if LD would have regular updates/new products like other devs.

[Naenyn]

Maybe I'm a bit of an idealist.. but it seems to me that the people who will really like your products will want to support you and will pay for it. The people who don't, won't. Protection or no protection. Overall, it is my opinion that protection really just inconveniences the legitimate users while giving the crackers a possible challenge that they will shortly overcome. I feel it is much more important to spend time getting a quality product out there for the users that love your stuff than to spend time on copy protection that just gets in the way of making music.

Just my $0.02.