Yes, and it is ultimately THEIR decision what they are doing. If they go for Syncrosoft, Pace or Codemeter - so be it. If they are going for C/R on either an own server or even a cloud - so be it. If one system goes down, sh*t happens - especially if the dev is like "oh no! now we also drop off the planet!"dalor wrote: HOWEVER, in the end it's up to the developers to decide. Developers are iLok's clients, not us! Anyone who had a problem should report to the DEVELOPER and let them make the decision to continue supporting iLok or pull out.
If you had activation problems, talk to the developer and tell them your painful iLok experience, including iLok's support who let you down.
I have to trust the devs to know what's best for their customers and the best way to protect their property.
Pace representatives did contact their users after all. Granted, only at GearSlutz and not KVR (yet) - but they communicate. And they did so right from the start(!) - with delays in terms of public announcements. Also, half of the pissed users could use their tools after like 3 days again already!
Cut these people some slack for a change. They are working on fixing that issue, and the issue is not the drivers or the software - the issue was due to the services transfer.
So it is NOT a users fault, it was a glitch in the database. And for the last 10 days, they were locked on to fixing all that.
Take more recent examples with painstakingly smashing bugs:
ArtsAcoustic for example... 5% of their users could not use this plugin due to reasons unknown. Then again, barely any users dared(!) to give a detailed issue report. So it took a while to track down and fix the problem. But it was ultimately fixed! Nobody took it out on them!
Or take Steinberg for example... their launch of Cubase resulted in an uproar of their users for over 4 months until most(!) bugs were ironed out with .0.4, and that thing is still faulty! Did anyone take it out on them as much as with PACE? No!
IK Multimedia... they are still known to have issues with the license management, especially on Macintosh. On Windows, there is this bug with "run as admin". Was this adressed up until this point? No (sometimes the "support" mysteriously even looses entries). Was this taken out on them like with PACE? No.
Here we have three examples of companies that had (and still have) issues, and how they handled it. Steinberg uses the Syncrosoft eLicenser USB Key system, IK Multimedia uses C/R. These two systems are not as much critisized as Pace/iLok however. And I ask myself why - because it's just as intrusive and driver loaden.
I don't know about you, but I find the system by both iLok and Syncrosoft dead easy compared to hacking in serials from eMails or box-bundled cards in order to get the response code.dalor wrote: Goals should be:
- Easy to manage and install licenses
Tell that also Native Instruments, Line6 and IKM with their license managers and Custom Shops.dalor wrote: - Unintrusive to the OS (no endless driver junk!)
As someone that worked in IT support - this is highly unrealistic unless you have a call center with several hundred employees while half of them takes care of mails, and the other half of phone calls. Especially if the "bug" we're still debating really punished the whole userbase (think of several thousand users) and not just a fraction.dalor wrote: - Support ticket system with guaranteed feedback within 2 hours
Best if 24/7 including holidays, right? And best if you don't pay an extra dime for that service either through the developers selling their tools with Pace, or Pace directly.dalor wrote: - Online chat tech support for troubleshooting in emergencies
Cool idea, and I'm sure you'd love this. But it's highly unrealistic.
In an ideal world, we don't need any C/P at all. But the reality is, that even freeware and low budget stuff is being cracked and "edited" off of nag screens.dalor wrote:In my ideal world, we all would have just a serial and avoid all need of the above.
Don't always blame it on the "punished userbase", people.
Epecially nowadays. Or should I remind you again of what Steinberg did back in the day in order to get an update for Cubase?
The LPT "dongle" had to be sent in, in order to get a new one. Turnaround... several days to weeks. These days, the turnaround is between 30s and 24 hours. And still people get mad, if they don't get their license within 5 seconds running!
If this is all to much for you - then stay the hell away from USB copy protection, Call & Response, Serials (either by file, or custom generated by the server), Watermarking. These are all intrusive and introduce possible bugs, some can't even be resold (samples especially).
Stick with software that is not market, or freeware.
But stop this useless debate - unless you were really involved!
And that could have been avoided, if you didn't need to update your drivers unless you bought something new in the last 10 days that is iLok dependent! Or you had to reinstall and lost your backed up drivers.
Seriously...
Constantly debating what they did wrong and "should have done" and "should do from now on" or even "I hate iLok and don't trust them anymore"... this doesn't help!
Sh*t happened, PACE is working on it - and this is all that matters!
