Which copy protection scheme do you prefer?

[V0RT3X]

So maybe I'm overthinking things here..

But did the OP add the Kanye West option as a clever joke regarding how KW thinks he's Jesus incarnate. In that case it's the fish option right?

[Aloysius]

Pirate Bay + Kanye West + Xfer = I'm Kanye West

[aMUSEd]

I'm pretty surprised to know how popular dongle is as preferred copy protection.

I think it just depends on how you look at it, one thing I don't like about serial registration is how long it takes to register everything on a new/reformatted computer, especially if you are like me and don't organise them well (which I admit is my own fault). And even more I hate CR as it seems to need reauthorising even if you change the motherboard, just had to do that and it was a pain. So I'm coming to like more and more the software licensing centre type of approach which keeps all licenses in one license manager. But that got me thinking about location - I presume NI and Arturia are storing the licenses somewhere on my hard drive (after an online check initially) so to me the only difference between that and the dongle is instead of the license manager storing licenses on my hard drive (although that is also an option in many cases) it stores them on a physical device that is not part of my computer and therefore that is both immune to my computer developing a fault and can be easily moved over to any other computer I want to work on. Plus unlike the NI service centre it manages licenses from multiple companies. So to me that seems a good thing.

The only potential problem would be the dongle itself getting damaged or stolen, but iLok at least has a good backup system, and I only have a few on my ELicenser dongle now, most of them are Steinberg products or other companies I know also issue backup licenses. And dongle failures seem pretty rare compared to say hard drive failures.

[recursive one]

Pirate Bay + Kanye West + Xfer = I'm Kanye West

Basically this. All I know about Kanye West is that he is some kind of celebrity who was caught torrenting Serum. There was a big thread at KVR from which I learned that this guy exists.

[chk071]

Actually he was caught with a picture showing his Web browser with a tab with Piratebay open. So, yeah, big deal. And of course he is using warez now. I had some warez sites open in my life too. People believe what they want to believe.

[recursive one]

Does the copy protection scheme influence your buying decisions?

Yes. A lot. Especially now as I rarely purchase anything new anyways as I do not need more stuff. I will just not see software that uses crappy protection as a good investment. If I buy something I want to own it in a sense that I can backup it and reinstall it whenever I want without having anything further to do with developer or any external third parties. Copy protection should work 100% 24/365 and never ever annoy or get in a way of a paying customer, and never put a paying user at the mercy of some faceless third party. Nothing less is acceptable.

Generally I view software that uses sh1tty protection like Pace as mobile apps - completely disposable. I would never pay any serious money for any mobile app as you have no control over them and they're often ephemeral. The same goes for software with CP that puts me at the mercy of some faceless third party like PACE. I could theoretically pay 5$ for a mobile app, and maybe 10-15$ max for PACE using plugins but not more.

I also avoid ilock/elicenser. The main reason is that it is impossible or pretty convoluted to demo the products if you don't have a physical dongle, even if there is a software e-licenser option. I remember it was quite a PITA to set up things to demo the AIR synths (which eventually didn't impress me much). Granted that for most dongled products there are non-dongled alternatives, I see no reason to get into all this dongle mess. The other reason are the ilock failure issues people are reporting here and there. But maybe if Avenger turns out to be a really viable software alternative to Access Virus, I'll bite.

[recursive one]

Actually he was caught with a picture showing his Web browser with a tab with Piratebay open. So, yeah, big deal. And of course he is using warez now. I had some warez sites open in my life too. People believe what they want to believe.

So the question is thus solved, you are Kanye West

[V0RT3X]

http://eureka4you.com/fish/fishsymbol.htm

+

http://www.inquisitr.com/812794/kanye-w ... hes-a-god/

[recursive one]

In the grand scheme of things, do you believe that the "crackability" influences the developer's income and if it does, then in what direction? While I'd never advocate warez, I don't believe that things are always as simple as "no cracks equals to better income from sales".

I'm sure it does many ways. There's probably people who always want to get everything for free and they would rather download a plugin if they can than pay. Of course its very much debatable if and how much these people are influencing the income of developers. A lot of those people download every warezed plugin they can and never use much of it. A kid with every big name plugin bundle installed most likely would not buy most of it anyway.

Majority of the people are probably in the middle, buying some stuff and downloading other, often buying it later. And a lot of people who start out with pirated software will probably end up buying of it later as they have become dependent on it.

Actually I think the number of people who went from using warez to being fully legit is much greater than the number of those who would ever publicly admit this Beginners often want everything at once, I don't think many of them are fine with 4-track free Mulab and Synth1. On the other hand, not everybody feels like spending few hundreds of bucks on a new hobby which may turn out to be temporary. I'm not advocating warez, but this may be the way warez could promote sales in some "real life" cases.

[recursive one]

http://eureka4you.com/fish/fishsymbol.htm

+

http://www.inquisitr.com/812794/kanye-w ... hes-a-god/

Well, Kanye West equals to fish

[incubus]

^^^ haha! In fact, MFGF.

[ATS]

I prefer none

[Richard deHove]

I prefer none

Yes, there should be a None option. Some devs have no copy protection and rely on honesty.

[metamorphosis]

Serials are, basically, no better than no copy protection. I prefer them because they're convenient, but actual copy protection is both wise and justified in all cases.

[Hink]

http://eureka4you.com/fish/fishsymbol.htm

+

http://www.inquisitr.com/812794/kanye-w ... hes-a-god/

Well, Kanye West equals to fish

yeah, after three days they both begin to stink