NI have announced they will no longer activate discontinued products

[Matt_NI]

Hey Everyone,

Matt here from NI CS team.

Just wanted to let everyone know that we have been following the discussion on here and across multiple channels closely and feel it would be essential for us to engage with you guys on what is happening here. We sincerely appreciate everyone's feedback on this and this is now driving some changes we made today.

As a result, we updated our end of life article with some additional information but also went back to discuss this internally. As you would be able to read at the bottom of the page, we will spend more time investigating this topic and look into possible workaround to address the end of life of our old activation mechanisms.
https://support.native-instruments.com/ ... 0006053397

I hope this helps clarify a few elements and happy to answer more on here directly

[wagtunes]

Hey Everyone,

Matt here from NI CS team.

Just wanted to let everyone know that we have been following the discussion on here and across multiple channels closely and feel it would be essential for us to engage with you guys on what is happening here. We sincerely appreciate everyone's feedback on this and this is now driving some changes we made today.

As a result, we updated our end of life article with some additional information but also went back to discuss this internally. As you would be able to read at the bottom of the page, we will spend more time investigating this topic and look into possible workaround to address the end of life of our old activation mechanisms.
https://support.native-instruments.com/ ... 0006053397

I hope this helps clarify a few elements and happy to answer more on here directly

Matt, no offense, but the software I bought that's dependent on NI came with this EULA.

Should Native Instruments for whatever reasons no longer be able to fulfill its obligations to deliver the activation key, it will provide the Licensee with a key which ensures the continued use of the software independent of changes of the computer.

Honor it. It's that simple.

[DarkStar]

^^^^
Indeed. After all, given that the clause was written into the EULA in 2009 or even earlier, then NI must have built into the code necessary to handle such a key into the various software products.

[Matt_NI]

Matt, no offense, but the software I bought that's dependent on NI came with this EULA.

I feel it might be a little disappointing to everyone if we started to dissect the legal implication and stand behind details about EULA and licensing. We definitely heard the feedback and spent great time to note all the relevant points and use case so we can investigate what can be done with this topic. There is no question that we absolutely have to discontinue very old activation mechanisms but we will spend some time on workarounds.

[zvenx]

Matt, yet another place to me.

https://vi-control.net/community/thread ... 61/page-15
rsp

[DarkStar]

"possible workaround to address the end of life of our old activation mechanisms."

Issue a new, system-independent key to users for each affected product.

If any other user tries to use it, reject that activation request and deactivate that key for the original user.

[khanyz]

Matt, no offense, but the software I bought that's dependent on NI came with this EULA.

I feel it might be a little disappointing to everyone if we started to dissect the legal implication and stand behind details about EULA and licensing. We definitely heard the feedback and spent great time to note all the relevant points and use case so we can investigate what can be done with this topic. There is no question that we absolutely have to discontinue very old activation mechanisms but we will spend some time on workarounds.

You mean NI thinks it’s worthless and action will only be taken based on potential loss of future revenue. They might want to check a few class actions out. I know I’m going to be.

[Matt_NI]

Matt, yet another place to me.

https://vi-control.net/community/thread ... 61/page-15
rsp

Yes I'm on it just as we speak! Thanks for the heads up

[Gamma-UT]

^^^^
Indeed. After all, given that the clause was written into the EULA in 2009 or even earlier, then NI must have built into the code necessary to handle such a key into the various software products.

There's no guarantee that they actually wrote it into the software. It wouldn't be the first time a management meeting went along the lines of:

"We need to do make sure we have X in place just in case things go south or we risk trouble."

"OK, we should do X."

"It costs this much."

"Oh. In that case, how about we tell people we'll do X and worry about it when the time comes. It's not like we're expecting things to go south, is it?"

[Matt_NI]

Matt, no offense, but the software I bought that's dependent on NI came with this EULA.

I feel it might be a little disappointing to everyone if we started to dissect the legal implication and stand behind details about EULA and licensing. We definitely heard the feedback and spent great time to note all the relevant points and use case so we can investigate what can be done with this topic. There is no question that we absolutely have to discontinue very old activation mechanisms but we will spend some time on workarounds.

You mean NI thinks it’s worthless and action will only be taken based on potential loss of future revenue. They might want to check a few class actions out. I know I’m going to be.

That's definitely not what I said.
I'm saying we are trying to be practical here and focus on solutions not have our legal team debate this decision with you guys.

[Gamma-UT]

What's the point in getting people to sign EULAs then? I mean, it's not the first time a contract said "if this happens, we'll see you right" and the supplier then backpedalled on it. But we can be pretty sure if the boot was on the other foot, we'd be hearing about the detail in the small print.

[Gamma-UT]

On a practical level, given the stated concerns about security with the online mode in Service Center, is there some reason why NI would not at the very least support offline activation for the affected products? This would enable TLS etc to be used for the activation file upload and download process and avoid the need for Service Center to connect directly to a server.

This is assuming that the problem isn't that the server code for offline activation got lost in a move along the way. Even porting to a new server is likely to be easier than trying to rejig Service Center to handle fully encrypted connections (on the assumption that it doesn't today). The offline activation code is in the Service Center executables for all those affected products (though I'm not sure if a later update then killed it off).

[EvilDragon]

SC doesn't even work in High Sierra onwards. Not sure if it works with SIP disabled, but there's this as an issue.

Also the issue is not in the activation server(s), the issue is in the activation method itself.

[digitalboytn]

I'm saying we are trying to be practical here and focus on solutions...

That sounds like a positive move...

While you guys are in such a positive mood,why don't you fire most of the bean counters and the overpaid "experts" and bring back a few of the good coders and get down to what NI used to do so well in the past ?

Creating inspiring software instruments and FX

[EvilDragon]

Checked out Raum perhaps? It's pretty inspiring! There's still good/great coders at NI, that goes without saying.