KVR Audio

4gotten5tudio · Post by **4gotten5tudio** » Sun May 06, 2018 6:18 pm

ILok Rip-Off Scammer

It’s my second Post here and I’m really sorry for such “Rant-Topic”.
But my patience to be fooled this way as an legal Customer is over.
I have noticed also that there is many more “Ilok-Victims” who bite the dust.
This Company abuses its Position mostly in case when you are depend on them.
The level of Consumer Protection in USA seems to be unfortunately very low.
I can’t imagine that such “Corporate Fraud” will survive many days in Switzerland.
Please note, this is not “Rant” against Copy Protection or its way to do it.
Software Products need lot of work and it’s self-evident to protect this huge effort.
I hope that KVR is not under Ilok’s thumb and will not delete my Post.
All mentioned issues are true facts and it’s not just a bashing at all.

I use several products protected by ILok.
Two Dongles are in use,”iLok 2nd Gen” and “iLok 3rd Gen”.
The “iLok 3rd Gen” contain all my Sonnox/Oxford licenses.
”iLok 2nd Gen” have only two licenses, Motu MachFive and IRCAM Reverb.
On other mobile Laptop I use sometimes MachFive and IRCAM Reverb.
That's why I keep the two licenses on two separated Dongle.
My Dongles are in mint condition, I handle it always very carefully.

Few days ago the ”iLok 2nd Gen” suddenly stopped working.
Only the blue light remain blinking, but no other function.
I was installing the Ilok Manager on several Machines (Mac & Windows) to try everything out.
The Result remain the same, Ilok-3 works perfectly, Ilok-2 is definitely dead.
This Problem seems to be well-knowing and is so-called:

“ILOK 2 - The Blinking Blue Light of Death”.

In the “number of incidents” it looks for me like some faulty design.
I was “try” to contact the Support to resolve the Problem.
But for me now this “Problem” smells like some $$$additional income$$$.
Maybe even intentionally created by ILok itself, “purely coincidental” of course?
Some “seldom & random” failures who will generate welcome “pocket money”?
Sorry to tell that, but after that what I have seen today on multiple forums,
this Company seems to be at the same LEVEL like the well-knowing Nigerian dating scammer!

Their fault-prone (if not intention) Copy-Protection cause often troubles & work interruption.
OK, nothing is perfect, this can happen with any kind of products, maybe it’s just a bad luck?
But the worst case scenario for any Software User turns to be just a simple Rip-Off Trip.
It’s a perfidious and perfect strategy to abuse your “emergency situation”.
They know that you’ll do everything to recover your Licenses for your valuable Software.
Any Vendor will give you in their self-interest quick & simple solution to handle such cases.
The first “Solution” Ilok offers you are to fill up your credit card informations for the payment!
Yes, you read right, before you’ll get any kind of Support, you need to offer your Credit Card!
In Case you don’t own any Credit Card, the only one Option for you is to BITE THE BULLET!

It’s not “Rocket Science” to offer automatically temporary licenses on associated Account,
in case you report missing or damaged Ilok-Dongle, this should be self-evident at all!
After Sign In to your Account and corresponding Report temporary replacement licences should be generated automatically.
NOT with Ilok, this mentioned simple Procedure is so-called “Zero Downtime” (ZDT) and ask you for $130 USD!
That's the height of impudence and Rip-Off at all, it’s simply outrageous!

ONCE AGAIN TO MAKE IT CLEAR:

If you will recover your licenses immediately, you have to pay at least $179.95!
ZDM Subscription $30, License Recovery Fee $49.95, Expediency Fee $100.
This Option don’t contain any “Replacement Dongle” and applicable shipping costs.
After you pay $179.95 you’ll get temporary licenses valid for two Weeks.
Note, requirement for that also are to own second Ilok-Dongle of course.
I’ve attached some screenshots, enjoy the fascination.
Many Musicians and Developers use their Copy-Protection Solution worldwide.
But their Trust in the Company are perfidious abused for additionally earnings.

In my case I’ll consequent abandon Ilok protected Products from now.
Any Software Produkt are replaceable, it's just a matter of self-will.
I don’t spend thousand of $$$ for Software to by depend of some Plastic-Dongle or Scammer Companies.
If you (as Ilok User) do not feel addressed by this Topic,
just open your eyes and think forward-looking “What if”?

RSL369 · Post by **RSL369** » Sun May 06, 2018 6:24 pm

Definitely sounds like a sneaky planned obsolescence routine.
Since pretty much every branch of every industry does it these days, in one way or another, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case here as well.

PurpleSunray · Post by **PurpleSunray** » Mon May 07, 2018 6:28 pm

I don't understand why devs add this crap to their product at all.
It is like with every copy protection that bothers the user and/or causes trouble.

The one that has paid $$$ for the product is the f**ked one.
The one that downloads a cracked version is the happy one (cuz of removed copy protection and less trouble)

Unfortunalty a lot of devs do not agree on that. Some time ago there was a huge thread on KVR Dev forum about that topic .. if you want to know why dev add this crap at all.

I simply don't buy such "f**k the paying user" products ...

Edit: found the thread on dev forum viewtopic.php?f=33&t=472847

perpetual3 · Post by **perpetual3** » Mon May 07, 2018 6:54 pm

Yes, it’s total BULLSH*T

Aloysius · Post by **Aloysius** » Mon May 07, 2018 7:28 pm

Yes, iLok is awesome. User error?

perpetual3 · Post by **perpetual3** » Mon May 07, 2018 7:32 pm

Aloysius wrote:Yes, iLok is awesome. User error?

Exactly. It is our error to support these products.

Aloysius · Post by **Aloysius** » Mon May 07, 2018 7:38 pm

Rockatansky · Post by **Rockatansky** » Mon May 07, 2018 8:19 pm

perpetual3 wrote:Exactly. It is our error to support these products.

Vote with your wallets. It's a shame that it would be the developers who use iLok for their products who'd feel the effects first, but maybe then they'd think again about the shitty choice they made and also vote with their wallets. Since iLok protection is also not free for them.

mike_the_ranger · Post by **mike_the_ranger** » Mon May 07, 2018 8:34 pm

Fresh user, 2 posts, totally "legit" ranting

It's not "rocket science" so you knew what you were dealing with before buying any dongle protected software...

perpetual3 · Post by **perpetual3** » Mon May 07, 2018 8:47 pm

The OP makes a much better, more reasonable argument then you. That being said, caveat emptor - buyer beware - is much less tolerated in Europe then in the US (it is tolerated, just much less so). Whether the government would step in is questionable. But the truth is that as a consumer and working professional, your out of luck if you need to keep working and PACE takes advantage of this by gouging you on the price - $179 for single-less temporary licenses that last two weeks?

PACE has no value proposition for the engineer and musician - only for the software developer. Yet, they MAKE MONEY by charging musicians for the USB key and temporary licenses - even though they cannot generate permanent ones. Let that sink in for a moment. That’s shady behavior, typically associated with monopolists who control a market and there fore can dictate the terms.

I have a few plugins that are ILOK but many which are not. I recently suffered a computer failure. The companies were quick and helpful but PACE was not, likely because they have no interest or incentive to be helpful to us. And since there is no dongle alternative PACE, they don’t really have an incentive to make things easy for the software companies either. So, this just ends up increasing their support costs to, responding to mails, reissuing licenses. Probably cheaper than cracks, but from my understanding PACE gets cracked anyway.

mgw38 · Post by **mgw38** » Mon May 07, 2018 8:58 pm

Just to clarify. If you have ZDT enabled before the iLok breaks you neither have to pay the $30 ZDT subscription nor the $100 expediency fee. If you have ZDT you should also make sure that you have TLC enabled. Otherwise you will need to send in your broken iLok.

mike_the_ranger · Post by **mike_the_ranger** » Mon May 07, 2018 9:11 pm

perpetual3 wrote:The OP makes a much better, more reasonable argument then you.

Probably because there is such a thread every week from guys who are shocked just because they were badly informed or the ones that heard from the girlfriend of the brother of a friends friend that ilok is bad or the ones that lost their dongle

Like the many other customers without problems (2 ilok2 dongles & 2 elicenser in use for years here) I'm just tired of writing the same stuff again and again

perpetual3 · Post by **perpetual3** » Mon May 07, 2018 9:15 pm

Yes, I didn’t have problems for many years as well. And wouldn’t have if not for the computer failure.

Do you guys really approve of their business model? What is the value propostion FOR YOU?

RSL369 · Post by **RSL369** » Mon May 07, 2018 9:15 pm

mike_the_ranger wrote: I'm just tired of writing the same stuff again and again

then don't

PurpleSunray · Post by **PurpleSunray** » Mon May 07, 2018 9:18 pm

how do you enable ZDT w/o paying the 30$ for the subscription?

So a VST dev creates a product that has 0 downtime by definition (a locally installed software). Than they add crappy copy protection that can fail.. and now the user has to buy a subscription to make sure he can continue to work after it failed?

Are you kidding me?
This bizz is so