KVR Audio

kv331 · Post by **kv331** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 4:44 am

Aloysius wrote:Seriously, I just tried the DEMO. In my excitement, I exceeded the max number of notes and . . . you know how that goes!

That's the FREE version (1.0.5), Not DEMO

Aloysius · Post by **Aloysius** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 11:01 am

kv331 wrote:
Aloysius wrote:Seriously, I just tried the DEMO. In my excitement, I exceeded the max number of notes and . . . you know how that goes!
That's the FREE version (1.0.5), Not DEMO

The DEMO, allows 5 voices per instance polyphony but you are allowed to exceed five voices and the damn thing will shut down it's output! To me it's a DEMO. To you it's a FREE version. How about we compromize and just refer to IT as the FREE-DEMO

Anyway, I like the potential but these kinds of limitations are just annoying. As annoying as a NAG screen. Better to restrict the polyphony than have the thing shut-down like this. It registers with me personally as a unreliable product the way it is. Unstable!

IMHO of course

fwe3k · Post by **fwe3k** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 9:01 pm

kv331 wrote:As a developer, I am seriously scared to see copies of my product on p2p networks scattered on the internet. So far, I have spent almost 5000 hours (five thousand, yes) on the R&D of this product, so I dont want to waste my efforts.

I'm working on a software project of my own, and the way I see it is this, in case it helps any. Some people are going to pirate the software I write. Some of them don't have any money, but many of them do. And for those people, the key is to get it through their heads that, "Look, you want version 2? You better buy version 1 to make sure there's enough funding. Otherwise, don't ask me about version 2!" And if there are people that I can't reach on either the grounds of their own self-interest or the idea that I deserve to be paid, then I shouldn't waste my time writing software for them. I don't want to spend my time trying to herd people.

I do not, however, like the donationware business model. It needs to be clear when a product is commercial and also how much funding or ROI is expected for future work on it (even if it's freely downloadable or has a user-chosen price).

So my personal focus (for my project) may be on rudimentary economic education more than copy-protection. I might even release a free full (or nearly full) version with a permanently situated nag line in the main view of the program that displays short sentences appealing to the user's self-interest to buy the program. After all, if people are going to have access to it for free either way (via me or via piracy), I would prefer that what they get for free has a nag rather than not. I'm still mulling that idea over though. But either way, I think it's key that a nag be educational or informative, and not just annoying.

None of this is to say that some level of copy-protection is necessarily a bad idea for your program (which I look forward to, by the way).

kv331 · Post by **kv331** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:43 am

I am also considering to implement academic licencing, i.e. for students/teachers the price might be $29 instead of $59. However, I dont know how to verify if someone is a student or not?

For many cash starving students, $29 might be affordable not to use crack software and to support us? We just started a new poll in this very topic:
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=254613

S-N-S · Post by **S-N-S** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 12:48 pm

i just bought synthmaster,i think its a great offer for a synth,and the version 2 looks mighty nice

kv331 · Post by **kv331** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 1:48 pm

djsubject wrote: Urs @ Uhe is on to something here i believe, & he said he was willing to share with other developers

At this very time I am working on my own solution as well. This time, I bet, the crackers will have a *long* time to crack the serial number, I'm not saying they cant, but they'll have to try hard for it... I just dare them

I believe academic licencing might be a good way to turn at least users at the 15-25 age group into paying customers!

Aloysius · Post by **Aloysius** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 1:49 pm

I think you're living in a Dreamworld . . . Just my opinion

kv331 · Post by **kv331** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 1:58 pm

Aloysius wrote:I think you're living in a Dreamworld . . . Just my opinion

No, I'm just trying to think like a cracker

Have you heard of code obfuscation?

djsubject · Post by **djsubject** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 2:04 pm

kv331 wrote:
djsubject wrote: Urs @ Uhe is on to something here i believe, & he said he was willing to share with other developers
At this very time I am working on my own solution as well. This time, I bet, the crackers will have a *long* time to crack the serial number,

well if you make the app seem to be working for a set amount of time (or even better running hours) then when it gose down theres a good chance of those users will buy,

of course if they never even use the app to know it will stop working after X hours of use then they would never have bought it in the first place,

either way i hope you get something fair back for your time!

Subz

kv331 · Post by **kv331** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 2:07 pm

djsubject wrote: well if you make the app seem to be working for a set amount of time (or even better running hours) then when it gose down theres a good chance of those users will buy

You're getting close to what's im my mind. Let the software work for a "random" period, and then if it is cracked it stops working. Anyhow, maybe even that much detail is enough for the guys to crack me, so I'll just shut up

brok landers · Post by **brok landers** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 2:09 pm

there's only 2 choices, i'd say ...
either synchrosoft dongle or straight serial ...
if you don't go synchrosoft dongle, your software just isn't protected at all, it's gonna be cracked, that's how it is, so you can go straight to the serial, and don't waste time and energy on the protection scheme ...

kv331 · Post by **kv331** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 2:15 pm

brok landers wrote:so you can go straight to the serial, and don't waste time and energy on the protection scheme ...

I already did! Anyhow, I will spend *some* time to protect my investment, at least for 6 months...

Bulent

Aloysius · Post by **Aloysius** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 2:18 pm

kv331 wrote:
Aloysius wrote:I think you're living in a Dreamworld . . . Just my opinion
No, I'm just trying to think like a cracker

Have you heard of code obfuscation?

First of all: The correct term is 'Obfuscated code'. You got that backwards!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obfuscated_code

Secondly: You need to go back to the basics. This is silly talk! 'Trying to think like a cracker'. If you're serious about this, then why not pool your resources and hire a professional hacker? That's what companies do. Even Telephone Companies used to hire Thugs in a bid to prevent people vandalizing Public Telephones and/or scamming money out of them!

This is nonsence. You seem like a nice person. I may yet think about purchasing your softwae (money permitting)!

kv331 · Post by **kv331** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 2:23 pm

Aloysius wrote: First of all: The correct term is 'Obfuscated code'. You got that backwards!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obfuscated_code

I didnt think we were judging each other's English grammar here, anyhow, you can use the term "code obfuscation" as well, as in: http://www.cs.arizona.edu/~collberg/Res ... ation.html

Aloysius wrote: This is nonsence. You seem like a nice person. I may yet think about purchasing your softwae (money permitting)!

Anyhow, I said what I had to say. Yes I am just a decent nice person working his ass off to bring a quality product to the market.

John-E34 · Post by **John-E34** » Fri Jun 19, 2009 2:49 pm

Back on topic... I actually gave away my copy, simply because every time I wanted to load it into a project, I remembered that it had to do some scanning of my PC just to find out if it was authentic...

It always was, but after a while, I never even bothered loading Synthmaster, 'cos it just slowed everything down

I would purchase this again, and take the time to master it, but ONLY if it loaded instantly.

The new serial number protection seems like a huge step in the right direction.

KVR Audio

SynthMaster 2.0: No more C/R, Serial Number cp only!

If you were to purchase SynthMaster 2.0, would the copy protection method affect your decision?