Plugins "calling home": what do you think about it?

[b7uzer]

Once again, I tend to believe that 90% of the people who are afraid of "calling home", just like with iLoks, are the ones that have something to hide.

You keep your house/appartment/car locked right? Doesn't mean everything inside is stolen. I buy my software (thousands of euros already, dongles etc.) and I don't mind copy protection as long as I am not penalized for paying.

[elxsound]

I prefer to upgrade at my own pace. I might get an IIEQ update in email and not actually install it for several weeks until I'm in between projects, just in case a new version introduces a new bug/problem.

So a phoning-home system of updates would be bad in my book, unless it was an optional "check for new version" system, which would be fine.

+1

I actually like when software has an *option* to check for updates, but not so much when it's forced since I also like to upgrade at my own pace. There's just too many upgrades between all my software that I like to set aside time just to do upgrades each week.

[Dunc]

I turn my internet off when I am about to use my DAW to save on resources and stop stupid updates coming through to F&*k up my audio card timing etc.

Gladiator used to do this and always crashed REAPER when it could not get a link to the NET. Thankfully Markus stopped it from communicating every time it was used and toned the calling home down.

It all sounds a bit Skynet to me.

@ Caleb82
You don't spend your time looking out of your window at the neighbours by any chance...
Oh look, Mr Parker's got a brand new car, I hope everything is legal on it. We don't want any of those nasty engine chip upgrades, do we my precious.

Some of us actually like having privacy, otherwise I might as well walk outside with my bollocks in full view so that everyone knows what I have got.

[cybertron]

Once again, I tend to believe that 90% of the people who are afraid of "calling home", just like with iLoks, are the ones that have something to hide.

No - what Im "afraid" of is that companies like iLok will attempt to r*pe me for my hard earned cash whenever I haven an "issue" with a license.

ie: if I want to transfer it to a new computer, there's a fee.

Have issues with the software and/or OS and need to format my HD? There's a fee.

Need to swap out your hardware config b/c of issues with faulty hardware? There's a fee.

Want to upgrade a component? You guessed it - a fee.

If in all of those scenarios a fee isnt charged right now - it will be if they need the money. "License agreements" are a one way street with corporate America - and we as end users are NOT on the winning end.
They (being corporate America) have the lawyers and I dont (see the recent PS3 decision to "lockout" installation of 3rd party OS's - they simply updated the firmware and forced users to accept it if they wanted to use the system further)

One basic rule of American "free" enterprise - companies will FIND a way to take the money out of my pocket and line their own, especially when they have me over a barrell - and its cheaper to pay their "fee" rather than replace the software outright (which is what they count on). You can bet that their idea of fairness and mine dont coincide - so no I dont trust them, and I know they dont trust me.

[Nokenoku]

Once again, I tend to believe that 90% of the people who are afraid of "calling home", just like with iLoks, are the ones that have something to hide.

That's as offensive as naive/ignorant.
There are enough reasons for people being suspicious of apps, which are doing stuff in the internet from their machine, and they don't know what.

I'm not one of those pseudo-I-want-my-privacy-kiddies, which you're seeing a lot lately in the internet ... but for software, which actually does not need to have an internet-connection to do what it is supposed to do, I don't see a reason for them to do mysterious internet-calls.

[Aloysius]

Lately I've been thinking about changing DDMF's updating system such that each effect would automatically check for updates at the DDMF server at startup. This would prevent me from having to send out emails every time, half of which never arrive due to various reasons (mailboxes full, spam filters etc).

I thought you were going to start making home visits. Should have read the text before voting.

[RunBeerRun]

I don't care. If there's a new multiband exciter out and it isn't at ridiculous Izotope Ozone prices, I'll bite like a goldfish.

[james0tucson]

I tend to believe that 90% of the people who are afraid of "calling home", just like with iLoks, are the ones that have something to hide.

So everyone else in this thread has "something to hide"?

Anyone who thinks he has nothing to hide, isn't thinking it through.

[pandashake]

I like the idea of having a way for the software to check for new versions WHEN THE USER DEEMS IT SO, much like how NI's Service Center and Melda Productions' software work. When you have more than 4 plug-ins from one developer, and especially if it's a developer/team who likes to update/bug fix a lot/update, those things save me sooo much time.

[droogie]

all tone2 products are homecalling!

[Compyfox]

Sorry, I'm against demos that randomly open a webpage, and I don't like auto-update systems either. The Native Instruments Service Center and Line6 GearMonkey is more than enough hassle already.

[docdued]

Hmmm... results speak for themselves, I guess. So maybe some sort of update-me-button, but the anti-piracy-thing would probably annoy more honest people than it would scare off pirates. Same old, same old...

[ouroboros]

I dont' mind it doing so, IF and only IF I instruct it to do so explicitly at a specific time. That is I go to a menu item and say check for updates.
rsp

Yep, this is fine - it's when you are recording something and in the middle the firewall pops up that I get upset.

[warbug]

My DAW is NEVER EVER online.

[eduardo_b]

Hmmm... results speak for themselves, I guess. So maybe some sort of update-me-button, but the anti-piracy-thing would probably annoy more honest people than it would scare off pirates. Same old, same old...

Yeah, pretty much. I use the Zone Alarm firewall to deny phone home automation except for those apps that need to do so, such as anti-virus to update definitions. I have no problem with the option to allow asking if I want to check for updates, but I also want to be able to not have the question asked every time I start the app. Phoning home just to check registration is not acceptable, particularly if the app won't run without the check. Too many ways for things to go wrong.