Dongle or no dongle, that's the question!

[pdxindy]

And of the people who like dongles most do not actually like them. Ask who would prefer a simple serial number or a dongle and the ratio would be even higher than 2-1

[Roger-S.]

Since I had problems activating a completely legal Sony Vegas 7, I prefer dongles even more.
Besides I can use my programs on several computers. eLicencer never caused any problem.

[koolkeys]

I think MOST people, if given the choice between dongle or no copy protection, would probably choose no copy protection, or serial number.

Personally, I don't mind them. I carry a USB hub in case I need it, and all my dongles are in a padded USB Stick case.

For me, I ignore if a product has a dongle or not. I merely care if the software will do what I need it to do. If it does, and it does it well, then I don't care about the protection.

Brent

[cryophonik]

I voted yes because I don't dislike them and there are situations where I find them preferable to other forms of copy protection. Besides that, they can look kinda cool, I suppose.

[ghettosynth]

I'm just interested to see what the breakdown is, I know with anything there are pros and cons. I am expecting more 'nos' but am not knocking dongles per se, and this is really to help educate me. I have never had a dongled product yet, and juust don't want to deal with it personally.

A big advantage to them is that it becomes easy to install your software on multiple machines. If you collaborate with others this can be convenient, or, if you're like me and change machines often, it reduces the stress of thinking about "how many installs do I have left."

It also makes license transfer trivial.

For expensive software, i.e. too expensive to not let me just install it, I prefer them over c/r authentication.

[Xenos]

Personally I prefer the dongle. Much more convenient as you just plug them in and the synths are registered. I understand fully the possible downsides to this form of CP, but as my computer never leaves the studio, those risks are minimized.

[Nanakai]

Not only do I have to be online in order to move my Arturia licenses from the USB dongle to the soft-dongle, but if the license servers are down (as they were two weeks ago), I can't move them at all. Three other times this week, both Logic and Live have crashed because I tried to load up a project with an Arturia instrument without my dongle in. Crashed. My. Host. WTF? So I have to 1) be online in order to move my license, 2) can't move my license if the servers are down, 3) the eLicenser copy protection has the grace of a drunken circus clown on stilts 4) A USB slot either gets taken up or must be free-able and 5) I still have to go through the hooplah of registering a serial online and downloading a license. Maybe moving between two music computers puts me in the minority, so few others share my issues, but how anyone could prefer this nonsense over a serial, or even C/R, is beyond my comprehension.

[ghettosynth]

And of the people who like dongles most do not actually like them. Ask who would prefer a simple serial number or a dongle and the ratio would be even higher than 2-1

Of course this is true, but given the realities of software, that's unlikely. I wish Ableton would go to a dongle, I'd even buy it myself. I'm hoping that this is a new feature with version 9, that along with multiple monitors.

[ghettosynth]

Not only do I have to be online in order to move my Arturia licenses from the USB dongle to the soft-dongle, but if the license servers are down (as they were two weeks ago), I can't move them at all. Three other times this week, both Logic and Live have crashed because I tried to load up a project with an Arturia instrument without my dongle in. Crashed. My. Host. WTF? So I have to 1) be online in order to move my license, 2) can't move my license if the servers are down, 3) the eLicenser copy protection has the grace of a drunken circus clown on stilts 4) A USB slot either gets taken up or must be free-able and 5) I still have to go through the hooplah of registering a serial online and downloading a license. Maybe moving between two music computers puts me in the minority, so few others share my issues, but how anyone could prefer this nonsense over a serial, or even C/R, is beyond my comprehension.

Huh, unplug dongle from computer one, plug in dongle to computer two. It works really well for me. You only have to register the serial once, then it's on your dongle forever unless you need to move it to the software eLicenser. For me, the only reason to do that would be to then move it to a fresh dongle to sell the product. I suppose that's not even necessary, right, you just transfer from dongle A to dongle B? I don't know, I only have one Steinberg dongle.

[Nanakai]

One of those computers is a laptop and I need the USB port free while using the software. Even still, I don't know why that's an advantage over putting your license information in once during install (C/R) or simply having a serial. I've never had problems with my Native Instruments, Live, Fxpansion, U-he or CamelAudio products registering. They get registered on the rare occasion I have to format my hard drive, then I forget about it.

I can conjure up how a business must feel about dongles - they feel their product is better protected from "theft" - and a small minority of people who have to work on many different computers for any project would obviously benefit. But I assume the majority of software users have 2 or less computers and I just don't see the benefit. I can't actually see how the businesses benefit, either. Dongle tech costs money to license, so that eats into profits, it polarizes customers, creates more support issues and to top it off, there's no way to tell if the copy protection is even effective. Sure, it may put off a few people who aren't that interested in the software in the first place, but is it uncrackable? More importantly, does it increase sales enough to cover the cost of using the tech? I will be interested to see how Waves does in the next year or so. I hope they'll see an increase in sales, though I very much doubt we'd see a decrease.

Anyways, I don't blame you ghettosynth for liking software enough to ignore the dongle. I thought I could for Arturia, too, but it has killed inspiration too many times for me to forgive.

[dalor]

And of the people who like dongles most do not actually like them. Ask who would prefer a simple serial number or a dongle and the ratio would be even higher than 2-1

That's a no brainer. I have iLok1, iLok2, eLicenser and of course serial would be preferred. Preferred choice: 1) Serial 2) Dongle 3) C/R (trying to avoid it like hell!!)

[fisherKing]

i have an ilok for melodyne, but switched it to the other option (no ilok).
i do my work on a macbook pro, and prefer LESS usb devices to MORE usb devices...

[ChestRockwell]

I totally dig 'em. They make it so simple to re-install software when you reformat and more importantly when you switch machines.

Waaaaaaay better than Native Instruments service center. I hate having to keep track of all my serials, passwords, etc. I also hate having to 'ask' permission to use my own software every time I run into a problem with my system and I have to 'clear the slate', so to speak.


So, yes, I think everybody should use this method and I prefer the elicence system over the ilok.

When it comes to dongles, you get a real feeling that you actually 'own' the software you buy, and you can do with it what you please.

[samsam]

Inb4:

"the Mac is the dongle"
"if you don't like dongles you support p%*acy"

[hibidy]

@ "ilok 2: