Tone2 Firebird going Freeware

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Chokehold wrote:
Mushy Mushy wrote:What the monkey does this have to do with Sylenth?
Someone claimed that the Firebird installer messes with Synlenth files.
Oh, interesting. But I'm guessing this is yet to be verified.
"I was wondering if you'd like to try Magic Mushrooms"
"Oooh I dont know. Sounds a bit scary"
"It's not scary. You just lose a sense of who you are and all that sh!t"

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cnt wrote:...

Deletion of anything on a computer without saying so before doing it - is the same behaviour as a virus.

Also, I doubt that Tone2 themselfs never used warez back when they were students. :roll:...
I don't agree with that. If every Installer would notify me about something will be modified or deleted I would go crazy. And those people who don't use pirated stuff should not have a problem with the Firebird Installer (though it could happen to every company without their intention that they messed up their code and something goes wrong).

A lot of updates remove stuff from your computer without your knowledge. Most of the time you will be already informed in the EULA about such things. And most of the time the ownership of the code belongs to the developers and not to the consumer. So if they change their mind and wanna fix/delete/modify something that belongs to them I don't see any problem. A crack is always against the EULA and I don't see anything that would be against removing them. This has been done in the past and will be done in the future.

Just curios, do they remove the crack itself or just made some kind of registry thingy that makes further use impossible?

And it does not matter if the Tone2 guys used pirated stuff in the past or not. Btw when they and I (yes, I am an old git :D ) were students the only way to get in touch with that kind of stuff was either from a Swapper or somebody who knew one or a BBS (greetings to the guys from the blackboxing scene :) ) because back in the days there were no such things like:

- the internet like we know it today
- no or only a handful of Freeware (only share and payware)
- only magazines with so called Listings (iirc) which you had to write off on your own

Today you have an enormous amount of free software. There is absolutely no excuse in using pirated stuff anymore because you can always find a free replacement. Back in the days that was not possible. Of course it was not an excuse either to use it but the external condition at that time were different. And if someone is not willing to pay then the person should not use it. It's that simple.

Anyways, had to go now. Will perhaps chime in later as long as there will be a civilized discussion.

Regards
Sebastian

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cosmosis wrote:While installing this, I noticed that the setup accessed and modified all my Sylenth1 banks, which reminded me of past scandals about Marcus' copy protection schemes. So a closer look revealed that the setup scans the whole VST folder (this is while the setup window says "creating directories") and looks at every single file. Filemon reports 'SET SECURITY' for every file, don't know what that means. It also insists on reading evey copy of 'desktop.ini' in every subdir of C, even if there isn't one :?
:-o I just don't trust Tone 2 anymore........I will not install this free version over my legit paid version. I'm done.
None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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Teksonik wrote:
cosmosis wrote:While installing this, I noticed that the setup accessed and modified all my Sylenth1 banks, which reminded me of past scandals about Marcus' copy protection schemes. So a closer look revealed that the setup scans the whole VST folder (this is while the setup window says "creating directories") and looks at every single file. Filemon reports 'SET SECURITY' for every file, don't know what that means. It also insists on reading evey copy of 'desktop.ini' in every subdir of C, even if there isn't one :?
:-o I just don't trust Tone 2 anymore........I will not install this free version over my legit paid version. I'm done.
Dont get me wrong I'm not disagreeing or challenging, but why on earth would that happen? It makes zero sense.
"I was wondering if you'd like to try Magic Mushrooms"
"Oooh I dont know. Sounds a bit scary"
"It's not scary. You just lose a sense of who you are and all that sh!t"

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The installer appears to be a standard Inno Setup installer and since it can be unpacked with Inno Unpacker I don't think there is anything untowards with it.

Before screaming, people should check out an other install package made with Inno and compare with their tools how it touches files...

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my -guess- is that the Sylenth part is a red herring. the installer probably scans ALL files in a vst folder looking for hooky keyfiles.

(edit: whoops, cosmosis said pretty much the same thing above, but people seem to be getting hung up on the sylenth part even though he said it affects all)

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To sum it up:

- The Freeware version of FireBird deactivates keyfiles from Tone2 warez versions
- Legit users are not affected by it
- Nothing else is proofed

Logic conclusion: All those who are trolling inside here are pirates.

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eidenk wrote:...Before screaming, people should check out an other install package made with Inno and compare with their tools how it touches files...
Welcome to the internet. :D
Teksonik wrote: :-o I just don't trust Tone 2 anymore........I will not install this free version over my legit paid version. I'm done.
Heck, someone writes something without a proof and because of that you are done? Do you guys act like this in the real world too?

Do you know how most of todays stuff is been built? From poor people in poor countries and they got paid nearly nothing. Big companies from the so called 1st world outsource their stuff to countries where people work for nearly nothing. Anyone here buying clothing which has been produced in India under miserable circumstances which is a fact and not only "blahblah" by someone who posted in a forum? Are you done with them too? Do you guys look for other manufacturers that are not supporting this kind of shit?

I bet not...and people complain about stuff they are getting for free and that something wiered could happen because another person wrote something somewhere under an alias without any proof. And obviously it does not matter that other Sylenth1 users don't have such problems... :dog:

At least you could contact TONE2 first if you feel uncomfortable with it and ask them about it.

Regards
Sebastian
Last edited by Halma on Fri Aug 16, 2013 12:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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flakes2 wrote:To sum it up:

- The Freeware version of FireBird deactivates keyfiles from Tone2 warez versions
- Legit users are not affected by it
- Nothing else is proofed

Logic conclusion: All those who are trolling inside here are pirates.
Love it. Works for me :tu:
"I was wondering if you'd like to try Magic Mushrooms"
"Oooh I dont know. Sounds a bit scary"
"It's not scary. You just lose a sense of who you are and all that sh!t"

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flakes2 wrote:To sum it up:

Logic conclusion: All those who are trolling inside here are pirates.
Why do you think that?
Pirates use warez and the warez versions doesn't do these things. Crackers have removed the malware behaviour so they are less intrusive on your system (how awkward is that?!).

I don't use Tone2 products. This is just one of the reasons, another is the bad "cheating" idea of having limited/maximized output (people think it sounds better). On top of that the cheating of using big reverbs by default on everything so it sounds "big" when the original sound isn't that amazing.

Tone2 are trying to act as the moral police.

This was true for older versions of Tone2 products. If this is the case
with Firebird Freeware - I don't know.
Here are some of the techniques that Tone2 infects your computer with:
- Registry scanning
- Filesystem scanning
- Creating bogus registry keys
- File dropping
- Multiple \system32\drivers\etc\hosts file updates (!!)
- Deletion of files
- Phone home notification
- ExitWindowsEx calls (causes machine to shutdown)
- DLL unpacked checks

Registry scanning

Tone2 has coded the plugins to look for other Tone2
and reFX registry entries, if blacklisted serials are
found then his MALWARE is invoked. These include
Firebird, FilterBank, Warmverb, Gladiator, Vanguard.

Filesystem scanning

Tone2 has coded their plugins to look for other
products keyfiles, if blacklisted keyfiles are found
then his MALWARE is invoked. This includes FireBird,
FilterBank, Warmverb, Gladiator.

Bogus registry entries

Tone2 creates keys in HKEY_CURRENT_USER.
At least two NEW keys with no data (not disclosing to
protect privacy). if you have been subjected to the
MALWARE traps check your registry, the keys will be
obvious as the names are crap, make no sense and they
have no data under them.

File dropping

Tone2 creates:
twdef.sys
wvdriver.sys
r2._9X1.r
gldriver.sys
gsndrun.sys
+ about 4 other random file names (not disclosing to protect privacy)

If your going to look for these files make sure you have turned off 'Hide protected operating system files' in explorer.

Update of hosts file

Tone2 updates the users host-file with a massive list of warez, torrent and other site urls.

Deletion of files...

Tone2 deletes any blacklisted keyfiles from the users machine.
Btw. People copy my music and my record labels albums. I don't care.
Second day after our first album release this album was out on P2P.
I'm not a police officer and I'm not a judge.
Even if I could check for "pirated Mp3's" on peoples computers I wouldn't do so - and definitly not delete any mp3's or songs.

People who really likes something and can afford it - also buy it.

Even IF someone used a pirate version in the past but stopped? Why does Tone2 shutdown their computer without warning?

Have you thought of maybe another user on the same computer can have other files opened when this happens? Like an important document?

Legit versions of software should not even include code that can do this.

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Rest of this thread and firebird aside, i had to laugh at 'a virus isnt a virus, if all its doing is deleting stuff'.

Virii that 'just delete stuff' have been around since the BBS days, and probably before that as well, but i saw my friends system get hit by a file eatting virus back in BBS days, believe me, we both viewed it as a virus.

Remember, phones are becoming more of a computer now, and virii makers are targetting them too, else i wouldnt see the point of AV software for phones. You may change your tune on the definition of a virus if some tool decides it would be funny to send out something that 'just deletes' all your contacts on your phone.
Mushy Mushy wrote:
flakes2 wrote:To sum it up:

- The Freeware version of FireBird deactivates keyfiles from Tone2 warez versions
- Legit users are not affected by it
- Nothing else is proofed

Logic conclusion: All those who are trolling inside here are pirates.
Love it. Works for me :tu:
Id just like to ask you two, and anyone else who may want to answer, have you ever had something go wrong with Windows, where your settings got messed up, and windows couldnt handle it, so it set everything back to default? Are you using illegal software? So legit things can go wrong?

Thats where the problem is for me. Computers arent perfect, neither are copy protections. Add the perfect amount of system malfunction with a sprinkle of militant copy protection, and you have a nice fornicated system.

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where is the proof? just because some anonymous claims something it doesn't become true.

When you install you agree with the EULA. The eula says that it can deactivate illegal Tone2 licences.

Legit users are not affected by the protections, while the pirated Tone2 software stops to work.

Imho this trolling insinde here is just a pirates rant as revenge that the stolen software stoped to work. Some guys inside here should really feel ashamed:
1)you go to a shop and receive a free gift
2)beside the gift you steal an orange
3)the shop owner takes the stolen organge from you because he busted you. he did not annouce you at the police
4)later you anonymously troll on the shop owner

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flakes2 wrote:...When you install you agree with the EULA. The eula says that it can deactivate illegal Tone2 licences.
...
Thank you. Nuff said. If it is even mentioned in the EULA then there is no problem. The only problem again is that people don't read it.

Regards
Sebastian

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Oh, crap. I should have read EULA, but I'm too lazy. Have I known it does funny stuff, I'd never bother with it, it's unacceptable. "Legit users are not affected by the protections" - that's one of the formulas, that makes me run around screaming, I don't believe that, software grew out to be too complicated to be fully predictable, it does delete something, it will likely delete something it was not supposed to. From now on, no more installers for shady freeware.

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flakes2 wrote:Logic conclusion: All those who are trolling inside here are pirates.
That's a very flakey use of the word logic.

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