Tone2 Firebird going Freeware

[hakey]

Legit users are not affected by the protections

cosmosis' (so far unsubstantiated) claim regarding the altering of Sylenth banks suggests otherwise.

[Numanoid]

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

So there are two hidden gifts in the Firebird installer, it kindly offers to install Saurus demo, and it also takes the time to check that any Tone 2 software on the machine is legit

This is not a big problem for me, but I can very well understand that this could be of annoyance to other people.

Such information should not be hidden in the EULA, Tone2 need to put this in big letters up front.

What it looks like now, is that Tone2 gives away freeware, and hope to get rooted out some illegalities in the process

[hakey]

If it is even mentioned in the EULA then there is no problem.

legality =! morality

[xamido]

Ah yes, the compulsory tone2 bash every time they release a plugin and updates. It's a well known policy from them to scan for illegal plugin on your computer, and yet people are surprised? They even put it in the EULA, so it's not their fault that you guys didn't read.

Btw i have no problem if installing their plugin will allow them to scan my plugin. All is legit here. At least their copy protection are keyfiles instead of dongle.

[Numanoid]

Btw i have no problem if installing their plugin will allow them to scan my plugin. All is legit here. At least their copy protection are keyfiles instead of dongle.

Analogy: Do I like being stopped by police in the street just to check that I don't carry anything illegal?

No, don't like that.

But I should read the law book, that the police can do that, otherwise I shouldn't be walking in the street right?

[Numanoid]

Another analogy: What's the big problem with Google and NSA reading peoples E-mails?

If you haven't written about anything illegal, what is there to worry about really?

[Zombie Queen]

It's a well known policy from them to scan for illegal plugin on your computer

No, I had no idea. So it's totally unknown to me. I don't care, if my files are being scanned, but deleting stuff bothers me. I don't have no illegal software on my system and I don't see why it should be my problem that it exists. I'm not going to trust any minor dev, that their checkout procedure is flawless and it's not going to make mess. Just to be safe, I backrolled to backup system copy and blacklisted tone2, it didn't turned out to be a good promo in my eyes. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I enjoy having stable config and I don't want everyone to be able to mess with it.

[mridlen]

I've been having fun with this one. I really like some of the filter options that are not filters. Amazing synth!

[arkmabat]

Another analogy: What's the big problem with Google and NSA reading peoples E-mails?

If you haven't written about anything illegal, what is there to worry about really?

At worse, what, Tone2 could be seeing what plugins others use with theirs? The NSA could possibly be tracking any phrase we type in notepad.

[streifentier]

Strikingly, in all those "Tone2 Copy Protection is intrusive" threads (and there have been quite a few of them) I have never read anything about any "real" harm that Tone2 software has done.

It's always about what "might" or "could" happen, and most of it has been written by people who apparently didn't have the slightest clue about such things (or if they had, they really struggled very hard to not let it show).

To sum it up, those threads were mainly - and this one is, too - about suspicions from uninformed people.

And I'm really interested to know if anyone of those people who criticise Tone 2 for being "intrusive"

- is using an iphone, or
- has a Facebook account, or
- uses "Google" regularly.

If you do any of these things, I fear there might be some fundamental flaw in your theory of staying away from "intrusive" software. Those companies do know much more about you, your personal preferences, your friends, your friends' friends and your friends' friends' preferences and the size and colour of your underwear than Tone2 will ever do.

I know that if someone behaves in a bad way, it's no excuse that there are others who do even worse, but (see above) I haven't heard of any "real" harm done by Tone2 software. At all.

[Bastiaan from Tone2.com]

Guys,

Only blacklisted Tone2 keys are removed, no additional scanning (certainly not deleting other software/banks/....)

I'm sure for some there's no valid answer I could ever give to explain why we copy protect our products, but please try to keep in mind that even though there are quite some nasty rumors coming from release groups, it wouldn't make sense for us to do the things we are being accused of.

If you have a valid keyfile the product works, if you have a blacklisted keyfile it doesn't.

Fwiw, most of our keyfile protected products have never been cracked (all releases out there are purchased with stolen CC and naturally these are blacklisted), so some release groups have every reason to take the negative PR route when it comes to Tone2.

I hope that explains it somewhat, we're not the NSA and certainly not as paranoid as some make us out to be.

If anyone has any questions about the above, do not hesitate to let me know at noord at tone2.com

Hope you all have a great weekend,

-Bastiaan-
Product Manager
Tone2 Audiosoftware

[Mushy Mushy]

Thanks much Bastiaan

[Ingonator]

Another analogy: What's the big problem with Google and NSA reading peoples E-mails?

If you haven't written about anything illegal, what is there to worry about really?

At worse, what, Tone2 could be seeing what plugins others use with theirs? The NSA could possibly be tracking any phrase we type in notepad.

People don't seem to get that the copy protection built into the installers does NOT need an internet connection to work. As the "real" copy protection is a key file you also don't need internet for e.g. C/R or other stuff.

I have also have no hint that the Tone2 installers changed any other files inn my VST folder except those related to the corresponding installer.

I simply did not recognize ANY problem that in any way could be directly related to using Tone2 plugins and like already mentioned i use 6 of their synths including a Nemesis Beta version.

FWIW my security software also did never report any suspicious connections related to "spyware" etc.

The only people that have to "fear" the copy protection in the installers are people using illegal licenses and only in that case some files could be deleted but AFAIK only Tone2 products. I never tested this myself and also do not plan to do it.


UPDATE:
Just noticed that Bastiaan posted here now.


Ingo

[hakey]

"Dear potential customer, it's not that we think you've stolen some of our stuff, but we think you may have stolen some of our stuff. We're hiding this in the EULA (which we know that few people read), because we have half an idea that accusing potential customers of being potential thieves might not be a such a good idea. Though this might seem like a deliberate attempt to deceive, we can assure that it's all legal and above board."

[hakey]

If you do any of these things

whataboutery