Cracks in figures

[DuX]

Nothing anyone says here changes the fact that those who can buy your plugins will buy them [or if they're forced to] and those who can't won't [plain and simple, they'll move on]. The biggest problem are those who's greed is infinite and have enough money to buy them, but they still choose not to. I see this happen every day as I'm working with all kinds of people, from those who are poor to the ones that have too much. I find it incredible that lots of poor artists I know say "I want to buy it one day" and the rich ones never mention it until it's "there's no way around it, you have to buy it", as in - there's no crack. It's such a shame, really. World is really fooked up.

[Delfinoverde]

@ Urs - I believe some of you developers have put yourselves on a hamster wheel! The more effort you put in development of copy protections, which cost a lot of extra work and money, the less you have time and energy to concentrate on improvements. But customers expect improvements, not hassling protections, which make the software in many cases slower, heavier. The biggest "fishes" in the audio software market nowadays put their hopes and faith on iLok2 or similar… until it will be cracked again! I think it's a kind of reciprocal phenomenon…… Ouroboros!

Well, I've made copy protection a hobby of mine. I love it.

The lack of a Satin crack for Windows looks to me rather like the opposite: They seem to have given up embarrassing themselves with cracks that don't work.

Well, if you love doing it so just do it.
I always liked "independent" people with their own business = no 9 to 5 job, but a full time profession/vocation. At least it's your own products you're trying to protect. We might have divergences and other ideas sometimes but what's connecting us is MUSIC and the love for what we're doing.

[DuX]

What actually I was aiming at in my post is that you're trying to patch up and deal with the system, Urs. As many of the humans choose to do with everything that is currently our problem and there are plenty of problems that we should deal with if we plan to continue to live on this planet comfortably. The problem is much deeper. People are getting more greedy due to watching too much TV and being brainwashed into the selfishness and greed, but getting paid less for the same work, being forced to work at two jobs. The world is getting extremely greedy while they're getting less and less from their work. It's the economical crisis we're living in, still, and it won't go any time soon. Consider also that everybody can buy your plugins nowadays, from arctic to antarctic. I'm glad you get more people to pay for your plugins, as your plugins are quite good [but not irreplaceable - keep that in mind], and I hope it's the ones that can afford it that pay, but I really doubt it according to my experience with people. Those who are greedy and wealthy will mostly look for something else and maybe pay, and those who can't afford it will just look for something else.

Just my observation...

But in the end, money is money, no matter where it comes from, right? Urs? Everybody is just watching their back. And that attitude will be the end of us one nice day. No care, no sympathy, just fook everybody around you, way to go. I don't care, too. Just pretending to. I welcome the day of human descention, because we deserve it so so badly.

[codec_spurt]

There may be starving kids, even in Berlin-Kreuzberg, who use cracks because they think they can only get successful as a producer with the most trendy plugins like Massive, Sylenth and Alchemy and your stuff...

Well, it is a mistake to think so. And it is a big mistake to take that as a valid excuse for using warez, if that is your point.

If you really had to ask Tricky-Loops what his point was, when he made it so well, then I think your are being disingenuous. You insult him, and he did not deserve that.

You quite obviously missed exactly what it was he was trying to say. You imply that he is making excuses for those that use warez. He never did that. He pays for all the software he uses and is a vehement proponent against those that do not.

But he is not judgemental and has a mind open to debate. I think you owe him an apology.

[codec_spurt]

Your biggest threat is not those that can not afford your software, but those that can but yet still choose not to pay for it, because they can. Until you can build a protection scheme that stops them.

I completely agree and I don't understand why the last few posts here turned into that kind of argument.

I totally agree with you. I can see you have the bigger picture in mind. No need to re-tread that old ground. It's like arguing semantics in a philosophical debate. Fun for a while for some, but ultimately leading nowhere, and boring for most spectators.

Alles klar.

[codec_spurt]

I'm kind of weird though, I know that. It's contagious even - people around me tend to sober up about any such thing. My wife abandoned her beloved fake LV bag, not because I said anything but because she suddenly found it embarrassing.

Oh Urs, do I have stories to tell you about the LV bags. About the man who started all this off. The man who taught the crackers. +HCU. And about how he was betrayed by his wife all the time him preaching what many called 'Communism'. All for a f**king LV bag. What a fool it made him look. She got whored out by a bureaucrat in Brussels.

He was a friend and it hurt. And I can see how he would be an enemy to some. But man, that kind of betrayal cuts a man to his core. He died of Cancer not long after.


You are doing well Urs. You are at the top of your game. You have undoubtedly one or two VST synths in the top 5 of all time. You are slowly but steadily building a software empire. You have not just the respect of those that use your software, but those that crack your software.



You can only go from strength to strength. There is nothing you have shown here in your attitude that makes me any less likely to keep saving up to buy your software. If there was, you would have been the first to know.

People here love your software, they respect you.

Alles klar.

[codec_spurt]

Well, I've made copy protection a hobby of mine. I love it.

And you have a standing invitation to meet the people that taught the people to break copy protections. They are not interested in your synth. They do this on an industrial scale. HP, Microsoft.

And you could come and sit on a sunny day and drink beers with them. It is their hobby too. Their passion. +HCU.

Come and drink beers in the garden with us. RMS is one of our friends.

I've told them all about you and they are most fascinated to meet you.


Germany/Belgium based. CCC too.

[DuX]

Nice post codec_spurt. I do have a lot of respect for Urs, too, no matter how my posts sound like. I know he's a great guy and his DSP is one of the best. I just get so depressive at times... I feel like I don't belong here, and the people only confirm that, so I come out harsh or whatever at times... and too judgemental, too.

We should all be just nicer to everybody. Just simply that. It's gone too far in the other way.

[kinwie]

peace Dux

[Urs]

All for a f**king LV bag.

I'm puzzled. You did catch that my wife's LV was a counterfeit...? While she's a bag addict, I think all of her bag collection in total may be worth half a LV, and maybe the buckle strap of an Hermes.

Anyway, it's late.

[DuX]

My wife thankfully mostly cares about if we have enough to eat and drink, not LV's. I'm blessed. It took me a long time to find her, though, and she's from the land down under. I have nothing but mostly bad experiences with the people from down under, that's where my puzzlement comes from. Australia is more and more becoming a mirror image of the US, which is so incredibly not good.

[arakula]

I find it incredible that lots of poor artists I know say "I want to buy it one day" and the rich ones never mention it until it's "there's no way around it, you have to buy it", as in - there's no crack.

How do you expect to get rich if you spend your money, hmmm?

[kmonkey]

The lack of a Satin crack for Windows looks to me rather like the opposite: They seem to have given up embarrassing themselves with cracks that don't work.

I really wish that is true, but coming from unusual childhood activity (i am above 30 know so..)i hate to say: you are simply not aware of layers and layers of different activity, some being pretty lame (i am considering audio app cracks as half lame things...other half is stupid..) while some touching really artistic way of exploiting copy protections and even different big companies involved in all that.

Believe me there are other reasons why you may or may not seem to know for a working crack of some product (let's say Satin in this case).

To make it clear, if not obvious, i am not here to advert cracks. I am running my company, i have legit software and everything what goes in to account with that. I see some of you claiming and pushing fact that your stuff isn't (properly) cracked. I still can't realize is it a joke, is it some kind of blindfolded statement, maybe creative marketing tactic or whatnot, but i can tell you i do know several people even some studios which run your (u-he) leading products perfectly fine - not ordered - knowwhatiamsaying

Sometimes it hurt me seeing that, sometimes not.

I guess it depend in what kind of mood i am and what aspect of my childhood is focusing my perception of real world values

[Urs]

I still can't realize is it a joke

Not a joke.

If there was a working crack (apart from those leaked serial numbers) and it isn't available publicly, why really would I care...? If a team of wizards manages to come up with a crack and keep it contained to, say, 10 people in some ancient usenet group or IRC channel, then, lulz, good on them.

If you look again at the graph on the first post, everything but ACE day is our not-working cracks inviting power users to buy. As you can also see, the April update propagated quickly. Thus we have no reason to believe that there's any substantial number of reliably working cracks. But we also see that we could up the number of incidents, and generate more revenue from it, spoken in all dryness possible.

[hakey]

I have scant sympathy for a corporation like Luis Vuitton whose business model is based upon a deliberately ridiculously over priced luxury product, the primary function of which is as an ostentatious display of wealth for the obscenely rich. They're symbolic of much that is wrong with the world.

The pirating of good quality, reasonably priced, useful software is a quite different thing.