Open letter to companies still using iLok ( looking at you Slate Digital )

[frankz00]

Yeah definitely. If it has iLok, no money leaves my pocket. I dumped Adobe after my last licensing fiasco too. With amount of hassle I have deal with copy protection schemes, I should be paying $10-20 a pop software. If I pay $500, I should be getting a red carpet experience, period.

I'd say Native Instruments and Sony are the least hassle. IK would be better if it allowed deactivations. The rest of the C/R products I have are tolerable but one lockout away from being dumped!

[frankz00]

A well known user on here told me that soundtoys will be dropping Ilok, so I guess not every company will be sticking to using it.

If true, that's good to hear. I even balked at using a free product I received from them due to iLok!

[frankz00]

The real issue here is the completely false notion that 'preventing piracy' equals 'more sales'. It doesn't; the people who use cracked software do so because it's available that way. It's never a choice between 'buying it' and 'finding a cracked version' for those. If there isn't a cracked version, they simply get some other cracked alternative. I've never, NEVER! heard anyone state: 'I have the money to buy it, would have bought it but now I have a cracked version so I saved my money.

Bottom line: copy protection is a hassle for legitimate users, while it prevents nothing worth preventing.

I would even argue that the negative experiences encourage legitimate users into pursuing the crack so they don't have to deal with the punishment for being honest. Thus keeping the crack alive. I know I've thought about with my Adobe products.

[frankz00]

In the past when I've pirated, I ended up legitimizing my products if I heavily used them or wanted the added benefit of support, updates, bug fixes, etc.. So I think there's a bit of an opportunity cost there. Microsoft pretty much built itself on the back of piracy and was able to turn it around into dominance.

My attitude towards pirates is ambivalence because I know for damn sure they had no intention of buying in the initial phase. I talked to someone just yesterday who told me most of his stuff was pirated and I gave him a good explanation as to why I legitimized my products (there are plenty of arguments for it besides "being honest"). He took it as food for thought. But there are also other companies that I don't blame people for pirating instead of paying. I just don't use their products because I don't think they deserve the marketshare. In fact I consider pursuing a crack just as much as hassle as the hassle I'd be running away from. So I don't bother at all.

[frankz00]

So it's basically about price-point (one of the 5 P's in marketing); you price accordingly to market segment. So back at my previous point: if you price your product towards professional segments, you won't get additional sales from hobbyists (where the most cracks are used) by dongling-up your software. It just doesn't translate marketing-wise.

I was hesitant to say this before it absolutely is an issue of pricing. Sure it's nice to see that $300 come in on one sale but why not 6 at $50? More people are likely to pay $50 than $300 and that offsets the "piracy" cost. Perhaps the software isn't that invaluable if people aren't willing to pay the higher price. It may be an offensive suggestion but it's probably true.

[chk071]

'Open letter to companies still using ilok' thread, so far featuring:

5 pages,
69 posts,
3 horses,
0 companies using ilok.

Exactly. No idea why people don't call their threads "Let's argue about iLok" or something. Probably not dramatic enough,
...

[momalle3]

'Open letter to companies still using ilok' thread, so far featuring:

5 pages,
69 posts,
3 horses,
0 companies using ilok.

Exactly. No idea why people don't call their threads "Let's argue about iLok" or something. Probably not dramatic enough,
...

Why, in every thread, do some people feel obliged to chime in saying that they think the thread is pointless/beating a dead horse/redundant etc?

I mean, if you were at a party, and you heard some people talking about this, would you go over and tell them to stop talking about it? Would you, say, take a small stuff horse and start beating it to make your point?

No, most likely you'd think to yourself "this is not interesting to me" and go somewhere else.

You know what? that works just as well for forum discussions. Instead of telling people that what they are talking about is no good, you can just...go somewhere else

[xamido]

Same old ilok debate. Aren't u guys tired of it? We all know some of you boycott ilok related stuff, and some don't mind. Why must the boycotter push this agenda every few month in KVR?

[momalle3]

Same old ilok debate. Aren't u guys tired of it? We all know some of you boycott ilok related stuff, and some don't mind. Why must the boycotter push this agenda every few month in KVR?

post complaining about people who chime in on threads to tell people to stop talking about what they're talking about, and right on time, somebody does the same thing. Obviously, the answer to your question must be clearly be "no."

Why, in every thread, do some people feel obliged to chime in saying that they think the thread is pointless/beating a dead horse/redundant etc?

I mean, if you were at a party, and you heard some people talking about this, would you go over and tell them to stop talking about it? Would you, say, take a small stuff horse and start beating it to make your point?

No, most likely you'd think to yourself "this is not interesting to me" and go somewhere else.

You know what? that works just as well for forum discussions. Instead of telling people that what they are talking about is no good, you can just...go somewhere else

[xamido]

I'm leaving now. I was just asking why people keep beating the dead horse? If they like to do it just for the sake of it only then i'm leaving.

And if i went to a party and a group of people keep talking about pointless stuff i'll ask them about their insistence to beat the dead horse and tell them to just let it go.

[momalle3]

I'm leaving now. I was just asking why people keep beating the dead horse? If they like to do it just for the sake of it only then i'm leaving.

And if i went to a party and a group of people keep talking about pointless stuff i'll ask them about their insistence to beat the dead horse and tell them to just let it go.

You're probably much loved at parties

[xamido]

You're probably much loved at parties

Not as much as you probably since i'm not good at sarcasm as you are.

[whyterabbyt]

I mean, if you were at a party, and you heard some people talking about this, would you go over and tell them to stop talking about it? Would you, say, take a small stuff horse and start beating it to make your point?

maybe not, if it was at a one-off party. but if it was, say, at work, where it was the same group of people day in day out, and every few weeks someone who had only been there a while started the same old stuff and the same old group start join in with their same old stuff, yeah, I think a few people would comment.

guess which one this situation is actually like.

[chk071]

'Open letter to companies still using ilok' thread, so far featuring:

5 pages,
69 posts,
3 horses,
0 companies using ilok.

Exactly. No idea why people don't call their threads "Let's argue about iLok" or something. Probably not dramatic enough,
...

Why, in every thread, do some people feel obliged to chime in saying that they think the thread is pointless/beating a dead horse/redundant etc?

I mean, if you were at a party, and you heard some people talking about this, would you go over and tell them to stop talking about it? Would you, say, take a small stuff horse and start beating it to make your point?

No, most likely you'd think to yourself "this is not interesting to me" and go somewhere else.

You know what? that works just as well for forum discussions. Instead of telling people that what they are talking about is no good, you can just...go somewhere else

I did in no word say people should stop talking about this. I just said the thread title is BS. On the other hand, you say that i should stay out of this topic. Who's being authoritarian now.

Oh, and don't make the mistake of confusing the internet with what you are doing in real life. I don't think the OP would have grabbed a box, stood on it and held a speech to the people in real life.

[sonicpowa]

A well known user on here told me that soundtoys will be dropping Ilok, so I guess not every company will be sticking to using it.

If true, that's good to hear. I even balked at using a free product I received from them due to iLok!

Yes good news if it's true, I can finally buy some plugins from Soundtoys.
But what happened to Juice? Their website says "OK, sorry to keep everyone hanging so long" and it's over 2 years ago!