KVR Audio

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 2:11 am

So after poking through a few NFO files, it looks like they have managed to develop a wrapper of some kind to emulate the Ilok2.

The crack doesn't need the Ilok2 driver, or the licence manager. It's basically a self-contained setup making it really easy to install.

This is unfortunate and hopefully they didn't crack it 100%!

deastman · Post by **deastman** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 2:38 am

By discussing this in a public forum and providing a list of everything cracked so far, aren't we just providing extra advertising for the cracked copies?

liquidsound · Post by **liquidsound** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 2:44 am

Dishonest people don't need the list. They are lurking daily on the web for it.
We finance and they enjoy it for free.
It's similar to gun control.

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 2:44 am

Yes, I'm a little concerned about this. Regular KVR posters aren't likely to rip off developers, but most forums have far more lurkers than active posters.

I'm on the fence about a lock or moving the thread to a hidden area, inclined to think either I or another mod/admin will end up doing that. For now I'm going to leave it here. VORT3X, the list of software seems too close to a shopping list to me — obviously not your intention, but the effect could be the same. Would you mind editing your post?

I'll contact the developers on the list that I know.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 3:10 am

Meffy wrote:Yes, I'm a little concerned about this. Regular KVR posters aren't likely to rip off developers, but most forums have far more lurkers than active posters.

I'm on the fence about a lock or moving the thread to a hidden area, inclined to think either I or another mod/admin will end up doing that. For now I'm going to leave it here. VORT3X, the list of software seems too close to a shopping list to me — obviously not your intention, but the effect could be the same. Would you mind editing your post?

I'll contact the developers on the list that I know.

Sure no problem, i found this exact list on the torrent site in the description box. The torrent apparently had a compilation of plugins in it, so this was the list. I only edited the names of the cracking team out of it when i posted the list here.

I shall take it down. Let me know if you need the website URL where i got this from.

OutCider · Post by **OutCider** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 3:21 am

I think a discussion about such a hot topic as dongle protected software being beaten should be valid on a forum like this, where people sink a lot of money into their business or hobby. The horse has bolted already etc... But if the moderator feels it should be locked, I wouldn't object.

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 3:39 am

V0RT3X wrote:I shall take it down. Let me know if you need the website URL where i got this from.

Thank you. I've emailed the devs I know who are affected, not much more I can do about it. Maybe they can at least slow down the pirates a little.

For now I'll leave the topic open. If another mod feels it should be locked or whatever, I'm okay with that too.

billcarroll · Post by **billcarroll** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 3:59 am

V0RT3X wrote:Maybe we'll start seeing developers who use Ilok abandon it in favour of serial or their own C/R. This would be nice..

Yeah, wouldn't it be just great to see DSP developers sideline development on their products for 6 months while trying to create copy protection schemes that will just be cracked too. Or maybe not.

Daags · Post by **Daags** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 4:21 am

some people talk about cracks as if it effects the value of their license. i don't buy software because it can't be cracked. i buy software because it is the 'right' thing to do.

so ilok2 has been cracked, if it's true can't pace 'simply' look at the wrapper/crack and adjust their code accordingly ... all affected devs simply hold back any updates of their software until getting the green light from pace, and then proceed as normal. the cracking community gets to run the current, soon to be old, versions. bugs n all.

or maybe the crack is so super duper they can't do that.

either way, nothing changes for me and most people who buy software for the 'right' reasons.

Funkybot's Evil Twin · Mon Dec 21, 2015 4:33 am

Meffy wrote:Yes, I'm a little concerned about this. Regular KVR posters aren't likely to rip off developers, but most forums have far more lurkers than active posters.

I'm on the fence about a lock or moving the thread to a hidden area, inclined to think either I or another mod/admin will end up doing that. For now I'm going to leave it here. VORT3X, the list of software seems too close to a shopping list to me — obviously not your intention, but the effect could be the same. Would you mind editing your post?

I'll contact the developers on the list that I know.

I know the mods at Gearslutz also struggled with how to deal with this, having deleted a few threads before resurrecting one to host the discussion (probably because of the sheer number of posts and concerns from legit users). I think the conversation is valid, but as you pointed out, we don't need to host a list off everything available so people can go hunting this stuff down (thanks for editing vort3x).

As for the topic at hand, as much as I don't like iLok for philosophical reasons, it's worked well (up until getting cracked obviously) and hasn't given me major problems. I'd like to see it go away, but at the same time, I don't want developers to have their software pirated. Every developer who ever spoke about publicly has shown that the availability of cracks has an immediate, negative impact on sales, regardless of what the warez kiddies say.

So, this sucks for the developers, cause they'll lose sales at a critical time. Then they'll need to reconsider their CP entirely, or burn resources updating to whatever new version of iLok is next. On top of it, iLok owners will probably be asked to update to a new version, hopefully not at a $50 expense, but probably. In short, regardless of your thoughts on Pace, this sucks big time for everyone except the warez users and the clown that gets to claim bragging rights for doing the crack.

Funkybot's Evil Twin · Mon Dec 21, 2015 4:40 am

billcarroll wrote:
V0RT3X wrote:Maybe we'll start seeing developers who use Ilok abandon it in favour of serial or their own C/R. This would be nice..
Yeah, wouldn't it be just great to see DSP developers sideline development on their products for 6 months while trying to create copy protection schemes that will just be cracked too. Or maybe not.

Exactly. Dave Derr from Empiracal Labs has already said iLok protection for his upcoming Distressor cost him $40k, and the plugin cost as much as two nice houses to develop, and now he's not even sure when he can release it because he needs to find out what's up from Pace and find a working CP solution ahead of release. The impact of this will be huge, and cost developers, time and money, which will cause users to suffer in the long-term. We could see fewer, or delayed, plugin releases, and costs may increase to recoup the investment in figuring out a new or updating their CP schemes. Bad news for developers. Bad news for users.

Sampleconstruct · Post by **Sampleconstruct** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 4:52 am

Let's see how this develops in the next weeks first before prophesying doom and destruction, it was bound to happen and methods will be found to mitigate the effects.

robotmonkey · Post by **robotmonkey** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 6:38 am

Seems to be true. After reading about it yesterday I searched around a bit and downloaded some of the things that are supposedly patched into a testing sandbox to see how it works and if there is any "bonus content" in the installers that mess with your computer. The result: rumors seem to be completely true and seems that pretty much every high profile developer has taken a hit.

I'd say this is a big slap in the face for many developers who are obviously going to have black christmas this year. Kind of feel bad for some of them like Eventide and not that much for others like Synaptic and Slate as they have been really smug about using iLok.

This is also a big slap in the face for paying users who have iLok protected plugins as the installers I tried make the overall installation much better and cleaner experience than their legal counterparts. So again paying users are going to be screwed by anal copy protection while non-paying users will get a better experience. When will the developers learn?

And I really see no reason to censor news about it as that would be plain stupid. It does not make the fact disappear and it's really big news with important consequenses to both developers and users.

robotmonkey · Post by **robotmonkey** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 6:52 am

Daags wrote: so ilok2 has been cracked, if it's true can't pace 'simply' look at the wrapper/crack and adjust their code accordingly ... all affected devs simply hold back any updates of their software until getting the green light from pace, and then proceed as normal. the cracking community gets to run the current, soon to be old, versions. bugs n all.

or maybe the crack is so super duper they can't do that.

It remains to be seen how this works out in the long term. It's not clear yet if they indeed managed to completely circumvent the protection or how they did it. It might very well be that someone managed to infiltrate Pace's network and got some inside info about iLok's working. In that case it might very well be that Pace is screwed. Or the crack might be obtained just with much rougher methods making it unstable and not 100% effective. At the moment it seems at least that there has been a significant breakthrough in cracking iLok2 both on Mac and on PC with many high profile developers suffering the consequences.

robotmonkey · Post by **robotmonkey** » Mon Dec 21, 2015 6:58 am

billcarroll wrote:
V0RT3X wrote:Maybe we'll start seeing developers who use Ilok abandon it in favour of serial or their own C/R. This would be nice..
Yeah, wouldn't it be just great to see DSP developers sideline development on their products for 6 months while trying to create copy protection schemes that will just be cracked too. Or maybe not.

Actually I hope that developers finally start to come to their senses about draconian copy protection that costs a lot of money to both developers and users. They should follow the example of Waves and drop Pace.

Ilok busted?