KVR Audio

tapper mike · Post by **tapper mike** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 6:43 pm

So a few things about Third Party registration. and C/R. Before I started working for a certain company it had used a third party registry system. A windows update made this third party tool useless for us and consumers as the windows software disabled the unlock mechanism in such a way that it simply wouldn't work. The company made endless promises but with the lead programmer leaving the company and not enough skills in the remainder of the staff we could no longer trust them. All along issuiing refunds and apologies to users. We finally had to release protection free versions to many users as our products were used at schools of all types worldwide. We also had to stop issuing demo versions for awhile.

So we went to another third party agent for our protection issues and... It wasn't that secure. Cracks ensued. If not for the generous support of investors who would otherwise walk away we would have been gone twice. Finally we developed our own C/R method. Which was for the most part secure. We developed a very loyal following of purchasers who stuck with us even as the beginning of the end had appeared.

Years down the line (last year) we had to close our doors for good. We couldn't afford to maintain the staff which at that time was me. Me and only me helping people who couldn't follow printed instruction on a simple software product released in 1997 for 19.95 of which we never charged for transfer fees or help using the product.

After we closed our door we released free key generation tools and other fix it tools so that users could continue to use the product without us. Every few months a user posts on FB asking where to find the software now that the website is closed for good and I direct them to web.archive so they can find them.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 6:48 pm

Why is it so that PACE iLOK is so piracy proof?

Do they have very advance technology. I mean, a pirate wanting to break the protection would emulate the iLOK drive. How do they avoid such things happening?

I don't believe any piracy protection is totally watertight.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 6:56 pm

BTW I just saw in the promo for iLOK MK3 that it is better as it can hold "3x the licenses"

Does that mean it is a limit on how many licenses can sit on an iLOK?

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 6:58 pm

Numanoid wrote: I don't believe any piracy protection is totally watertight.

It surely isn't. And it's surely not supposed to. Rather "hard to bypass". eLicenser seems to be pretty safe though, at least i haven't read of someone cracking it yet. And, if you take u-he's plugins for example, it seems to be quite a PITA to use their warez, because they implemented different stuff, which occurs after a time you used the plugin, like melting GUI's and what not.

tapper mike · Post by **tapper mike** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 7:12 pm

When dining with the devil it's important to have a long spoon.

digitalboytn · Post by **digitalboytn** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 7:19 pm

Numanoid wrote:BTW I just saw in the promo for iLOK MK3 that it is better as it can hold "3x the licenses"

Does that mean it is a limit on how many licenses can sit on an iLOK?

This is just marketing BS and spin....

It means that if there is a failure,you stand to lose up to 3 x the licenses...

Which in my case,because I am such a fan of iLok is 3 x 0 = 0

Caveat emptor

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 7:21 pm

digitalboytn wrote:This is just marketing BS and spin....

It means that if there is a failure,you stand to lose up to 3 x the licenses...

Good point

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 7:29 pm

The version 3 ilok has some practical advantage in that it is much smaller so it physically plays better with other USB devices when your ports are close to each other as they often are on laptops.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 7:31 pm

ghettosynth wrote:The version 3 ilok has some practical advantage in that it is much smaller so it physically plays better with other USB devices when your ports are close to each other as they often are on laptops.

But it is capless, how to avoid getting dirt in the shaft, when putting it in the pocket?

pekbro · Post by **pekbro** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 7:34 pm

I don't understand the I will lose my licenses fear. Unless it's stolen or something. If your ilok breaks, send it back and they will recover them. Even if it is stolen apparently (more involved).

Get the zero downtime if you can't be without them for a time.

The soft ilok on the other hand, I wouldn't use that for anything even remotely important.

Ilok is a necessary evil for now, that's all. If you don't like it, don't use it, simple. Plenty of alternatives that don't use ilok.

JunSev · Post by **JunSev** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 7:46 pm

JunSev wrote:well this is just a question about preferences and personal decision about how all of us would decide for a near future, what would you like and what you would decide.

the difference between both System is clear for everyone I think, of course when you buy a software in almost many cases you have to do it online and there you recive your "keys", but how we would prefer the key is the remarkable difference and what exactly means, so here we go, the difference between both:

Online registration:
• you're dependent of the company: you might recive some offers and good deals or probably good rebates, you're in hands of them
• the keys is owned by the company: you cannot unlock "your" things, the keys aren't yours, they are the owner.
• in some way, you don't have product really, because everything is owned by the company, and probably this case is similar to a rent or sort of permission, but you are in their hands.

Offline registration:
• you're completely independent from the company, but you have to respect the agreement to not copy and paste their product.
• the keys are yours, you're the owner and you don't rely on what could happen with the company, since you make the purchase, is in your hands, you can use it whenever you want.
• the product is yours (with respect of their agreement), at this point all that might happen to your software is about your actions, you are not under permissions anymore, this might help you for preserve your software, since you're independent, is yours the same as a vehicle, laptop, smartphone and like that...

nobody get me wrong I'm not biased to influence on your decision, I already know perfectly what I decided, but we have to think about all this and what means.
don't paid attention to trolls, obviously biased people, or sort of robots-people that will say everything in order to support his ideology, your decision is yours.

so yeah, what is your personal decision and explain why?

...

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 7:48 pm

Numanoid wrote:
ghettosynth wrote:The version 3 ilok has some practical advantage in that it is much smaller so it physically plays better with other USB devices when your ports are close to each other as they often are on laptops.
But it is capless, how to avoid getting dirt in the shaft, when putting it in the pocket?

You can get USB caps for a few cents on the net...

I usually don't take my dongles with me though. They stay safe inside the USB hub.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 7:51 pm

chk071 wrote:I usually don't take my dongles with me though. They stay safe inside the USB hub.

But any travelling DJ or musician, will have to carry the iLOK somehow in the luggage.

It is like ditching the cap they take for granted that the iLOK will stay in one computer 247, but then a user can just use the soft PACE manger instead.

One of the major points of using a dongle is that it thus is easily to transfer and transport it between computers.

And keeping the connector clean is of prime importance, so iLOK MK3 ditching the cap is IMO a bad design decision. I prefer the MK2 with cap.

digitalboytn · Post by **digitalboytn** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 8:18 pm

pekbro wrote: Ilok is a necessary evil for now, that's all. If you don't like it, don't use it, simple. Plenty of alternatives that don't use ilok.

It's not a necessary evil at all,but it is an evil for sure

They want the industry to believe they can rely on their fantastic system, but it's been cracked,so just how great is their software protection ?

When manufacturers get smarter and use other methods of protection, iLok will be scrambling like crazy to stay relevant and slowly but surely, they will be relegated to their rightful place in the scheme of things...

Which is in the rubbish

ghettosynth · Post by **ghettosynth** » Sat Sep 16, 2017 8:19 pm

Numanoid wrote:
ghettosynth wrote:The version 3 ilok has some practical advantage in that it is much smaller so it physically plays better with other USB devices when your ports are close to each other as they often are on laptops.
But it is capless, how to avoid getting dirt in the shaft, when putting it in the pocket?

The retail value of the plugins on my iLok is far too high for me to be that casual about transporting it anywhere. I don't just "put it in my pocket" anymore than I put my laptop in my pocket or wads of hundreds in my pocket.

If I didn't enjoy the plugins so much that are iLok only, I wouldn't bother at all with any kind of protection that requires me to trust another party to grant access to my software. However, the number of plugins that are serial only is relatively low and this just isn't something that I care enough to make that kind of political statement. It's not really a choice between iLok and serial, it's a choice between iLok and C/R and of the two, my preference is usually iLok as C/R has consistently been the reason that I have lost access to software.

The big "I just want to let everybody know I hate iLok because reasons!"-Topic