Is it at all plausible that AIR exist primarily as a vehicle for installing iLok on user machines?
Now I'll admit I don't know the economics of it but i believe it is safe to assume that developers pay Pace a fee of some sort for outsourcing their copy protection management to a professional specialist company. But how can AIR afford to do this when they basically give their software away?
The answer is glaringly obvious: by manipulating many users (mostly newcomers) into installing License Manager, the result is an increased number of active iLok users. This leads to a far greater market share of the creative community which adds value to the iLok brand, making their service more appealing to their customers: the software developers who may previously have been put off by the negative perception of iLok among older users. The increased size of their userbase may even add financial value to their service allowing Pace to charge higher fees to devs for choosing them over rival companies - how many elicenser users are there for example?
Which brings me to my (unsupported but equally indisputable) conjecture. That Pace actually pay InMusic to use iLok, believing that the value it adds to their brand outweighs the costs incurred. Effectively AIR, Sonivox etc. now exist principally as a tool for Pace's planned domination of the digital music software security industry.
Anyone care to add to this? I'm sure someone can implicate George Soros into this somehow!
edit: Yes, I'm bored but should this thread suddenly disappear, you'll know i was right!

