NI have announced they will no longer activate discontinued products

[EvilDragon]

Strange that your memory is shortlived, when I previously mentioned this

Well my apologies for not remembering each and every of 20000 of my posts here, and all discussions contained therein!

[surreal]

Apology accepted, lets move on shall we...

[hikkichan]

This is definitely a shame.

[Forgotten]

Jeez, I'll never watch Thunderbirds in quite the same way again!

Oh come on, we all knew what she was getting Parker to do behind the scenes...

[TheMaestro]

This is definitely a shame.

What’s a shame? That they’re close to a solution for everyone?

[Aloysius]

It's OK folks. It was an April Fools joke.

[felis]

A couple years ago, some of my very old Steinberg licenses disappeared. I contacted them and they said they were 'deprecated'.
Fancy word for 'old shit that we don't want to have to deal with anymore'.
To be fair, I've had worse experiences with software.

One of the many reasons I prefer hardware, and don't have any trust in software at all for the long run.

[AnX]

Good story

[Vertion]

A couple years ago, some of my very old Steinberg licenses disappeared. I contacted them and they said they were 'deprecated'.
Fancy word for 'old shit that we don't want to have to deal with anymore'.
To be fair, I've had worse experiences with software.

One of the many reasons I prefer hardware, and don't have any trust in software at all for the long run.

Serialkey is the only balanced solution to copy protection in the market. Most customers catch on to this, and the market will eventually sort itself out as only companies that respect this balance survives the long haul. Software copy protection is a joke and an illusion of control, especially for those study the topic.

If a product reaches maturity and sales saturation, then make a new product. It’s fairly simple. Keep the updates going to stay ahead.

Analog hardware is the fail-safe because it is a real tangible product, where ownership and control is crystal clear from the start.

[EvilDragon]

and the market will eventually sort itself out as only companies that respect this balance survives the long haul.

Go tell that to Avid or Steinberg.

[vurt]

A couple years ago, some of my very old Steinberg licenses disappeared. I contacted them and they said they were 'deprecated'.
Fancy word for 'old shit that we don't want to have to deal with anymore'.
To be fair, I've had worse experiences with software.

One of the many reasons I prefer hardware, and don't have any trust in software at all for the long run.

Serialkey is the only balanced solution to copy protection in the market. Most customers catch on to this, and the market will eventually sort itself out as only companies that respect this balance survives the long haul. Software copy protection is a joke and an illusion of control, especially for those study the topic.

If a product reaches maturity and sales saturation, then make a new product. It’s fairly simple. Keep the updates going to stay ahead.

Analog hardware is the fail-safe because it is a real tangible product, where ownership and control is crystal clear from the start.

except ikm who have a transfer fee on hardware registration

[Vertion]

Go tell that to Avid or Steinberg.

My husband and I have spent a lot of money over the years on many software products. Yet we have never purchased a single thing from either of the companies you mentioned, nor will I buy any further products from NI.

Another thread is currently staying afloat with this thread regarding a list of companies that only do serialkey. That speaks for itself, I’d say.

[Matt_NI]

We did put the idea of "giving some of our legacy instruments away" on the table and for x or y reasons it didn't seem to get a clear go ahead. I'll ask again but I would say that at this point, it's quite unlikely :/ I do agree that it would be a fantastic idea.

Matt_NI, Thank you for all you have done to keep us informed. I appreciate that you have been a great messenger through this situation. However, I would like someone from NI who actually has some pull in the company to answer these questions. A decision maker who can step up to the plate and give us concrete answers and reasons for these decisions. PAK has some solid points, I’d like to see what the decision makers have to say about it, if they are willing.

Do you mean for that particular question about giving away these legacy products ?
All the communication you see is approved by the team in charge of this topic and so the lead. That's pretty much how it works and so if you need anything specific addressed then I usually just take note and see what I can get. For example, It was mentioned a lot that some comments were necessary about the EULA and I will get back on this topic as soon as I have relevant information to share and where it all stands moving forward.

[Matt_NI]

It would also be nice to know if lessons have been learned from the underlying mistake (i.e. writing plugins with unmaintainable copy-protection code and no fallback version). Or will this happen again to plugins based on some of the Native Access methods?

Also, what happens if NI goes under? (Or, more likely, is bought up by a clueless Gibson-like entity and closed arbitrarily.)

Yes we already had one long retro session but once we accomplished everything we need regarding this activation issue then we will look back at everything and learn from it. This doesn't stop at product based topics but also communication, support ...

I wouldn't be able to predict what would happen if NI disappears. That is not going to happen anytime soon.

[Matt_NI]

and I was told that a third of their workforce internationally were retrenched... maybe 1/5 of their workforce in Berlin was laid off

You were told incorrectly. NI had 500-ish people around the world before the layoffs, and 100 people (around the world, not just in Berlin office) were laid off. Do the math.


Now, what exactly was "hacked" on your computer by Service Center, because I find that hard to believe, as there is no malicious code in it whatsoever?

Ok.my sums dont add up in math as according to you I was misinformed... but when native access is installed and two month later my service center app just "mysteriously" dissappears into thin air off my computer after a native access update ..well that equates to "hacking" and equates malware activity in my opinion. Strange that your memory is shortlived, when I previously mentioned this unacceptable and hacking behavior your answer was just I should simply just reinstall service center and it should show up. It was this very act of Native Instruments disabling and crippling service center on my computer that threw red lights flashing, highlighting NI future plans to force this issue we have at hand. In other word their attitude was... well screw Pro53 (which was working pefectly on my system) make it "dysfunctional" and that it cant be "reactivated" so that the end user can simply just be forced to repurchase the equivalent in a different reactor form again.

I'm sorry but this is literally impossible.
How do you see us removing application you have locally installed?
Also Service Center has been discontinued for a couple of years already but was still in working state as opposed to moving to the complete end of life process in the next few months.
And Pro53 is actually not even impacted by this change since it last version uses another activation mechanism which is still used today. More on that soon