Which companies have user-friendly copy protection schemes ?

[scalawag]

Sonimus!

[kingozrecords]

I don't use any copy protection for VSTplug effects and soon synths and instruments

[forestrip]

what I have encountered myself
good:
-u-he (serial/ great and fast support)
-izotope (online activation/ friendly support)
-d16 (serial)
-native instruments (The transfer procedure is easy - if the products do not fall under the automatic transfer - write a letter in support, they will decide quickly)
-uvi (ilok)
-eventide (ilok)
-Valhalla (Serial/friendly support)

bad/nightmare:
-waves (unrealistically long response time of their support, do not solve some trivial tasks, Update plan is a nightmare)
-ik multimedia (10 activations, it may turn out that time will pass and you will not be able to download the product installer from your own account - it's shit) for this reason got rid of all their products
-Xfer (serial / don't allow license transfer, nfr after bought) - never buy products from this company
-Parawave (don't allow license transfer, nfr after bought) - never buy products from this company
-Spectrasonics (expensive cost of license transfer, nfr after license transfer, you have to pay money for additional access to the installer)

[ramseysounds]

I've never not bought a vst or effect due to the type of copy protection being used. If a piece of software sounds good, it is good.

[GaryG]

I'm fickle, I know that I can use something for a while then go off it or get something else I prefer in that role. Hate to be stuck with a plug I'm not using, feels wasteful too (which is daft, I know).

[audiojunkie]

What is to be considered friendly here? GuDa Audio uses serials.

I'd say serial numbers, keyfiles or watermarks are considered friendly. Anything else that calls home or requires anything at all after a purchase is not good. Ask yourself this simple question: Does plugin X have a way of being used after developer of plugin x is gone or if they don't want to support you anymore? If yes, you're probably OK. Read my years-old sig file.

[paulo_apo]

Hi all, denise audio have no complicated licensing with our plugins, just a simple install and go be creative approach.

www.denise.io

Best
Joe

Really?

I stopped using the one denise plugin I had because of license being limited to three machines (I had one active install at the time).

[dermage]

bad/nightmare:

-Parawave (don't allow license transfer, nfr after bought) - never buy products from this company

Indeed, bad experience here myself.
The plugin deactivates itself at random times (probably due to monthly Windows updates, but not on each one)
What's even worse, you don't know that it's deactivated. It doesn't do sound anymore, but it in a big project you first do not notice it. I proposed to the developer (by email) they should change the behavior to outputting noise or something else when deactivated, and was ignored (not even replied to. But I know they read it since they were posting about my request on their KVR thread).
Activation needs to be done by going to their website, logging in and generating a new key file using a link in the synth (or some extended offline procedure), very tedious when this happens every other month.

[sjm]

Image Line
https://www.image-line.com/plugins/category/all/

I don't think this has been pointed out in this thread, but IL moved to C/R a while back. The old regkey system was very customer-friendly, but I'm not a big fan of C/R because it means you are reliant on someone else's infrastructure continuing to exist indefinitely. So no longer particularly user-friendly IMO. If they ever go out of business, you'll lose all licenses after 20.8.4. No plans exist to provide users with access to their software should IL go out of business. Official policy is "just use the crack".