Voxengo - protection policy?????

[Manc Chris]

Went round to see a potential new collaborator last night. Noticed he had Voxengo's Analog Flux suite installed, asked him how he found it (I love vox's stuff) and he said that he hadn't used it. He just downloaded it from a certain p2p site, as apparently "Voxengo's stuff is all over there, so easy to crack" etc.

Playing up to this, I acted interested, and he showed me his current downloads .. and it's true. EVERY Vox plug ever is available to dl

Why is this? Are Voxengo aware? Surely this is disastrous to their sales when plugs like Flux suite are freely available only days after a release?

Meanwhile the pirate collaborator's only concern is that RMX is "taking forever" to download

[kovacs]

That's just too sad.

I am still saving up to get Alexey's plugins but I am not going to download anything but his demos. I can't believe people even bother to download it when his products are so reasonably priced.

Well, crap, I KNOW why they download (it's good stuff for nothing) it but I frankly think it stinks.

[pitchdrifter]

Just for your info, anything is available for download cracked, no matter the copy protection. Not just voxengo plugins.
Not gonna start a discussion about the warez subject here, but nowadays anyone can get anything warezed within minutes really. And its become a matter of supporting the developer, and an ethical one to buy your software, its no longer a question of availability.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

I'm absolutely aware of the available cracks. It is actually not hard to make one as I never tried to overprotect the plug-ins. I can't say cracks rip me off considerably either. Or at least I'm not sure they do.

For example, you may try finding a crack for r8brain PRO. I've used a professional protection system for it and still waiting for a crack to appear (should be a tough one). I could use this protection system for plug-ins, too, but its latest version does not seem to work stable in any audio host environment I know. Of course I'm not talking about PACE or iLok systems which have a bad reputation in pro audio community.

[dlr_cml]

It seems that this guy isn't using the analog flux-effect, he just downloaded it. He probably don't even know what it is good for, so I don't think he would have purchased it if it wasn't found on some p2p. Of course, if he starts to play around with it and use it in his productions, I'll sure hope he will buy a legal copy.

[scandipandy]

I'm absolutely aware of the available cracks. It is actually not hard to make one as I never tried to overprotect the plug-ins. I can't say cracks rip me off considerably either. Or at least I'm not sure they do.

For example, you may try finding a crack for r8brain PRO. I've used a professional protection system for it and still waiting for a crack to appear (should be a tough one). I could use this protection system for plug-ins, too, but its latest version does not seem to work stable in any audio host environment I know. Of course I'm not talking about PACE or iLok systems which have a bad reputation in pro audio community.

Aleksey, besides the excellent quality and sounds of your plugins, your pricing and copy protection policy is very attractive for us paying customers.

Keep up the great work.

[PeterL]

I'm absolutely aware of the available cracks. It is actually not hard to make one as I never tried to overprotect the plug-ins. I can't say cracks rip me off considerably either. Or at least I'm not sure they do.

For example, you may try finding a crack for r8brain PRO. I've used a professional protection system for it and still waiting for a crack to appear (should be a tough one). I could use this protection system for plug-ins, too, but its latest version does not seem to work stable in any audio host environment I know. Of course I'm not talking about PACE or iLok systems which have a bad reputation in pro audio community.

Aleksey, besides the excellent quality and sounds of your plugins, your pricing and copy protection policy is very attractive for us paying customers.

Keep up the great work.

Totally agree !

[cptgone]

Aleksey, besides the excellent quality and sounds of your plugins, your [...] copy protection policy is very attractive for us paying customers.

Indeedy!

Why waste dev time and resources on copyright protection that doesn't keep software from being cracked anyway? Why hassle customers with dongles and C/R?

[kovacs]

Thanks to this thread I finally pulled my act together and bought the Flux bundle.

I really need some mastering stuff but I was intrigued enough by the flux demo (and pissed off by the damn hackers...)!

Good work Aleksey.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

[DELETED]

[pitchdrifter]

I have to point out that for the actual customers, copy protection like this is a big plus. It helps big time when the developer doesn't think his customers are all trying to 'trick' or exploit them. But being treated like this by some developers (and I'm *not* talking about spectrasonics here, in case this sounds like a snide remark towards their c/r system.. its not meant as such) really makes you re-consider ethical values. I personally do want to support developers of the products I use, but when they presume you're thieving scum and put more and more barriers in your way to actually use the product you paid for, you start to think 'why the f**k am I actually giving you money? you treat me like I stole your product anyway'.

Don't get me wrong, I can cope with stuff like NI's and Spectrasonic's copy protection scheme - but - this only works as long as you have a human you can talk to when there are problems, because fact is computers do cause trouble, and furthermore if somebody wants to steal a product, they sure as hell won't bother buying it first, they just fetch the product of some warez server, and use it within minutes.

I'm not saying 'do this or that or I'll just go warez your product' either. But what I am saying is, more developers should have respect towards their customers, and some trust in them. Warez groups don't need joey composer or john producer or andy hobbyist to supply them with a product, they often buy the product themselves or get supplied from *inside* companies/their business partners (this is the case with big companies often, where the product crosses many hands on it's way to the shelves).
So please stop treating us that way! Its sometimes *very* offensive the treatment people recieve from somebody they paid in exchange for a product. This happens with audio software and samples alike. And I gotta say it promotes 'up yours! I'll use something else then' reactions.
Things are way less complicated than some developing people think in regards to their actual customers and piracy.

How about a 'make the customer feel good that he/she bought the product' (e.g. with good service and with trust) approach, instead of the currently rather popular 'make people who aren't your relatives feel bad because they MIGHT give away your product to somebody else' view (which is totally unreasonable because nowadays warez works differently than it did 10 years ago, people get software not from friends, they get it from high bandwidth servers/networks with huge databases, comfortable search functions etc.).

Anyway, I highly appreciate being treated with respect by most developers, and enjoy paying thm the well earned money in return for the product and support with it they provide.

Markus

[ericj23]

i admire aleskeys apporach - its customer friendly but I would also like to say something about the dreaded dongles - yes they are an expense which the customer has to bear which is probably not useful on low cost (high quality) plug-ins

but what current dongle protected audio software is cracked ? - ilok doesnt count becuase that doesnt have to be dongle controlled only

logic 7 ? sx 3? halion 3 ? hypersonic 1.1 ? yellow tools stuff ?

the answer is none - dongles exist because the technology now seems to work

[pitchdrifter]

These aren't not cracked yet because of the protection technology, but because of a rather unusual but sensible approach by someone at Steinberg.

[ericj23]

the yellow tools dongle has been out for about a year and has nothing to do with steinberg

nor does the logic one

they are not cracked because modern dongles containing a mini computer are very difficult to emulate - then youve got all the dsp cards (many of whicha re dongles too) is there any cracked powercore, uad, scope plug-ins

nope

but this is getting well off topic - must try this set of plugs - does the delay finally mean i can stop pining for the logic one ?

[csl]

the yellow tools dongle has been out for about a year and has nothing to do with steinberg

nor does the logic one

they are not cracked because modern dongles containing a mini computer are very difficult to emulate - then youve got all the dsp cards (many of whicha re dongles too) is there any cracked powercore, uad, scope plug-ins

nope

but this is getting well off topic - must try this set of plugs - does the delay finally mean i can stop pining for the logic one ?

i've seen cracks for powercore. i'm fairly confident there hasn't been a copy protection scheme that hasn't been cracked. the reason you're less likely to find a powercore plug cracked is it's less common. people who use cracks tend not to spend money on something like a poco anyway, hence less demand for cracks for it.

i'm glad voxengo doesn't use crappy iloks (like the grm tools i use does). anything more convoluted (no pun intended) than aleksey's current system is a waste of time and money for both parties imo. if there's a demand for cracks then it'll get cracked, whatever the copy pro scheme.