Native Instruments file for insolvency...

[IvyBirds]

VC is the kiss of death. If your company ever gets acquired by VC, plot your personal exit asap before its plotted for you.

The only reason a company ends up in VC is because it's already in financial dire straights

[tomato]

I've been seeing listings on Yahoo Auctions Japan selling what appear to be pirated plugins—some high-end products listed for around ¥2,000 (~$13).
Reporting them rarely leads to action, which only increases the incentive for piracy.
This kind of situation may be one of several factors contributing to the industry pressure we're seeing, including the recent NI insolvency news.
Long-term, this feels like something that requires OS- or hardware-rooted trust, not just software checks at the DAW level.

Example (public seller profile):
[MOD EDIT - LINK REMOVED]
(Note: Yahoo Japan is geo-blocked in the EU/UK due to GDPR—VPN required)

[BBFG#]

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/a ... downloads/

Doesn't help much in case Native Access goes the way of Service Center.

In case they want to gain some dignity while going out of business, some kinda way for permanent offline authorisations would be on order.

They once promised that in the EULA. It did not go...well.

But the "magic words" within all EULAs is "Subject to Change without Notice". I predicted this when they revealed they were taking outside money. All of us have seen at least one movie in the plethora of corporate raider take overs. Where making a strong company fail is the goal that leverages the controlling interests bottom line. Build up, merge, strip, piece out, bankrupt, reap the ledger benefits and move to the next...

NI, PA and Izotope have been in a sad state for years. The question now is what we learn and how we evolve from it.

[SLiC]

VC is the kiss of death. If your company ever gets acquired by VC, plot your personal exit asap before its plotted for you.

The only reason a company ends up in VC is because it's already in financial dire straights

Not at all, private owners often sell to VC to retire (I did) VC normally wants to buy successful profitable companies, after all you sell on EBITDA (a multiple of profit) so not much point selling unless you are profitable!). Of course VC may also swoop on 'fire sales' if someone needs out...but I think this is less often in my experience. If you don't sell to a VC you end up selling to a large existing corporation (I also did this once) and in my experience they dismantled things faster!

[enCiphered]

This looks less like a hostile takeover movie and more like the slow consequences of scale, debt and diluted focus catching up. The real lesson is probably growth for growth’s sake + subscription pressure + product sprawl tends to rot companies from the inside. No raiders required.
Anyway. Rough enough for the teams caught in the middle.

[nightjar]

Dear Apple. Please get out your checkbook.

[SLiC]

Dear Apple. Please get out your checkbook.

That's how Windows users lost Camel Audio!!

[DrOcsid]

I've been seeing listings on Yahoo Auctions Japan selling what appear to be pirated plugins—some high-end products listed for around ¥2,000 (~$13).
Reporting them rarely leads to action, which only increases the incentive for piracy.
This kind of situation may be one of several factors contributing to the industry pressure we're seeing, including the recent NI insolvency news.
Long-term, this feels like something that requires OS- or hardware-rooted trust, not just software checks at the DAW level.

Example (public seller profile):
[MOD EDIT - LINK REMOVED]
(Note: Yahoo Japan is geo-blocked in the EU/UK due to GDPR—VPN required)

I don't think the sale of pirated plugins is going to be a primary factor when people who want to pirate are going to find non-paying ways in the first place. This would mainly apply to less common edge cases where they're successfully tricking people into thinking they're buying legit plugins.

And even if this was a main factor, the answer is absolutely not and never will be making DRM more intrusive. That's the exact opposite direction the world needs to be shifting toward. There's a reason companies like UAD and Antelope Audio have been moving away from hardware-locked software.

I think we're just gonna have to see who exactly ends up buying these product lines. That'll give me a better idea of how to feel about this. I admit I can't think of a lot of companies that could realistically afford brands with history like these that I actually consider trustworthy.

[Super Piano Hater 64]

Dear Apple. Please get out your checkbook.

That would hit third party Kontakt library vendors like a nuclear bomb, instead of just, say, an inMusic 9/11

[Held]

Let's do a crowdfunding campaign and open source everything

[npdc]

YouTube videos on the subject are starting to appear:

[IvyBirds]

What I worry about it Izotope Iris 2. It was put out to pasture a long time ago but I can still download it, install it, and activate it

It does things nothing else does.

[mabian]

YouTube videos on the subject are starting to appear:

Yes, but they have nothing more than what we have here to discuss... nonsense.
I hope they make it possible to use the products without Native Access activation

[npdc]

YouTube videos on the subject are starting to appear:

Yes, but they have nothing more than what we have here to discuss... nonsense.
I hope they make it possible to use the products without Native Access activation

The scariest part is if this will have a domino effect or not. A.I. is killing everything.

[enCiphered]

Yes, but they have nothing more than what we have here to discuss... nonsense.

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