Copy Protection Rumours

Ok, not wanting to put the cat among the pigeons but I hope to god that S5 isn't going to dongle based or online activation. I like the serial number idea as it's easy to use and if things go belly up and you have to re-install you don't have to go online to activate (something not always possible if like me you are away from a net connection).

Please please please no dongle!!! It didnt help Steinborg at all.

Cheers

Aargh!

Quick, delete this thread before someone from CW sees it! :)

a retina scanner... now even though that would be a pain in the arse, how cool would that be? Or even using it as a controller..... sorry...

This certainly sounds like an on-line activation.

ORIGINAL: Noah330

I wish we would get a Dongle.

If Cakewalk went wth iLok everyone who wants it would have to buy it and there would be no more warez users complaining about how SOnar sucks when they downloaded a version off Kazza that is missing 1/4 of the source code and full of spyware.

And then we could all punch you in the head.
(If you aren't being sarcastic.)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Noah330

I wish we would get a Dongle.

If Cakewalk went wth iLok everyone who wants it would have to buy it and there would be no more warez users complaining about how SOnar sucks when they downloaded a version off Kazza that is missing 1/4 of the source code and full of spyware.



And then we could all punch you in the head.
(If you aren't being sarcastic.)

I'll be in that line!

I probably won't upgrade this time. Don't see much of value to me in the announced new features. And if hardware specific authorization is coming, this will be the major reason for not upgrading for me. I already have a Cubase dongle and hate it, but if Cakewalk starts using copy protection then the one advantage of Sonar I treasure the most is lost.

Just don't pick your nose before logging in !

good one...LOL


you could get empentago

I am serious about wanting a more secure copy protection enviroment.

Here are a few reasons why a dongle would be a great idea:

1- I have invested a lot of money in Cakewalk products and upgrades since my ProAudio days. Cakewalk would make more money and be able to either lower the prices of upgrades or give us more upgrades, maintainence patches or products if there were not so many unregistered users.

2- It would put an end to many of the people blaming Cakewalk for their crashes and system issues. Many people who use warez or cracked products have corrupt files or are missing files and that is why they have problems with their systems. If Sonar had a dongle or some other sort of protection this would be eliminated.

I have a PT and a Nuendo system and have dongles for each. It's not a big deal.

ORIGINAL: Noah330

I am serious about wanting a more secure copy protection enviroment.

Here are a few reasons why a dongle would be a great idea:

1- I have invested a lot of money in Cakewalk products and upgrades since my ProAudio days. Cakewalk would make more money and be able to either lower the prices of upgrades or give us more upgrades, maintainence patches or products if there were not so many unregistered users.

2- It would put an end to many of the people blaming Cakewalk for their crashes and system issues. Many people who use warez or cracked products have corrupt files or are missing files and that is why they have problems with their systems. If Sonar had a dongle or some other sort of protection this would be eliminated.

I have a PT and a Nuendo system and have dongles for each. It's not a big deal.

NOah.
No (dongles) means No!



-ah.

ORIGINAL: Noah330

I am serious about wanting a more secure copy protection enviroment.

Here are a few reasons why a dongle would be a great idea:

1- I have invested a lot of money in Cakewalk products and upgrades since my ProAudio days. Cakewalk would make more money and be able to either lower the prices of upgrades or give us more upgrades, maintainence patches or products if there were not so many unregistered users.

2- It would put an end to many of the people blaming Cakewalk for their crashes and system issues. Many people who use warez or cracked products have corrupt files or are missing files and that is why they have problems with their systems. If Sonar had a dongle or some other sort of protection this would be eliminated.

I have a PT and a Nuendo system and have dongles for each. It's not a big deal.

Oh boy ... How much of the price you paid for PT or Nuendo do you think went to the copy protection developement costs? And guess what, they are both completely and thoroughly cracked. There are totaly stable and complete versions of those pieces of software available from P2P networks. (With Nuendo and Cubase SX3 they just emulated the whole dongle ...)

Let me state this cleary: THERE IS NO SECURE COPY PROTECTION SYSTEM IN EXISTANCE. They all get cracked sooner or later. Usualy sooner. There are even cracks of stuff that runs on the Powercore, UAD-1, Digidesign TDM systems ... It often takes crackers less time to crack a copy protection scheme than it takes the marketing department of a copy protection company to write-up about their last oh-so-secure waste of time. ;)

I think CakeWalk have the right policy so far: Make their products available for reasonable prices. Support their userbase (for instance this forum). Be honest. Listen to their customer base.

Keep it up CakeWalk! :)

UnderTow

ORIGINAL: Noah330

I am serious about wanting a more secure copy protection enviroment.

Here are a few reasons why a dongle would be a great idea:

1- I have invested a lot of money in Cakewalk products and upgrades since my ProAudio days. Cakewalk would make more money and be able to either lower the prices of upgrades or give us more upgrades, maintainence patches or products if there were not so many unregistered users.

I too have invested a lot of time and money, in Cakewalk software, over the years. Since 1998, I have calculated that I have spent nearly $2000 dollars, on Cakewalk apps, plugins and loop CD's. But, I don't believe that changing their copy protection to dongles would cause Cakewalk to lower prices, increase profits and lower the use of cracks. It would have just the opposite effect. Cakewalk would have to increase prices to cover the extra costs of dongle copy protection. That would hit their bottom line and our back pockets. What do we get in return, a CP system that is inconvenient, costly and simply does not work. There is no such thing as a secure copy protection environment.
All CP schemes get cracked sooner or later. PACE (Antares), Syncrosoft (Nuendo 3/SX 3), iLok (URS plugins), they all have been cracked. I think Cakewalk's current system for SONAR 5 (serial number/authorization scheme), strikes a good balance between protecting it's software and accomodating it's registered user base.

2- It would put an end to many of the people blaming Cakewalk for their crashes and system issues. Many people who use warez or cracked products have corrupt files or are missing files and that is why they have problems with their systems. If Sonar had a dongle or some other sort of protection this would be eliminated.

Well, honestly I could care less that people using cracks/warez are having problems. You get what you pay or don't pay for.

I have a PT and a Nuendo system and have dongles for each. It's not a big deal.

Well, I would feel a little ticked off having to financially support and put up with a failed CP system that simply does not work. How do you think I was able to demo and I use that word loosely, Nuendo 3.02 (build 623), on my home studio DAW. Yup, that secure syncrosoft dongle did a whole lot of good.

ORIGINAL: Ron Kuper [Cakewalk]

And if hardware specific authorization is coming, this will be the major reason for not upgrading for me.

This is no hardware specific authorization. You register with your serial number by web, email or phone. In exchange you get a registration code. There is no hardware component, hardware ID, etc, involved in the process. In fact if you register with us already it's virtually the same procedure.

Thanks Ron!

I knew That.

Paul

Exactly, the whole syncrosoft/cubase fiasco turned out be just an exercise in protection circumvention, the warez group that done it admitted to the fact. A lot of info came out about how Cubase was accessing the dongle every few seconds which may or may not have been adding to the CPU overheads. Of course how much of this is actually true is unknown. Steinborg denied it wholeheartedly. What I do have issues with is the amount of software that is beginning to use iLoks, dongles etc. You end up buying the software, having to buy an iLok and then buying a USB hub and then you have no where to plug your mouse in! And yes I am exagerating slightly before anyone pipes in...

I own and use a program called Chief Architect. It has a dongle. When it arrived, the dongle was not in the box, so I had to wait for one to arrive before I could use the program. Now that I have it, the good thing is I can use the unit on any machine I want one at a time with my dongle. The bad thing is I am constantly stressing out over losing my $2,600 dongle. It's like it is a bee sting kit and I am highly allergic. There is no just setting it down without thinking "Am I ever gonna see it again". I hate that aspect of the dongle system. Anyway, locks are for honest people and Cakewalk knows that. As said above, there is no secure copy protection system, just expensive attempts at same. Thieves will get your stuff if they want it. Don't hassle your loyal users trying to prevent that or you'll ruin sales to honest folks and impact your bottom line.