And Brzilian, you're not "fighting for consumer rights." You're fighting for a free hand-out. Nobody forced you to buy this product. The beauty of free enterprise is that you can do what you like with what you have. If you don't like Cakewalk, you can buy Cubase (which you said you did). You were able to make that choice because of the consumer rights that you haven't had to fight for. What you don't get is the justification to criticize the services of a company you refuse to support!
And don't knock big corporations. Most employ thousands of people, who by being employed, have the ability to buy things to better their lives: HomeStudio, a house, a sofa, medical insurance, a beer...
Think of everyone that works for a large corporation - if they weren't employed, they may have to rob you to survive. How would you feel then?
ps. You don't actually consider Cakewalk a "big corporation," do you???
Have you been living under a rock? Do you not realize that there are no choices as you claim?
Yes, I swiched to Cubase only to find that they are just as bad as Cakewalk. Their product is far from bug free and rather than fix existing versions, they subject users to new versions which add even more bugs (case and point Cubase 4 - just read through their forums). On top of that, their hardware dongles make life even harder for the paying customers while the users using Syncrosoft cracks grow. If I loose my USB key, I have to pay
full price for a new one even though I already own the media and am a registered user. How does that make sense? Where is my choice as a consumer in this scenario? All choices are a loosing proposition for end users.
Have you not read any of the coverage of the impending release of Vista? Do you not know what you will be subjected to even as an owner of a legitimate copy. MS will actually limit the number of installations you can perform on the
same computer.
Since the release of XP in 2001, I have reformatted my computer a dozen times due to XP's performance degradation because of the demanding apps I use for a living. According to Vista's new EULA, I would run out of of installation instances in approximately 2 years.
How about Tivo? With the advent of broadcast flags, content distributors can restrict how long you can keep a recorded show on your DVR's HD. If that doesn't fit with your schedule, you're SOL.
Do you know anything about Net neutrality? You should, because sooner than later ISPs will restrict what you can and cannot do with your Internet connection to the point where prices will soar and service will suffer (wait, that implies we get service now - what was I thinking!).
Yes, I consider Cakewalk a big corporation. They have proven to be no better than the next company. The way I see it, Sonar 6 is no more than a service pack release to Sonar 5, yet they turned it in to a new "full fledged" product that requires you to willingly open up your pocket.
My experience to date in the "corporate world" has taught me valuable lessons. There is no such thing as the greater good - its all about greed and my needs over the needs of the "company". All I see on a daily basis is people being taken advantage of and being thrown out the door when they are not needed to the year's sales goal not being reached. I was laid off for those same exact reasons even though my contributions in terms of generated revenue far exceeded my yearly salary by a factor of 100.
Slugbaby, try living outside of your socialist safety net (also known as Canada) to see what the real world is like.