Friends,
 
Had asked this on another and maybe wrong forum and got no response. Dumb question.
 
I stalled out upgrading at X2, but got a little pocket change saved to upgrade. Free for life SPlat and Rapture Pro on the horizon.
 
Back then, we got a serial number and an authorization number. Meant that I could go to a new computer and install functional software with these two parameters. Have always respected and protected my Cake licenses.
 
With the advent of the central authorization system, it looks like we are now dependent on distant activation, so a serial number and registration code no longer work if we want to migrate without asking for computer specific activation.
 
Allah forbid that Cake goes out of business or the 10 magnitude earthquake takes down the central authorization thing, or decides not to allow activation, but are we now out of luck in the event. Not a big issue, but have had this happen to me more than once over the years. Just appreciated Reaper and the old Cakewalk ethos. Was wondering where we have evolved to now before deciding whether to upgrade or not.
 
John

Yes, there was such change... Also note that since some Z3TA2 update, it also has that "feature" (was quite bad surprise for me).
 
But they still do not "count" authorizations and offline authorization is possible (some computer must be in the internet). I do not know any precedents when some company went out of business without giving permanent authorization to existing users, owners can get much more problems with lawyers in such case compare to the "simple" bankrupt scenario. As the last resort, if the software is good, it does not take long till some "nice people" disable its protection...
 

Azslow,
 
Thanks for your reply. This is what I thought was happening unfortunately.
 
I've had Waves and Voyetra both go out on me, refusing authorizations, changing the rules after they got the cash and had promised support forever. So sick. Lost my investment at the hands of external regulation out of my control. Have since taken up the approach that if I can't manage the license myself, will move on to the next worthy candidate, and there are increasingly better and better programs out there that trust the end user.
 
Then there are companies like the Khaerjus Golden suite. Company went down and left us stranded. Not still in existence demanding new ransoms. Sold out to some jerks who refused to authorize any transfers. Was a significant investment at the time.
 
Will stick to Reaper for now and Sonar 8. Probably not even the slightest issue for most, just been burned too many times here to trust any company to do the right thing forever if they have my license in their hands..
 
Best,
John

Well, if a company goes bankrupt (or sometimes even is sold), it is pretty common that whatever assets they have goes to their successors, who are not typically required to continue to support their products even to the extent of re-authorizing whatever protection schemes they have in place for old products to the former customers of the defunct company. In some cases it does not even require that much disruption to lose access to old software. Microsoft Office 2000 still exists in my hope chest on a CD that I can install, but no longer update to the version current when it went out of support, since MS no longer provides the update files. The SP1 for that product was only available as a stub loader, that no longer connects to anything anywhere, and Microsoft Update does not work on it. So if your software depends on any action on the part of the company that made it, you should pray for its ongoing success and future good health and generosity. In an era when so much is tied to encryption or online reauthorization, even if you are promised a perpetual license there is little you can do if circumstances change. Trying to take a defunct company to court to enforce your contract will put you at the end of  a very long line of abandoned litigants. Modern software is like beer, you only rent it.

Yeah, bummer on Office 2000. Same here. Thought it was a corrupt move to make Word 2000 incompatible with win 7 and later. Powerpoint, Excel, Access worked okay, but Word blocked. Had a call in to support and eventually got the message they felt my pain and would do everything to make it right. Just a mere couple hundred dollars for an upgrade.
 
Though not yet as fully feature cloned, went with Libre Office free open source.
 
Friend had the newest Office suite a couple years back. Their computer had a terminal meltdown and MS refused to allow them to transfer activations to the new computer. The wife was in a time driven project and had to buy the whole thing again.
 
For the most part, if there is not a serial number to activate the software, I let it go, Cakewalk included. Fortunately there are good developers out there going in the opposite direction and Sonar 8.5 is still cool.
 
John