Yep. Regrettably so.

dubdisciple
I really don't want this to breakdown into insults. Part of why I have been inactive here is due to aggression over opinions. I was actually hoping someone knew something i didn't to get software to work.

I don't believe that piracy is killing software industry. I believe oversaturation and the nature of software lead to an inevitable reduction in sales. The fact no company has experienced a major correlating spike in sales due to dip in piracy is a strong indicator that pirates don't just start buying software if locked out. They will either work harder to crack or use another product. In any case, none of this is helping. At the end of the day, it's still not working so I may have to deal with Pace's awful customer service :(

 I had one extreme situation where I deleted it and a manual reg search and delete. That was the only way to get it done.

I will try something like that when i am in the mood to tinker
 

I noted the comment above that over saturation of products is going to slow down the market.

I agree with that personally for my buying needs. I'm over saturated, so will buy less for sure. Not clear to me is whether the deluge of new products will slow down. The pace seems to be picking up.

Speaking of PACE, I'm a satisfied, ZDT subscribing, iLok user. Has worked for me. I like that it may give some software publishers a chance to earn some revenue from their hard work.

I'm thinking as an originals musician that I'm bummed by Spotify and other free streaming delivery systems that probably reduce income chances for new record releases for artists. Giving it away as free kind of is hard to compete with against a price tag. Software often is much more expensive than a song. Without some kind of registration or activation process I would think software developers can lose quite a bit to the pass it around for free crowd.

In order to help music software developers earn a living and be motivated to make the next cool release I think either the software developer's own system of tracking licenses, or handing that function off to an outfit like PACE, can contribute to the ecosystem we enjoy.

So I don't mind iLok. At least having it has allowed me to use some of my favorite software tools.

Rhetorical question regarding Spotify : Has recording sales EVER been a reliable way for the average recording artist to make a living? IMHO that answer is no. By the time an artist gets big enough to negotiate a deal that pays them decently for actual sales, they tend to be rich already from other means. In fact, many of the more business saavy artists are skipping the label game altogether. Tech-9 (an underground rapper by an measure) made 7.5 million last year despite NO radio play and modest sales. Most big name acts wished they cleared that. I'm not saying Spotify are the good guys, but that the recording industry has an annoying habit of making artists forget who has been screwing them long before the internet existed.

tom1
Without dongels I'd be without some of the best software on the market. Irreplaceable imo.

Without prisons, we'd have no prisoners.
 
Just because some software outfit (makers of some of the best software on the market) uses a dongle for copy protection doesn't make the dongle a good thing.
 
The end does not justify the means.

Wow!  I didn't mean to start polarizing and for that I am sorry.  I think we're all left with either using products or not and one consideration for some folks is the method of protection.  As to piracy being over inflated, that may be so... but it definitely hurts small developers more than others.
 
Fortunately we live in a world with a myriad of options these days.  And hopefully the Trek universe, where money is no longer a factor, will someday unfold... in which each human cultivating their own awesomeness will be encouraged...and prisons of any kind will not be necessary.
 
I'm sorry for anyone having bad experiences with anything in their lives...
 
peace.
 
 

Less Pace, more

Vastman
peace.

Vastman..i think most of the convo was civil. We all have opinions on the topic. Expressing them is no big deal until someone turns it into personal attack.

As far as it affecting small developers and large developers differently, I honestly struggle to find a measurable way to indicate that. Sometimes I figure "it must affect them", but then can never measure how. It would seem that zero dollars those pirates were willing to spend on that product still measures zero if they didn't crack it. In fact, I can make a stronger mathematical argument that actual sales + money that wasn't spent on licensing of anti-piracy tech might be more profitable. I certainly doubt any company gets a check for moral victory of thwarting would be pirate. In fact, there is no numerical data to support decrease in this type of piracy has ever increased profit that I have seen. Counterfeiting is a much bigger threat to profit since it steals customers who were actually willing to pay.

If anyone has a study showing any company that was experiencing significant drop in sales making a rapid spike in sales following implementation of iLok type systems, I would love to see. The more successful companies using it seem to be companies that were very successful prior to implementation.