I'm left out as well, and definitely not happy about it. My house is completely offline except our phones. When I asked Noel about the possibility of offline activation, he said he didn't know. He said it would take quite a bit to get the infrastructure set up that's required for offline authorization. At least we still have Splat, that is until they shut down the servers.....

I am also hoping that a future version will allow offline activation.

Yes two things need to happen,
 
1-Upgrade the assistant so it has download management. 
2-Offline Activation like Sonar used. 

Cactus Music
Yes two things need to happen,
 
1-Upgrade the assistant so it has download management. 
2-Offline Activation like Sonar used. 

+1000

I may have stumbled on something but the only way I can verify will be to try on a computer that has no trace of Bandlab on it. 
 
I realized that I did not have to log on to the assistant when I finally got around to installing CbB. 
I just verified this on my old laptop at work. 
I unintalled CbB.
Was logged out of the Assistant
Installed CbB from the file which is still in the download folder. It never got deleted because of what I did to copy it as posted above. 
So it installed and shows as legal. 
We've been told you have to use the assistant to install. This shows otherwise. Now I'm even wondering if this will work on a computer that has never seen the assistant at all? I would think you'd be in demo mode. 

Cactus Music
I unintalled CbB.

Not sure how this was done. It is likely the uninstall did not remove everything added to the PC by the install and activation processes.
 
FWIW, I am pretty sure BA v3.0.8 does not have to install CbB but is still necessary for activation. Just like the old Cakewalk Command Center.

Yes this is it, I certainly was not about to go further. That might put older versions at risk.  Both the machines had CbB installed. So the serial # is probably stashed in the registry somewhere. 
Later I will see what happens on my office machine that has only Splat installed. 
 
This makes it possible for people with pour internet to do a mostly offline activation. Very little internet would be required this way. 

Cactus Music
Yes this is it, I certainly was not about to go further. That might put older versions at risk.  Both the machines had CbB installed. So the serial # is probably stashed in the registry somewhere. 
Later I will see what happens on my office machine that has only Splat installed. 
 
This makes it possible for people with pour internet to do a mostly offline activation. Very little internet would be required this way. 

Please report back after you've tried it.

It was as I expected. No problem installing Cakelab to a fresh computer.
But as expected, It goes to demo mode.
I tells you to run the Bandlab Assistant to rectify. 
 As I also had saved the Assistant.exe I didn't have to download that either. Just installed it and logged in.
 When it first opened ( the App tab)  it flashed the "install" for a brief sec then changed to Run.
 Cakelab now shows as Legal. Same serial # as my other 3 installs. 
I would guess this took about 5-10 KB of bandwidth. 
Of course does not help those with zero internet, but really, these days any computer without some sort of connection is next to useless. 
I myself would only own laptops if that was my situation. And believe me I totally get it as I lived with dial up for 10 years! But Satellite internet is available most everywhere, only barrier is the $60- $100 per month.