I bet it takes way longer to write multiple thousand-words posts about calling a lawyer than it does to just call a lawyer. It's almost as if a lawyer isn't going to get called, and someone's just typing a load of wind. I suppose it's nice to have a hobby.

zombiequeen
Bottom line is, without any kind of off-line activation, if you build up a project archive that's precious to you, they own you.

I forgot to mention - no one owns you. You own some software that works, at least right now. If you are that unhappy with the situation, cut your losses now while there is still time and the servers are still up. That is a completely viable option, since it doesn't seem like they'll be coming down any time soon and you can always image your Sonar Plat system hard drive as is right now, so if anything happens to it you have a working authorized version to restore to. A cheap usb 3.0 drive off Amazon can do that easily.
 
Move to another DAW and focus on how to re-archive in a new program. I'm sure there are people with more experience than I have that can help you do so if you search the forums.
 
No one owns you, and even I have to admit the era of 'owning' software permanently is probably over. You simply have to decide how to store your own data in a way that is future friendly, and deal with what is, not what should be or what ought to be. We know right now what is.
 
Due to the price point, I'm considering Reaper myself, as a backup just in case and see how transitioning some important stuff into two formats works, though I have no idea how their activation method is implemented. If it's a permanent unlock code, it may be worth the trouble of going between DAWs. Probably good to own more than one DAW. I trust Noel and am willing to jump to CbB, but as I think I said before, I'll run along with it but not blindly.

 

When the SHTF many folks and many, many  threads  about this topic were spawned. Overall a plan was made to make us all future proof against the day Splat could no longer be activated on a new system. That probability is now almost vanished with very few unbelievers hanging around. 
 
 But from what I remembered from those threads here is the survival list of things to do:
 
1- Download all your products and copy all the serial numbers, store this in 10 places and on a desert island. 
2- Install Splat on every available computer and activate. If possible on multiple OS. W7 and W8.1 as example will not  foreseeabley do what W10 can do and trash things with an update. 
3- Do not loose your Pre Splat copies of Sonar, example my x3e is server proof. Forever. 
4- Save all your projects in different formats like MIDI. A midi file from 1983 will still open in any DAW. It would seem this will be tue in 2023. 
5- Bounce/freeze all your midi tracks to audio and export as stems.
6- Demo all the other DAW's and learn how it works and experiment with transferring projects NOW before it's too late. If you find one you like, buy it or keep it in mind for the future and watch for deals. 
 
Following this plan there is no 100% guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong in your studio, but it sure will take away 99% of the probability. If that isn't good enough for you then don't worry, you are obviously a stressed out dude and you will die young anywho :) Ook.  
 

If I can add a few notes in bold...
 

sock monkey
 
1- Download all your products and copy all the serial numbers, store this in 10 places and on a desert island. 
 

This is easier to do than ever. Burn to DVDs, old hard drives, anything.
 
Image your current system too as is pre-CbB so you can always restore to it, and put that in a drawer. Macrium Reflect will let you do this for free (and includes a recovery tool), and you can restore that at any time, back to your 'premium' setup with plugins. No matter what happens, as long as your current system stands, you can always restore a cloned drive just by copying it back. I clone my drives every week and keep clone of a fresh install once I make it separately. You can make as many incremental backups as you have hard drives to store them on with Macrium Reflect.
 

sock monkey
2- Install Splat on every available computer and activate. If possible on multiple OS. W7 and W8.1 as example will not  foreseeabley do what W10 can do and trash things with an update. 

The problem here is motherboards die, so you can't install it on something you don't have yet. A possible workaround for those more technically minded is to create a VM (virtual machine) of your preferred OS, do a fresh install of Platinum while you still can.
 
The benefits of a VM is that it is not linked to any hardware directly, including the motherboard/processor. Everything is 'ported' through to the VM. This is a downside in some cases, as it won't port my Presonus Firewire soundcards through, but it will port a USB soundcard through.
 
Theoretically, if one sets it up right, you can have an install of Sonar Platinum that is not tied to any physical machine, but you'd need to run it through a hypervisor host (the VM software), which might restrict usage of some programs. This allows you to take endless snapshots and could theoretically be a legal and reliable workaround to the activation server issue. I use an install on a VM to test out new plugins/VSTi before installing so I don't screw anything up, and compatibility with old stuff I find in my hard drive.
 
This would ensure future ability to open Sonar projects in Sonar Platinum, since you can copy a VM Windows installation from one machine to another without any direct connection to the host hardware. It is even possible to clone an existing system install AS a VM, but I've never done this fully before. Theoretically you could take a system image that can be transferred from one computer to another and never worry about authorization again.

 
If someone with more experience with running music software through a VM could chime in, it would be useful. I'm limited in experience, but have had an IT professional explain the concepts to me. 
 

sock monkey
3- Do not loose your Pre Splat copies of Sonar, example my x3e is server proof. Forever. 
4- Save all your projects in different formats like MIDI. A midi file from 1983 will still open in any DAW. It would seem this will be tue in 2023. 
5- Bounce/freeze all your midi tracks to audio and export as stems.
6- Demo all the other DAW's and learn how it works and experiment with transferring projects NOW before it's too late. If you find one you like, buy it or keep it in mind for the future and watch for deals. 
 
Following this plan there is no 100% guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong in your studio, but it sure will take away 99% of the probability. If that isn't good enough for you then don't worry, you are obviously a stressed out dude and you will die young anywho :) Ook.  
 

All this is very good advice, thank you.

 

 

ch.huey
 If someone with more experience with running music software through a VM could chime in, it would be useful. I'm limited in experience, but have had an IT professional explain the concepts to me. 
 

Very good post.
Thank you!
 

[thinking out loud]
 
There is some cheap if not optimal insurance out there.  Alexey created a very sweet cwp conversion tool that allows another DAW to directly open SONAR projects.  I've tested it on some fairly complex projects (for me) and the projects open directly and playback perfectly.  The idea is that even if this other DAW isn't your tool of choice, you at least have a way to get projects loaded for stem rendering.
 
There is also a utility, or used to be a utility, that would analyze SONAR projects and give tons of info about its composition.  Perhaps these could be used together to get projects converted for future tweaks if the meteor does strike.
 
Maybe we could convince Alexey to open source the front half of his tool - the part that does the decoding - so back halves could be done for a variety of DAWs.
 
I would love to see this kind of thing for all DAWs so that we aren't always bound to the original tool.  OTOH, I fully understand why the binding is desirable for the vendors.

BobF
[thinking out loud]
 
There is some cheap if not optimal insurance out there.  Alexey created a very sweet cwp conversion tool that allows another DAW to directly open SONAR projects.  I've tested it on some fairly complex projects (for me) and the projects open directly and playback perfectly.  The idea is that even if this other DAW isn't your tool of choice, you at least have a way to get projects loaded for stem rendering.
 
There is also a utility, or used to be a utility, that would analyze SONAR projects and give tons of info about its composition.  Perhaps these could be used together to get projects converted for future tweaks if the meteor does strike.
 
Maybe we could convince Alexey to open source the front half of his tool - the part that does the decoding - so back halves could be done for a variety of DAWs.
 
I would love to see this kind of thing for all DAWs so that we aren't always bound to the original tool.  OTOH, I fully understand why the binding is desirable for the vendors.

It would be great to have a URL to the tool you're thinking of.

Steve_Karl

BobF
[thinking out loud]
 
There is some cheap if not optimal insurance out there.  Alexey created a very sweet cwp conversion tool that allows another DAW to directly open SONAR projects.  I've tested it on some fairly complex projects (for me) and the projects open directly and playback perfectly.  The idea is that even if this other DAW isn't your tool of choice, you at least have a way to get projects loaded for stem rendering.
 
There is also a utility, or used to be a utility, that would analyze SONAR projects and give tons of info about its composition.  Perhaps these could be used together to get projects converted for future tweaks if the meteor does strike.
 
Maybe we could convince Alexey to open source the front half of his tool - the part that does the decoding - so back halves could be done for a variety of DAWs.
 
I would love to see this kind of thing for all DAWs so that we aren't always bound to the original tool.  OTOH, I fully understand why the binding is desirable for the vendors.

It would be great to have a URL to the tool you're thinking of.

Here you go.
 
ReaCWP
http://www.azslow.com/index.php?board=13.0
 
ProjectScope
http://forum.cakewalk.com/ProjectScope-helps-find-CWPs-and-keeps-them-organized-updated-to-Producer-Edition-m3218609.aspx#3218609