Can you REALLY blame people for being:
- Angry
- Skeptical
- Worried
- Distrustful
since the rug just got pulled out from under them out of the clear blue sky on Thanksgiving week no less? Of course, Cakewalk employees have things worse in the real life sweepstakes, and I doubt anyone would realistically deny that.
But still, given the circumstances, the complete lack of reassurances from Gibson, a general lack of knowledge in the buyer's actual rights in this matter and the somewhat cryptic nature of the sticky in question (I for one had no idea what or where you were referring to at all) I think maybe you could quit complaining over a lack of appreciation and cut folks some slack, don't you?
Customers have every right to be upset, angry, and or distrustful of Cakewalk/Gibson, the
corporations - the remaining/former employees are
not the target here. The target is the company that has been taking
OUR money right up to the very day the doors were locked, when at least some at Cakewalk had to be aware of what was coming. If that was illegal or not is an argument for another day, (or perhaps for a court to decide), but in the meantime, no one should feel that it's wrong to voice their own personal feelings about this entire mess, no matter what those feelings may be.
That said, as far as the actual rights that buyers of Sonar have, that is simple - for a fully paid for version of Sonar the buyer has the right to use that version of the software - until the
end of time. This is spelled out clearly in the Sonar license,
"...Once the annual Membership is paid in full, Licensee will own the perpetual license to versions of their Product released during their active membership period."and used to be a major marketing point used by Cakewalk to promote Sonar, and why Sonar was the better choice. Any attempt by the remains of Cakewalk, or Gibson, or any subsequent owner of the Sonar source code or IP to interfere in that right, (for example, by shutting down the auth. servers without releasing a patch to remove the need for those servers), would be a serious breach of the contracted license terms, and would without a doubt lead to legal action being filed against Cakewalk/Gibson by someone, (or a class action).
And against even a basiclly closed down company like Cakewalk, or an apparently on-the-way-to-oblivion company like Gibson, there is a valid reason such a lawsuit would be worth filing - the goal being the court ordered seizure of the Sonar source code, and it's transfer to a court designated third party, who would then make that source available for review by licensed Sonar users on request, (which would enable the community as a whole to come up with it's own way of patching the program to remove the need to authorize at install). However, there is a limited window of opportunity to take such legal action, which would preferably be either prior to Cakewalk being legally dissolved as a corporate entity, (if that is what Gibson has planned), or before the rumored possible bankruptcy of Gibson itself.
This is why I currently do not trust any comments about a future "patch" being made by anyone connected with Cakewalk - if Cakewalk/Gibson is going to try and "pull a fast one" on it's own customers, (something I am sure none of us want to believe they would do, but which is still a possibility), and leave us all hanging with useless software that can no longer be activated, then it is in their own best interests legally to string us all along with empty promises for as long as possible - to prevent any legal action being taken by angry customers who feel that they have been taken advantage of.
I want to believe that Cakewalk will do the right thing by their customers, as they always have done, the only question is will Gibson allow them to....?