sharke
If Gibson had any sense of decency whatsoever they would have reached out to this community with a statement assuring Sonar users that the activation process would stay online going forward and that they had no intention of making anyone's DAW inoperable. But naturally they're not saying anything. This whole thing will be a stain on their reputation in perpetuity, that's even if they manage to stay afloat (which I'm doubtful of).

As for Windows updates breaking Sonar, the optimist in me hopes that some egg headed computer boffin will hack together a patch, if whatever is causing the breakage is patchable.

They did say this via Cakewalk employees, however with the process being "online" that also means it could fail at anytime.

looneymusic

sharke

As for Windows updates breaking Sonar, the optimist in me hopes that some egg headed computer boffin will hack together a patch, if whatever is causing the breakage is patchable.

Don't upgrade Windows? Simply "freeze" your DAW in it's current state - it will work until the hardware totally fails. 

And when that happens just take your "backup" drive image and install it on a new PC. 

Sonar Forever

Won't your "back up" drive image only recover on to similar hardware ?
So, for example if you have a new motherboard, it will probably not restore.

noynekker

looneymusic

sharke

As for Windows updates breaking Sonar, the optimist in me hopes that some egg headed computer boffin will hack together a patch, if whatever is causing the breakage is patchable.

Don't upgrade Windows? Simply "freeze" your DAW in it's current state - it will work until the hardware totally fails. 

And when that happens just take your "backup" drive image and install it on a new PC. 

Sonar Forever

Won't your "back up" drive image only recover on to similar hardware ?
So, for example if you have a new motherboard, it will probably not restore.

Yeah, I wouldn't count on this working, either. Too many people have experienced the "reverted to demo" problem which suggests that a system ID is used for activation, and a slight breeze is apparently enough to corrupt the ID and confuse the authorization.  If registered users are randomly getting their activation disabled, I don't like the odds that a "transplanted" drive image would bring.
 
Unless CW removes the login step (#5 of the Offline Activation), there will be no way to activate Sonar if/when the servers are unplugged.

Cactus Music
Now I cannot see how one could crack the on line registration without digging deep within the code

I'm sure someone will. At the end of the day, it is just communicating with a remote server which sends back a reply. It would be fairly straightforward to hack that. If it calls a domain, you could just add that domain to your hosts file and redirect it to a local script to give it the reply it needs. That reply might be as simple as a yes/true/1 etc, but I doubt it. However, it could probably be worked out by examining the data that Sonar sends to determine what it requires back which will probably just be a hash of key and sent data. Either way, it seems that anything can be cracked if someone is determined or just sees it as a challenge.


 
I should think that if the dung really does hit the fan, someone will put a crack out. However, I can't see Gibson releasing an unlocked version. If they don't sell it, they will still own the code and they won't want unregulated versions of it out there. That's an incentive for them to keep the servers up for a reasonable while. Also, the cost of maintaining the online activation system won't be much. It probably buys us a few years - depending on how long Gibson have left!

azslow3
At the moment, even with offline authorization contacting servers is required. Not only that... some time ago Sonar could revert to Demo without any changes in Windows/Hardware. There was something with badly set time-stamp, it has "expired" and had to be updated. That was "fixed", probably by updating that something, not by removing the "time bomb" completely. So there is far from zero probability that Sonar will work for limited time only, even when computer stay offline.
Till Gibson is declared bankrupt or selling CW, users are safe. Shutdown of authorization service is definitive violation of the license. If one of these two things happens, then...
 
But there was a promise about FAQ, lets wait it.
 

There is a "fix" for all of that out there, you just have to look.

FakeItTillUmakeIt

azslow3
At the moment, even with offline authorization contacting servers is required. Not only that... some time ago Sonar could revert to Demo without any changes in Windows/Hardware. There was something with badly set time-stamp, it has "expired" and had to be updated. That was "fixed", probably by updating that something, not by removing the "time bomb" completely. So there is far from zero probability that Sonar will work for limited time only, even when computer stay offline.
Till Gibson is declared bankrupt or selling CW, users are safe. Shutdown of authorization service is definitive violation of the license. If one of these two things happens, then...
But there was a promise about FAQ, lets wait it.

There is a "fix" for all of that out there, you just have to look.

Not sure what you mean. Crack? "Key generator"? Yes, I can also look in the binary code and make one myself, I have corresponding qualification....
But:
a) there CW was even half serious about the protection, that can be not as easy as someone can think. Till they have used some 3d party solution, there impacts is always well known.
 
b) I have paid for the Software. It was mentioned many time explicit that CW was NOT SELLING SUBSCRIPTIONS. If in 1, 3, 10 years the authorization stop working, that means all post X3 Sonars was sold as a subscription (for 1, 3, 10 years). Is such fooling allowed in US? For me that sounds as crime as steeling money. I mean the consequence should be a prison, not just bankrupt status.