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Do you think the ilok is the best way for companies to protect their software?  

17 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you think the ilok is the best way for companies to protect their software?

    • Yes
      3
    • No
      14


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I have recently bought a copy of Protools 9 as I am studying to be an engineer and I need to know it inside out, and be very fast using it. So Protools no longer requires an mbox or m-audio AI to open, however it does require an ilok.

 

I have had the ilok for just over a month now and have misplaced it several times and have now fully lost it. This is just about the most frustrating thing in the world for me.

 

Here are my feelings on the ilok and the whole "dongle" concept in general (sorry major rant from hereonin).

 

1) As a paying customer I feel like there should be some benefit to legally buying a companies software other than feeling morally good about yourself. With companies who use an ilok to protect their software I feel the absolute opposite. In fact I feel like I am being punished buy paying for the software.

 

1.1) I have to waste a USB slot on my computer (on my mac pro this is not such a problem but on my MBP this is a huge problem as is only has 2 ports in the first place). So for example: I bought an deal with an mbox 2 mini (with PT8) and an upgrade to PT9. If I want to run PT9 on my MBP with the mbox, I have to use all the USB slots on the computer just in order for me to open PT and plug a mic in. Therefore leaving no free slots for the other things that i would like to use. e.g. Keyboard and Mouse, and USB memory stick.

 

1.2) If I misplace the ilok (very easy to do unless it is always connected to one machine), I cannot even open the software. Say you are doing a location recording and you get to the venue and you set everything up and find that you have forgotten your ilok. There is nothing you can do, the software will not open, period.

 

2) It is essentially useless as a protection medium. Pretty much all software that uses the ilok has been cracked anyway (including PT9, and even PTHD...obviously you don't get the TDM processing!) So the point I am making is, if the sole purpose of the ilok is to stopping any illegal versions of the software being made, and illegal versions of pretty much all ilok protected software are available, what the hell is the ilok for?

 

3) Why on earth is it £40?!

 

Rant over... But I would love to hear your opinions on the matter and also more importantly better ways for software developers to protect their products.

 

Final point:

What are your feelings on the pricing of software in general?

 

My take on it would be this; I can understand why people get illegal versions of plugins/software for several reasons.

- Firstly software is intangible, it has no mass, there is no guarantee that it will work in the future.

- Secondly some manufacturers prices are way beyond the people that are their target markets. i.e. Waves. They offer bundles aimed at musicians and project studios yet still charge a relatively large amount of money. Their Silver Bundle which is aimed at musicians/bands and personal productions (quote from the product description "You’re making music. Maybe you’ve got some tunes up on MySpace...") is still $600. Im sure most people would do better spending the money on something more useful like room treatment, mics etc.

 

What are your thoughts?

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  • 4 weeks later...

I never get a good feeling whenever I want to use a VSL instrument (which uses a key, similar to iLok) only to have to wait an eternity until the licenser software re-discovers for the umpteenth time that I'm not a software pirate. It puts me off the product (which is hard to use to begin with) as well as the company. And when I think that I had to PAY $40 to protect THEM from piracy, well, it gets my blood boiling. It's especially ridiculous because I run a private studio, so, there aren't any sneaky sneaky clients sneaking around and sneakily downloading stuff from my hard drives.

 

On the flip side, I wonder what choice these companies have. Something tells me that there must be alternative forms of copy protection; there are all kinds of brilliant minds out there in software engineeringville who you'd think could come up with a scheme that's palatable (and doesn't charge the customer to protect their wares). But alas...

 

So I commiserate with you on some of those points. But to your other points, forgetting to take your key when you go to work at a different studio? Sorry my friend, you get the game show buzzer for that one. If you can't remember to take the key then that's entirely your fault. Just like it was my fault when I forgot to take my thumb drive to another Logic studio and had to re-create my key commands from scratch. I was a dumbass. But I never made that mistake again.

 

That the key takes up a USB slot? Yes, indeed, it's game show buzzer time for you again! (Sowwy) Just go out and buy a USB hub for $9 or even less. Problem solved.

 

As to software pricing, which plugins are you referring to?

 

At the end of the day, real human beings created those plugins and they have a right to make a living from their efforts, and, charge as much as they possibly can for it. If something's too pricey for you or me or anyone else then (game show buzzer) that's the breaks.

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As a user, I despise dongles. I rejoiced when Apple dropped the XSKey.

 

Yes, it makes piracy that much easier (the XSKey was never cracked), and that shows on forums like these, but I'm primarily a user and customer, not a supporter/moral instance.

 

(what is the sound of one finger wagging?)

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It's a catch-22 situation.

 

The producer of a product wants it to be secure so they can get your money, the consumer doesn't think it is worth the money and wants it for free. So both are out of luck.

 

A musician write/records a song and the next day it has 7 million hits on the web. Everyone hears it for free. The artist starves.

 

 

Is there no way around this madness?

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I won't use software that requires a dongle. I don't condone piracy, but it really irks me that I have to be the one to deal with (and pay for) a software company not being able to implement any other way to protect their product. Especially when people like URS Heckman has a system that works very well, and has freely offered other developers insight into how they can implement it themselves.

 

Plus, I don't know how many times I'd grab my laptop to go work on music in a local park, only to realize I accidentally left my Logic 7 dongle at home. So I was very glad when Apple dropped it.

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