I came across this article via a post on Create Digital Music. The title of the 0article suggests we all boycott PACE/iLok. Well sonny, I don’t think I can.
It’s not that I like iLok. In fact, I’ve been known to complain about dongles in the past. But when I look at my favorite plug-ins, they pretty much all use dongles. McDSP, Flux, Eiosis, and even Digidesign. There are some exceptions, but they are very few. Could I throw them all out and use something else and still make a good mix? Sure I could. Would I be as comfortable with it? Of course not. If that was the case I wouldn’t be using the plug-ins I do today. The above article mentions Sonalksis. A fine company indeed that makes good products (reviews at ProTooler 1 and 2). I know they are not fond of iLoks (I asked the press contact if they used them and he replied pretty much “HELL NO!”) but I’m by no means one who uses only Sonalksis products.
So no. There won’t be a boycott. More of a friendly suggestion to the developers: “Can you please stop it with the dongles? They are fucking horrible”.
They are of course not all bad. Actually, some people prefer them. For instance, it makes it easy to take their favorite plug-ins to other studios. Good for them. I don’t do that. If I did, I think I’d prefer them as well. With that said, these dongles are not all about copy protection. However, if they were all about being able to move plug-ins between studios they would probably be an option and not a must. This leads me to the conclusion that they are about two things.
Regarding “problems”. I don’t know what kind of crap these people have installed on their computers. I have many dongles (syncrosoft, iLok, something else) and especially the iLok have a shitload of licenses that are growing by the number every month. Not a single issue. Ever.
So my question would first and foremost be: “What the fuck are you putting in your computer that causes these problems?”.
I’m also seeing some odd reasoning here and there on the web regarding this.
PACE doesn’t stop piracy; any copy-protection system can, and will be, defeated. What PACE does do is prevent legitimate users of software products from using products which they’ve paid for.
Kind of a strange way to look at it. Sure, in a way, I guess. In another way they are letting you use their products easier on several different computers (see above). Furthermore I have never heard of a cracked version of Pro Tools. I also read about how long it took for the crackheads to get to a previous version of Cubase. The protection obviously does some good.
I think a more important question would be “is it worth the effort?”.
Comments (3)
I am pretty much on the same page (and don’t for a moment bemoan the loss of floppy key disks!). I have been using iLok for about eight years without any incident so it’s hard for me to relate I suppose (over 500 plug-ins installed and plenty of assorted experimental app’s so i am not a ‘basic user’)
Given something other than the ‘honor system’ is required it is a decent solution that has been trouble free for me and seems to get easier to activate with every passing year.
I imagine if it was the user’s identity that was in question (as in a credit card), security could never be too much but apparently when it comes to a company’s right to protect their investment with the best of what is available today then it different?
I refrain from participating in these discussions mostly but just wanted to ‘chip in’ as another user who has never had a bad experience with dongles, just the same ‘inconvenience’ as you with ‘dongle farms’ growing out my computer
I think it’s not about bad experience. It’s about that, for example ilok fails to do what it’s promising. Almost every ilok protected plugs are cracked now, so anyone can use them. We, legit users payed for a service/protection, but we get nothing, because the software they protect is cracked. I’m not against protection methods, but I think ilok needs to seriously look after they methods. Ilok started as a good thing, as we legit users have those good plugs, but crackheads doesn’t, today the story is different…
Tamas Dragon
Yeah, I guess I don’t have perspective on that side of things as I have not really kept track or been aware of what has been getting ‘cracked’. Too bad…I had hoped it had worked out to be a decent protection method.
My initial enthusiasm was really about being able to restore a system from a basic clone without all the re-authorizations to recover from a hard drive crash and of course the multiple machine scenario. Outside of Protools though it never became the ’standard’ I had hoped, the ‘one ring to rule them all’ for licensing remains a dream I guess