Which companies have user-friendly copy protection schemes ?

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lajosuti wrote: Wed Apr 24, 2019 11:29 am(...)

I like the systems with their installers, like NI, Toontrack, XLN Audio, Plugin Alliance. However I have no experience in reinstalling a PA plugin, do you think there will be a surprise there?(...)
No. Just like with XLN you can activate and deactivate every license/machine online in your user account. To me this is the easiest and most user friendly way. I have no clue why others (Hi Waves! :)) don´t adapt that.
I like waves´ plugins a lot actually, but it bugs me that it´s easily possible to loose a license/activation which is a pain since you only get one. To recover it the specific plugin/bundle has to be wup´d. And even if it is you only can recover it once a year. I really don´t get that.

My favourites are the mentioned XLN and Plugin Alliance. You can´t loose anything and their Management/Install-Tools are easy to use, fast and pretty helpful once you got a certain amount of their stuff.

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plexuss wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 1:43 pm
Boone777 wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 1:38 pm I don't need to open tickets with a lot of other good stuff and I'm just tired of messing around and was expecting this to happen anyway. So my Ilok plugins will uselessly rot away while I seek alternatives. Because the transfer fee does'nt allow me to sell anything worth it.
Glad you have it sorted out. :party:
Funny thing, all my Ilok no longer appear in Reaper plugins but I can still load them from saved fx chain. There is still a little hope left...On another portable install they show up.
MXLinux21, 16 Gig RAM, Intel i7 Quad 3.9, Reaper 6.42, Behringer 204HD or Win7 Steinberg MR816x

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WilliamK wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 12:29 pm A few years ago I went to a DRM FREE system, so not even a Serial Number any more. IMHO DRM only hurts the legit user and doesn't stop piracy from happening. I remember when NI spent over a million dollars for the DRM system on Reaktor 3, using a special Dongle. It was cracked in 3 days. :shrug:

Cheers, WilliamK
Goes to show ! Do you mind sharing some of thew plug-ins you use for a DRM free experience ?

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I'm a Developer, so I was talking about my own work. ;-) sorry if it wasn't clear. :oops:

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Kuassa if it hasn't been mentioned ! You get a License file in order to authorize your product. Great company and nice plug-ins.

https://www.kuassa.com

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I've found the following very easy to deal with.

Acon Digital - serial
Black Rooster Audio - serial (via License manager or from the user account)
Boz Digital Labs - serial
Cwitec (TX16Wx) - license file
DMG Audio - license file
Seaweed Audio - serial
Stillwell Audio - key file
Surreal Machines - serial
TAL - serial
TDR - key file
Valhalla DSP - serial
Volko Audio - serial

There are also some others which work fine via licensing managers. But when you update your computer or try to work truly portable, some start to fail. Having separate key files/licenses traveling with you doesn't mean much if you'll have to install any kind of a license manager to the host first. Funnily enough, some systems are widely advertized as portable while they really are not.

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subterfuge wrote: Sat Apr 27, 2019 12:42 pm I've found the following very easy to deal with.

Acon Digital - serial
Black Rooster Audio - serial (via License manager or from the user account)
Boz Digital Labs - serial
Cwitec (TX16Wx) - license file
DMG Audio - license file
Seaweed Audio - serial
Stillwell Audio - key file
Surreal Machines - serial
TAL - serial
TDR - key file
Valhalla DSP - serial
Volko Audio - serial
Useful list, hadn't seen many of these, thank you

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Good ones:
U-he
KV331
Seaweed (Fathom)
Dimitri Sches
2nd Sense

I like that Native Instruments keep your product details accessible,
but would like a choice between Service Center and Native Access,
and would greatly prefer Native Access work totally up front,
nothing in the shadows, (a verbose option?)
and also present a log of each kompleted procedure.

I also like IK's account accessibility. I think I used up activations
on one product in the last ten years, and was given more when I asked.
The Custom Shop lets me test risk free and buy alacart. It's easy enough
to avoid presets from more expensive versions, but it would be better if
they were placed in a try-me folder, and not mixed in.

Bitwig and Reaper are easy to deal with, Harrison Mixbus reg
is more complicated than it needs be, and I'm not sure
they've managed to track my purchases accurately.

Also, a plug for www.pluginboutique.com

An account with them will have a good record of one's purchases and serials
should they be needed, along with installation/registration steps/links
for products requiring such info.

Korg is the only company whose reg, account, and support have been
truly dissapointing. But a year has gone by since last dealing
with them, might be time to try again :wink:

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TDR and Klanghelm.

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glokraw wrote: Sun Apr 28, 2019 12:39 am Good ones:
U-he
KV331
Seaweed (Fathom)
Dimitri Sches
2nd Sense

....I also like IK's account accessibility. I think I used up activations
on one product in the last ten years, and was given more when I asked.
The Custom Shop lets me test risk free and buy alacart. It's easy enough
to avoid presets from more expensive versions, but it would be better if
they were placed in a try-me folder, and not mixed in.
Thanks for the info. U-he come up a lot as a good one!
BTW I wondered, how many more activations were you given from IK when they ran out ? I once tried to get an answer about exactly how many they give you when the old ones run out, but they didn't specify (another 10, or just 1 ,or....?)

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c0nan wrote: Thu Apr 25, 2019 1:54 pm My favourites are the mentioned XLN and Plugin Alliance.
Arturia does a similar thing. So does Izotope. They're convenient but IMO a little intrustive sometimes. I actually dislike XLN because you can't even move your plugins to a different folder without setting off their copy protection, nor have a plugin copied to a second folder on the same machine. I maintain separate folders for Live and Cubase and I found this really obnoxious that I had designate a special scan folder in Cubase just for XLN because their copy protection wouldn't let me just duplicate the DLL to somewhere else.

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Last edited by replicant X on Tue Mar 26, 2024 1:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
Each DAW has a different sound.

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Razzia wrote: Wed Aug 14, 2019 10:35 pm I actually dislike XLN because you can't even move your plugins to a different folder without setting off their copy protection, nor have a plugin copied to a second folder on the same machine. I maintain separate folders for Live and Cubase and I found this really obnoxious that I had designate a special scan folder in Cubase just for XLN because their copy protection wouldn't let me just duplicate the DLL to somewhere else.
It's an error message, not a copy protection thing. That's because XLN installs updates for you and needs to know where the old version is to check the version and replace it. It's similar to Native Access, which tells me to "repair" everything which I've deleted (like 32-bit versions).

Anyway, you can change the path in the XLN app under Advanced. You have an advanced setup so this is to be expected. Also, you can try creating a symbolic link to the location of the DLL where XLN installer expects it to be, so it can update the plugin and "both" are updated. The symlinked one might throw a location error on load but it should still function.

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yellowmix wrote: Thu Aug 15, 2019 3:35 am
Razzia wrote: Wed Aug 14, 2019 10:35 pm I actually dislike XLN because you can't even move your plugins to a different folder without setting off their copy protection, nor have a plugin copied to a second folder on the same machine. I maintain separate folders for Live and Cubase and I found this really obnoxious that I had designate a special scan folder in Cubase just for XLN because their copy protection wouldn't let me just duplicate the DLL to somewhere else.
It's an error message, not a copy protection thing. That's because XLN installs updates for you and needs to know where the old version is to check the version and replace it. It's similar to Native Access, which tells me to "repair" everything which I've deleted (like 32-bit versions).

Anyway, you can change the path in the XLN app under Advanced. You have an advanced setup so this is to be expected. Also, you can try creating a symbolic link to the location of the DLL where XLN installer expects it to be, so it can update the plugin and "both" are updated. The symlinked one might throw a location error on load but it should still function.
If you say so, but it functions like copy protection. Stops me running the plugin if i copy it to another directory, even if it's still in the original directory too. I have at least another four or five such plugin companies with this sort of installer/license manager combo and none of the others behave like that.

It's not a huge deal but I definitely had a moment of "are you f**king kidding me" when I realized i couldn't just copy the DLL to my Cubase plugins folder.

My system of organizing my plugs is kind of convoluted because my two DAWs handle plugins quite differently. I use a folder full of shortcuts in Live pointing to my general plug install directory to compensate for Live's lack of any kind of plugin organization, and then I have a third folder where I've removed a lot of VST2 plugs whose VST3 versions are preferable in Cubase so that my plugin manager isn't all cluttered with duplicates I'd just hide anyway.

Cool story I know

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freakshow industries
can't get any more user friendly than letting people pirate your software directly from your homepage

also auburnsounds.com has "pay and you get the plugin" with no keys or anything.

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