There is a way to authorize and use Propellerheads Reason 7 (you can do this authorize to use since Reason/Record 5) without the Authorize USB Key by signing in to one’s Propellerhead account.
I know this is a Steinberg forum but Is there something in the works where If one does not have the USB elicensor that we will be able to Sign In for Authorization to use Wavelab. It seems asonine that I purchased this program in full and can only use the program when I have the USB elicensor.
I work from home and I have an outside studio and sometimes I forget my USB elicensor in one place or the other and it pretty much sucks that there is not a way to use the program remotely by signing in to an authorization server or something.
Is there anyone that knows if this is possible to use without the USB elicensor or is something in the works, Please respond. Thanks!
The USB licensor IS Wavelab for all intents and purpose.
If using WL in multiple locations is a hard requirement and you can’t remember to bring your key home - the only other recourse is purchasing an additional copy for home work. That way - its all good.
Can’t fault Steinberg for wanting to protect their property.
I lost my USB licenser recently and had to buy a new one - and when I bought it, the guy in the shop told me that you can only do this (i.e. register a replacement e-licenser) once! Meaning that if I lose this replacement key, that’s it - no more chances. I can hardly believe this is true, can anyone confirm?
Sounds about right to me. Steinberg is very strict with that key - and they remind you about this at every opportunity. I say good on them for letting you do it even once.
Think of it from their side - they are giving you a 600 license merely because you are claiming you lost it, But how can you prove that you really lost it? For all they know - it’s sitting at home while you plead your case. Plead it correctly and you end up with two licenses - for the price of one. I will assume you are a decent person - but the world is filled with less than decent folk.
If it happens twice or three times? That would look too weird and they would be right in charging you full freight for a new license.
I know I wouldn’t give another one if it was my product to sell.
Well when you put it that way, I guess I’m lucky they let me do it even once. But if I remember correctly, I’m pretty sure I had to de-authorise the old key before authorising the new one. So that restricts me (and those less ethical than me) to only once license, doesn’t it?
Meanwhile I’m also using Reason, where they’ve just done away with the license key altogether (or at least given you the option of registering your account to your computer, rather than to a tiny & highly loseable USB stick).
Well - you only bought a single copy so you only get a single key. However - you are confused on what the “de-auth” actually is. If I claimed i “lost” my key and plead for another - the one sitting at home is never checked by any process or license program. Once that key is ready to go - I can take it anywhere - forever.
In your case - it’s more of a “re-auth” where they remove the old key from your Steinberg acct and put the new on on your acct. But if you managed to scam them - the key you kept will still work - forever.
That’s the their call. And that’s why Reason is one of the most copied programs out there. And why with their USB key - Wavelab is not. You tell me which company is more secure and in the end - will make more money to bring you and me more features. It wonlt be PropellerHeads.
The last time I bothered to check - the number of cracked copies for Steinberg software was as much as anything else, including security software, antipiracy software, in fact anything 'soft" one wanted was available, if not today - check over the next 2 months.
As for the popularity argument, the most popular DAWs (check the numerous surveys and databases) in the world is FL, Reason and Logic. For the simple reason that these packages are designed and priced to cater to anyone interesting in making music, not limited to so called “professionals” - but anyone with the desire to create.
Software security is corporate mindset - not user orientated at all.
Without software security - a software company will quickly have no paid user base - and therefore no users.
So I fail to see any need for any type of security to be “user oriented”. A solid security model should be mature, stable and invisible. Just like the Steinberg dongle is and has been.
If you have issue with that - you are more than welcome to choose a program with more “user oriented” implementations. No one is forcing you to use anything here.
Actually, the paying user base has little to do with security, but rather whether or not the real market agrees with the perceived value of the commodity, which in this case is a software tool.
Most, if not all, profit driven software companies have IP protection schemes, however the more successful pay attention to what hoops paying users are willing to jump through, before jumping ship. This is what makes them successful.
Expensive audio editors which include Sony Soundforge and Adobe Audition are not using dongle protection - why
Prpellerheads, like Waves have taken fwd thinking initiate for the mobile user - well done! Steinberg should take note.
What kind of copy protection does Reason and Reason Essentials use? How about Rack Extensions?
In Reason 7 and Reason Essentials 2 we’ve added a new way of authorizing the software and Rack Extensions. You can authorize your licenses to a single computer, for offline use. This way you can use Reason without being connected to the internet, or without a USB port taken up by the key. To authorize your computer for offline use, please login to Your Account. Read more…
Lastly, as for me and my choice of software - I can afford to own several DAWs and am blessed with the mental capacity to master them as well… but that’s not the point of the discussion…is it.
Then you should clearly be able to use that mental capacity to understand the need for the dongle and Steinberg’s need to protect their intellectual property. However they see fit to protect it.
Which is - to best of my knowledge - exactly the point of this discussion.
Or exactly the opposite – see my previous points… attempt to at least absorb some of the information.
To defend Steinberg’s stand as progressive and beneficial from a “user” perspective is your function here… Are you employed by them? Go back to your Propellerhead statement.
I could care less what kind of protection is used - and I am certainly not defending Steinberg. As long as the software is protected - it totally works for me and hundreds (or thousands) from a “user” prospective.
Whether you like it or not is of little matter. You and I both know the dongle is going nowhere - but if you have issues with it and how it somehow is cramping your “user experience” - call Steinberg and have it out with them.
This is the same myth that record and movie companies have pushed for years! Name one instance when this actually has happened! If this myth is to be believed, there would be no software industry today, with all the software piracy that has been abundant for decades.
Personally, I don’t mind copy protection schemes that does not infringe on the usability for a legitimate user. I have never had and problems with the Licenser dongle protection.
I’ve always considered hardware (dongle) based protection systems far “safer” for the user than software based. This being proved this summer when Arturia abandoned the eLicencer in favor of their own software based disaster. During all the years I’ve used their products with the eLicencer, I’ve never had any licensing problems. Since switching to their proprietary system, there has been nothing but licensing problems.
So to all who complain about Steinbergs Licenser dongle. I assure you, the grass isn’t greener on the other side.
You post makes no sense… 1st you criticize a well recognized, truly innovative brand for not using hardware protection as their sole means to protect their IP. Then you somehow link this to the fact that it’s beneficial for you as a user that “any protection works”…??
Simply admit that you put your foot in your mouth, and be done.
Back to the matter of what is good for the user… I dare think that the USER should have some say in that?!
Of course, any person posting here already has subscribed to the “dongle-only” access to Steinberg products… duh
The revenue comes from sales and upgrades. So the only real math is what potential sales are lost due to this philosophy. Some would argue that this protection scheme ensures sales. That assumption is flawed for these reasons:
Steinberg products are cracked and available to anyone that cares to look
The surveys of popular DAWs reveal that competing products w/o this scheme are being purchased in greater volume.
So by my reasoning that leaves only the already loyal base of paying users, willing to jump through the hoops… look out for ever increasing $$ in upgrades.
I wish the Elicenser worked like Ilok . You can deactivate the licenses from the dongle while online, then reactivate them on another registered dongle at another location. This prevents the dongle being lost or damaged in transit.
This is a REAL and very legit problem for users, and developers must be put in a situation where they are compelled to find better solutions if they are going to survive. Propheads solutions to this are great and common-sense. I am highly irritated as a paying user of this rather expensive software (WL) when I find I forget my key or remember that if it stops working one day, my license is gone. As a user, I support not stealing, but developers’ security is really their problem, not mine. Analogies to old models (car/house keys) really have very little in-common with software, and don’t apply.
I guess I am confused. On one hand - you are “highly irritated” by having to deal with the dongle - yet you went ahead and bought WL anyway so you would need to deal with the dongle?
Why not just buy/use software from a vendor that has a license model that works better for you?
