I see no advantage for me in the dongle, only major inconveniences:
a) Can break or be stolen
b) Is cumbersome
c) Uses USB slots or may make me have to buy another toy (USB hub)
d) In case of loss for whatever reason I have to bother with customer support
e) I have to buy TWO of them, which is sunken money
Where is the advantage for me? I don’t care at all who uses this software as long as they don’t use my PC or my notebook, which I make sure by locking the door of my apartment all the time.
What benefit does the user gain from having the USB licenser?
A feeling of quasi-fulfillment for “investing in Steinberg’s security”
Beyond that, nothing. Steinberg gains control over the licenses and who can use the software. Users lose control over their licenses, and those who are foolish don’t complain about it because they don’t see themselves needing that flexibility at that moment.
The comparison is entirely invalid because the key to your car is actually being held in a safety deposit box that only the car manufacturer has access to.
If you want to drive your car, you have to go to the manufacturer’s safety deposit box, stand in line and verify your identity with a special passkey, and wait for an official automated response.
If no connection to the repository is available, you cannot drive your car that day.
If the repository is broken into or the branch is closed down for maintenance, you cannot drive your car until they decide they’re done.
If you lose your special passkey, you no longer own your car, even if you have a backup and can verify your credentials.
In addition to those risks, you cannot sell your car or your passkey. You also cannot maintain or repair your car yourself - you have to wait for an official engineer to verify if the problem exists, and then they will take your issue into consideration as soon as they get around to fixing all the other issues that don’t affect you and adding additional features you never asked for (now you have air conditioning for your trunk! isn’t that exciting? too bad your windshield is still missing and now you can’t start your car. That’ll be $50, by the way).
If you’re okay with that, and you think the whole simplified “it’s a key to a car” comparison is still valid, get your brain checked.
It is definitely a “simplified” comparison. But, still valid. Maybe most folks don’t feel the need to type a three page reply to get their point across?
Oh, and the brain checked out just fine. Amazing, but true .
How can you claim the car key comparison to be invalid and then add increasingly more ridiculous details and descriptions to the comparison to support your argument?
No more comparisons, no more exaggerations.
Here it is, plain and simple…
Steinberg has the right to protect their product from theft, as you agreed to in the user agreement. If you don’t like it, you are free to use another product.
You made the decision to buy. Nobody made you do it. If you are unhappy with your purchase, you have only yourself to blame.
That is until laws dictate that they have to give me the right to control what I purchased, and they break those laws. There’s a lot of pussyfooting going on around the new European software license laws, and it’s going to be no different when they hit other parts of the world. Software developers who are comfortable with license control, and suddenly have that control taken from them and given back to users, will find enemies in their users.
There are some reasonable agreements, and there are some unreasonable ones. EULAs are 90% of the time filled with unreasonable terms that nobody bothers to read, and because of that, they don’t stand up in court.
I’m not against anti - piracy - measures, I’m just against anti - comfortable use - measures and buy two dongles instead of one, thereby wasting money - measures.
What if it doesn´t die…?. Mine hasn´t died in 10 years and yes, I do have it on the road. Though surely it will one day, like everything else…
And what if your Laptop dies, and your max. number of installations is reached…? You need a new laptop and new software license.
Everything has its pros and cons - if you can´t live with the cons get something else…
Obviously not, and what´s the point with that…? Microphones also aren´t sold at grocery stores, but those who need one know where to get one…
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