Adding my voice to this, and I’ll add the following hint:
…
That’s right, NOTHING. No dongles.
It’s not the early 2000s any more. No other professional software uses dongles any more. Get rid of them.
I don’t care if “you don’t mind” them. You won’t mind not having one either.
Forgot mine to a client visit yesterday, did everything in Audition instead because guess what the Adobe suite doesn’t use dongles, and never has. And somehow they haven’t been brought to bankruptcy through piracy. I hate when plugins demand an iLok, too. Why should I have to drag around a USB hub with a bunch of dongles in it everywhere I go?
First of all, the eLicenser (eLC) system development has nothing to do with program features and updates. The teams are different, the work is different.
Secondly, I believe there HAS BEEN an improvement in development speed, increasing number of releases, 2 free feature updates in 2018 (N8.2, N8.3) and with Nuendo 10 the closest release to a prior Cubase version in the history of the Nuendo product line (everyone remembers the “leapfrogging” discussion).
Thirdly, we cut prices for almost all product versions of Nuendo 10, including updates.
So I believe it’s a bit unfair to state that “nothing” has changed. That said, this has nothing to do with copy protection.
Regarding eLc: the dongle will be there for the time being, but the inflexibility and error-rate of the hardware protection is clearly
known to us. And I can safely say that the current system won’t stay forever…
Don’t get me wrong. I would be very happy not to bring my eLicencer (and iLok and USB key with licenses) with me every time. But this concept allows me to have all the licenses and thus software available on both my Win 10 mix computer at home and my MacBook Pro recording computer and buy everything just once. So if a change would mean that I would have to buy a second copy of Nuendo or Cubase I would not be so happy about it. I don’t know if this is a common scenario but I’ve been wiring this way since I got Nuendo 1.6. Only that I used a windows laptop back then.
10 dollars says that Timo didn’t read your question the way you intended it.
Your argument is similar to the one about illegally shared music: “Well, if I couldn’t have gotten this music without paying I wouldn’t have gotten it at all” in a nutshell.
Here’s the thing:
When I walked into studios in the beginning of this century the computers were filled with cracked software. Even professional studios were. People didn’t even lift an eyebrow it seems. You’d open an insert slot to insert a plugin and you got a list so long it would have taken a roll of toilet paper to fit it all.
And then more and more shifted to iLok for example and I saw fewer and fewer studios using cracked software. More and more switching over. More stable systems, more quality plugins. Less “noise” if you will.
The thing is that we could “get away with it” in our industry, but in other “professional” fields you can’t. You can’t use cracked software in banking, health care, retail etc. It’s just not feasible. And so you have to look at what the most reasonable reaction to all the ‘theft’ was in our industry, and it really seems it was using a dongle. In other industries there were other means of keeping things kosher, things that had to do with the industries themselves. And we didn’t have as much, quick internet access back then as we do now (which reminds me that a lot of people are complaining about keeping computers online, so there’s that too regarding license authorizations). So that’s why I think the comparison isn’t really that great.
But yeah, these days some do it differently and skip the dongle and use other types of authorization.
Here’s the thing though:
“I can safely say that the current system won’t stay forever…”
I know I’m whining about whining… but they’ve heard you loud and clear, many times… moveondotorg?
Then again, I will have to say that Plug-in Alliance has a pretty great and easy protection system, in my experience. I do like their model quite a bit and it is dongle free. Has that been cracked, as far as anyone knows?
So true. For years, even “pros” stayed on an older version of PT because they didn’t want to lose their hundreds of cracked plugins, which didn’t work on the newer (and better) revisions of PT.
(Short rant). From a morality standpoint, what irony that an industry built on Intellectual Property Rights and Royalties as music creators was such a massive violator of the IP rights of software creators. The hypocrisy was/is astounding.
Hi Timo,
I love Nuendo. I am a sound designer specialising in spatial audio working on some of the largest 3D audio soundscapes in the world and often my work either for theatre or installation takes me to some pretty weird places from rainforests to muddy festivals. The gigs are often a whirlwind and quite high stress and pressure. I use Nuendo a lot even preferring it to qlab for theatre and have been using cubase since 1993.
It is absolutely terrifying to me that my entire show , often attended by thousand sof people - depends on an easily losable badly made piece of plastic. It just isnt proffesional unlike everything else about Nuendo ! I totally understand the need for steinberg to protect their IP but there are plenty of other software companies such as Cycling74s Max MSP that do not need a dongle and still havent been cracked for years. Can anything be done about this ? Its especially annoying now the new macbooks have hardly any usb ports. Its literally forcing me to consider reaper for some gigs even though Im not used to it and dont like its features as much. I realise some people just use Nuendo in the studio where this isnt an issue but as a longterm customer I would like to add my voice to a growing chorus pf people that want an alternative solution to the dongle. PS a cloud based system would require the internet right ? A lot of studios are airgappd and a lot of location recording doesn’t have internet access. Again Max msp hasnt been cracked for years and their method works just fine.
As much as I agree with not needing it, however would the alternative always require an internet connection?? not always a good idea and some mix stages stay off the net for good reason
Well… that’s relative to how specific you’re being with “we have.”
The dongle system certainly not the best option, based on the needs of some of us here, and considering the existence of proven alternatives out there… but it is the only one WE have.
I’m glad Steinberg’s working on a different approach, however ambiguously it’s been hinted at. Can’t happen soon enough.
Shouldn’t it make you consider ditching Apple computers instead?
I mean, let’s be real for a second: If you really want longevity of a platform Apple ain’t it. They ditch ports or connectors left and right and don’t care if you get stuck or not. Not only that, I find they’re way worse when it comes to software compatibility.
There’s a lot to love about OSX and Apple’s devices… but this is a prime example of things to hate.