Dear Daniel and team
Thanks for developing a wonderful composing tool!!
I have downloaded on my Laptop in order for me to work “off site”. However, this is a much slower computer than my PC in the studio and where I would work mostly. Would it be possible to have Dorico (for my use only) on both my PC and my Laptop and if so, how do I facilitate this?
Best wishes
Steven van der Merwe
customer number: 101752490
order number: 213507612
The only way to use a single license of Dorico on more than one computer is to transfer your license onto a USB-eLicenser, which you can then plug into whichever computer you want to use the software on. Please see this thread.
THank you Daniel. I will purchase this from Steinberg.
Best wishes
Steven
I really hope that this can be changed in the future…
I have the same setup here (powerfull desktop at home, laptop somewhere else), and I already can predict the USB stick used for licensing
- lying at home because I forgot it, while I am away with my laptop,
- sitting in my laptop case somewhere else, while I am at home on my pc,
- getting lost,
- getting broken from all this take-it-from-here-to-there-and-back action
This really is cumbersome for me and will most likely prevent me from getting things done.
Will there be a chance to have 2 USB-eLincenser for both places I work at?
One can wear the USB-eLicenser on a lanyard around one’s neck when not in use (but be sure to protect it from perspiration).
One can buy two copies of the program.
@Derrek
Since I don’t make too much money from writing music, at least your second point will never happen. 
I’m a firm Finale user now. Dorico’s currently missing features aside - which I’m sure the great Dorico team is working on right now -, the cumbersome licensing mechanism will possibly prevent me from making the change to Dorico. That’s all I’m saying. I really like the fresh concepts that have found their way into this new software. But if I’m sitting in front of my PC, with the USB stick sitting somewhere else, that’s no help at all. I know that it’s my own fault if I forget the stick. But Finale lets me have the installation on 2 machines parallel, thus not putting this burden on me.
The one computer use without a dongle really is a poor decision, the Finale route would help, I really don’t want to have to rely on a USB stick - if I lose it then Doreco, Cubase and EWSO have gone also, and I don’t want to but a USB stick for Doreco taking up another slot in my ‘studio’ computer.
Come on team, sort this out.
While I do respect Steinberg’s decision to protect their intellectual property in any way they deem purposeful, I also find dongles cumbersome. Personally, I would buy a second license if it was discounted to a level comparable to an educational crossgrade. I hope Steinberg will consider this option soon. In the meantime they could perhaps set up a dedicated forum for dongle complaints 
I should add that I am a great fan of Finale’s authorization process.
I too would like Steinberg to reconsider their position on this subject. Dongles are OLD technology with numerous problems. Both Finale and Sibelius offer much better solutions. Can Steinberg PLEASE move into the 21st century?
Ditto
+1
And yes, I’ve said this before on another thread, and yes, I realize it’s probably futile.
As I’ve also said in that other thread, Arturia switched from USB-dongle to software-based authorization for two computers, and the world didn’t end - they’re doing just fine. If allowing two computers to be authorized were so terrible, Finale and Sibelius wouldn’t still be around.
Agreed that it’d be a popular decision if SB were more flexible with their licensing/authorisation policy somehow.
On this particular point, unlike the makers of Finale or Sibelius, Steinberg have an awful lot of different software product that all needs protecting; three DAW’s/audio-post production package, a professional Mastering and audio editing app, numerous Virtual Instruments and specialist plugin FX, a ton of content in the ‘VST Sound Instrument Sets’ family AND this latest brand new professional (high-end) scoring/notation package.
So, not a straightforward comparison is all I’m saying. And I’m sure they’re listening.
Cheers,
bob
+1
I think more choices are better for both users and Steinberg. We can have both activation type as well. Also Celemony makes it like this for Melodyne. Why not Steinberg?
1- A software-based authorization that allowing two computers to be authorized and only one can be used at a time.
2- A USB-dongle based authorization for ulta mobile people to use any computer.
Even, Meloyne can be used on two different computers simultaneously. But I think we can live with only one computer can be used at a time for Dorico.
I maybe dreaming but, Dorico on Steam would be a great choice also. Like Cakewalk do it for Sonar and their other softwares which I am having a great experimentation.
So, giving us the 1. choice; meaning two computer activitation, solves all our problems. Then we can use Dorico not only at home, but also on the run which is a obligatory for serious work.
In the era of the cloud, and the ability to transfer a license over the internet such as Sibelius does, it seems ludicrous to me that a company would force such a draconian licensing policy on a user. Protecting IP - yes! I get that. But it can be done without making the user suffer.
Not only is it inconvenient, but if something happens to the dongle then either the customer loses the program or has a major hassle to somehow recover the use of it - it makes it so anyone who is on the go with multiple systems has to be reminded, every time they switch from one computer to another, how stingy and fearful Steinberg is.
And I like what Daniel and team are doing - I just think the company ought to rethink it. There’s a lot of bad PR that goes out too, not to mention ill-will.
This could be done so much more intelligently, and with the needs of the users in mind, whilst still protecting intellectual assets.
And while I’m ranting, one license on one computer? Really? Sibelius lets a user use 2 computers. Adobe does too. So does Microsoft. I wish Steinberg would get the hint. Do they really feel someone should buy it twice for use on 2 computers? Granted, one could cheat and give a license to a friend, but I suspect this is really the exception and not the norm. If they are trying to protect themselves against piracy, the people who want to hack their system will, period.
I have 2 hands and I can’t physically use two computers at once anyway; most people will use one license on a laptop and one on a desktop in different locations, and never at the same time. I imagine the clever coders at Steinberg could even detect if the program is running on 2 computers at once and alert the user or shut down one license. It’s totally in the realm of possibility.
Sigh. Blowing in the wind.
Different people have different points of view of course, but AFAIK the Steinberg license system is the only one that hasn’t been cracked. (Certainly ilok and ilok2 have)
And judging by what I read in the general news, I don’t trust anything in “the cloud” to remain private - simply because of the old joke about the criminal who was asked “why do you rob banks” and answered “because that’s where the money is”. The bigger the cloud company, the more incentive there is to crack it.
Point taken. However, it would be helpful to know for example what kinds of revenue all the other companies are losing over their more friendly licensing schemes. I seriously doubt the usb dongle hasn’t been cracked - there are evil geniuses everywhere. But Steinberg makes the common man pay for it, when maybe it’s not the problem it’s cracked up to be.
In any case, it’s damn inconvenient, and yes, draconian. Sorry, but it is what it is.
Just want to remind Steinberg that this is all about a new player entering a well occupied market with a (currently) more than insufficient product with a very inconvinient licensing mechanism.
It should at least be on par with its competitors.
Probably impossible to know, since none of the parties involved has much incentive to tell the truth.
But it’s probably driving the software industry in a different direction, just as the “pop music industry” (for want of a better term) has figured out that the best way to make money is from live tours, not from selling recorded audio and video - you can’t pirate the experience of a live performance.
One “solution” to cracked software would be to force all user data to be stored on a cloud system owned by the software company, and sell the users access to their own data by subscription. You could then control access to the data in the cloud based on the type of security tokens currently used by banks, etc. The code of the application itself then becomes worthless unless the physical security device is available every time the app is used. (see Security token - Wikipedia)
Whether the software market is ready for that (yet) is another question - but selling application software licences by subscription instead of by one-off payments has already arrived.
My SO has a lot of tapes of Grateful Dead concerts the would indicate otherwise.