My issue with the new licensing system is the risk, that if Steinberg changes its policy, for example, I may not be able to return to my Cubase projects in 10 years as I will not be able to renew the program’s operation.
It’s entirely possible:
- for Steinberg to cease to exist - it happened to Lehman Brothers, PANAM, Toys R Us, to name a few “too big to fail” companies, so it’s not unthinkable, Yamaha isn’t safe from this risk either;
- for Steinberg to be sold to a new owner who abandons Cubase support altogether - as it happened with Air Music Technology and their software;
- that the license database on Steinberg’s servers will be lost - Kjaerhus Audio?;
- Steinberg will commit planned obsolescence and abandon the ability to renew old versions of Cubase - the Native Instruments case.
The risk in the above cases does not exist with USB e-Licenser.
If Steinberg guarantees the permanent operation of older versions of the program (without having them call home) in the cases described above, then I am ready to accept the new system.
What is Steinberg’s position on the above scenarios?
Edit: as the topic got closed before I had a chance to respond, I’m editing my initial post.
@dspreadbury “However, Steinberg is a stable, well-run business that has been around for 37 years and counting, and it is owned by a larger, stable and well-run business that has been around for 134 years. The best indicator of what tomorrow will look like is what today looks like. There is no reason to believe that any of the doomsday scenarios you outline in your post are going to transpire, and nothing I can say that would provide you any reassurance about it.”
Planned obsolescence isn’t “a doomsday scenario” but a real threat, as proven by Native Instruments - a respected company, which one day decided it wouldn’t allow its paying customers to reactive legacy software for which they held licenses, and no alternative was given.
It is unreasonable to compare the risk of losing the dongle, which I am able to mitigate, and the risk associated with changes at Steinberg that are beyond my control, that depend on people beyond my control, including changes of management and employees, who may have a very different view of the situation than Steinberg has today.
Btw - many of us here have and use instruments that are even 4 or more decades old and work. I see no reason why my dongle would not work in four decades. In any of the cases described above, with the new licensing scheme, my diligence is not enough to ensure that my projects created in Cubase will continue to work.