Please Lose the Dongle

I’m sure I’m not the first person to request this. But can we please get rid of the dongle? There has to be another way to license the product. NI is using their Native Access, Izotope has the Product Portal, Waves began using Waves Central – we all know there are better ways to verify :slight_smile:

You are right… you are not the first person who requested this.

From what I read on this forum, Steinberg is looking into an improved system. Only time will tell if it comes to fruition. :wink:

Regards :sunglasses:

Unfortunately they fail on their main technical task to prevent piracy, however Im not sure if that is the best in the long run. it is quite common that people (pirate that is) switch to a competitor an learn that. And when they grow up they buy the competitor software instead. Steinbergs copy protection has been working so long now so they could probably see how their market share changes over time, and if they are good at analyse they can maybe see the cost over long time. However it seems to be very hard to get any proper statistics over different DAW’s market share. My gut feeling is that Abelton and logic increase, cubase/nuendo decrease and protools is steady. I dont see any problem with the dongle. I prefer that over the work needed to manage licenses on different computers. However what worries me it a damage of the device or a lost. The real pain is the all manufactures have their own procedure.

Take it from someone who test drives software before buying…

You do not want to do that. The dongle code is so crazy, it’s only been one time since a team did an emulator. It’s too complicated and they generally don’t bother or just love Steinberg, probably the former.

In fact…I can’t think of another DAW that has not been pwnd. PT12? yep (and no dongle).

The thing is transparent if static in a studio.

Now, if you have two studios to go to, that would suck. There should be a dongle pair as a purchase option, with lic that supports two authorizations, maybe not simultaneously if they care about that. Most software is two installs/instances these days.

i think they will have alternative licensing to the dongle eventually,business wise im not sure the dongle is good for them now days with so many good DAWs,’ especially for users new to cubase who want to demo it,they have to buy a dongle,many just will pass it and try other DAWs