Because it’s currently an online service that hosts this secure transaction, all the app makes is a call to that service and waits for a reply. I do agree with your logic though, There could be something in place along those lines.
Arguably, A better solution would be to create an elicenser emulator to support legacy users via serial number entry, and hope that the piracy which inhabits their legacy evolves into paying users wanting to update to C12 and beyond. But even that must be a ton of work.
There’s no way they can keep this operational and managed on a user basis without compromises, and even if you had everything they could possible offer you’d be at the mercy of already outdated hardware and O/S. It’s a dead end, basically.
Remember that the dongle supports so many products that are outside of SB too, and the licensing of different tech, content and plugins. Even if it’s financially/technically possible, legalities are the other complication.
In my opinion, this is very unlikely, as SB uses the e-licenser for a range of products.
The announcement of the change of method only concerns new products today.
Before the servers are cut off, all other supported products will also have to go through the new authorization system. This may take some time.
There are also third party applications (Vienna Symphonic Library, …) that need to consider a migration to another authorisation system.
It seems logical to me that the two systems will coexist for some time, maybe even more than a year at least. The break is therefore not for tomorrow but certainly in the medium/long term.
No. I think some people have got this into their heads because we have provided notice to our partners to whom we currently provide eLicenser technology that we are discontinuing our contractual relationships. We guarantee, under the terms of the contractual arrangements we have with them, that the eLicenser servers will be available for the notice period.
However, the eLicenser servers will assuredly remain available for some time to come (I would expect a couple of years, though I can’t say for sure).
In fact I didn’t say that there are no plans to introduce subscriptions. What I actually said is that we are not introducing subscriptions along with Steinberg Licensing. What the FAQ says is that we plan to explore different ways of offering our products in the future, which are enabled by Steinberg Licensing.
But what you and everybody who gets so exercised about subscriptions are unwilling to grasp is that even in the event that Steinberg offers subscription pricing for its products, we will not withdraw the option to buy and use the software under a perpetual license. That, too, is right there in “our own black and white.”
Let me reiterate, to try to make it as clear as possible. If, in the future, there is a subscription offer available that doesn’t appeal to you, that’s OK: you won’t be forced to take it.
Once again, put differently. We know that many of our existing customers don’t want to pay for their Steinberg software via a subscription. We are not going to force you to.
But that does not preclude us from adding subscription pricing if there are opportunities to reach new customers who would appreciate having the option. This is not something that is going to happen any time soon, but as the Steinberg Licensing FAQ says:
…the new system does open up many new possibilities for the way we offer our products, and we plan to explore these in future.
Hi Daniel , you seem to have missed me pointing out the point you just made but thanks as i keep saying ,they are all IF’s and MAYBEs and the more you talk about subscriptions the more you sound like it is going to happen .
I look forward as a legacy user from now to see what sort of offers IN THE FUTURE you offer subscription models , standard bundles , mega bundles with free plugins added and bal bla bla , only time will tell ,as you say you can now investigate these style of licences .