Steinberg's dongle alternative coming

I would suggest the following to the Steinberg developers to implement a secure licensing system by software: The licensing application could pair:

  • The username and password from the Steinberg customer area, and…
  • The combination of the most significant pieces of hardware of the computer scanned with serial numbers of, e.g. motherboard with its serial number, SSD with its serial number, etc…

From their customer area online, the customer can manage their computers on which they can install the application, e.g. license for 1 or 2 computers. If they need to replace an SSD, they just delete the current computer profile from the customer area, replace the faulty SSD, rescan the computer hardware to recreate a computer profile, and then assign the license to the new profile.
This concept could be enhanced, but I think this would be safe for Steinberg to protect their intellectual property, and this would be convenient for the end users, effectively getting rid of the dongle.

well, I payed another 20 EUR for a new elicenser - which I do not mind I have to say - but maybe the sum of broken elicensers wordwide causes a nice side-profit on this :slight_smile: Which I would not mind either… I am just thinking that time has come to have an alternative… I still like the idea of dongles - I can move my ilok and the elicenser in the studio to another machine with no problems so I could have 2 identical setups (for backup or whatever) if I want - BUT we should be able to choose a dongle free version if we need… in my opinion.

We are well aware of the needs and demands you - well, we all - have. The USB-eLicenser can be very convenient or a big annoyance depending on how you work.
Changing or improving a system that has been around for many years it something that takes some time and thorough planning. All I can say at this point is that the USB-eLicenser will continue to be around for some time to come but we are considering and evaluating other option for the future.

Hey Ed!

Thanks a lot for participating and your comment! Good to know :slight_smile:
As you said - can be convenient or annoying - im my case 80/20 I would say :slight_smile: In the studio I would never switch to a soft-licenser, and most of the time I am locked in the studio.

All we need is a dongle made of steel. Completely unbreakable. Period.

a dongle made of steel

sounds like Manorwar!

Count me in :slight_smile:

and looking like a sword!

The USB socket of your computer will also need to be made of steel and hardened, then :laughing:

looking like a sword!

Health and safety must be their first priority, so no sword like shape please. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

The thing only needs to look like the haft - with the blade sticking (invisible) in the computer :slight_smile:

Yeah, I have multiple USB memory sticks made of aluminum and they are great, small too.

Make aluminum dongles! At least aluminum, since we’re paying separately for the dongles anymore, why not simply make them out of titanium, if that’s what people want? Like Yello so eloquently puts it, “Do It, come on come on”.

There’s a lot of cheapo USB sticks (PR gifts) that are aluminum or a combination of rubber and aluminum. The plastic of the eLicenser dongle is very similar to that of bootleg game cartridges. Which means it’s not very good.

The dongle I have is a little too thick to sit next to another cable in a USB socket without getting bent/stressed. Two dongles next to each other don’t fit.

Also, with laptops getting only USB-C slots, there has to be a logical solution for those too (without adding a dongle to the dongle).

Not sure if I am allowed to reveal this but we are evaluating the possibilities to use adamantium instead. However, the quantities we need are hard to get and it would be a significantly higher price point but we are still confident :wink:

Marvel edition? :smiley:

Ed,

Thanks, I would definitely buy one asap!

Ta,

Paul

Ed, put me down for ten of those, plus a pound of Kryptonite.

I guess unobtanium is too much to hope for then… :wink:

This whole conversation reminds me of a quote…

Not sure if I am allowed to reveal this but we are evaluating the possibilities to use adamantium instead. However, the quantities we need are hard to get and it would be a significantly higher price point but we are still confident > :wink:

Right to the point. I would definitely get one. Thanks Ed.

I closed this 4-year old topic. Here’s a more current one: Due to recent thread from Steinberg about changing the licensing system