Copy Protection?!?!?! Ha!

What was wrong with the old Kontakt copy protection with the hole drilled in the CD so it couldnt be copied and orignal CD was required to install? I never had any problems with this. The new cp scheme is a complete nightmare and is only hindering honest users, I bet the cracked version users don't have to suffer it!

No matter what method of copy protection they use, it will be broken within weeks, at least make it easy for the people doing the right thing!

 

Despite all this attention this subject is bringing, I'm surprised that my email has not been replied to. I have yet even receive my 'new' authorization key from NI. I think this is embarrassing.

 

"I would like to come in on the other side of this debate.

I have no problem with the C/R copy protection - its just an email away. Personally, I despise the hardware based methods such as dongles. They break, get lost, and are a pain to carry around.

Of course, NI should pay attention and find ways to make everyones experiences go smoothly, but I would hate to see the return of hardware copy protection. One of the major reasons I chose Kontakt over Mach 5 was the copy protection scheme...

--Bill"


The sad truth is, as you can see from my previous post, the solution to any C/R problems is NOT an email away. I emailed NI almost a WEEK ago and nada, zilch, nope, zero replies so far. If my living depended on this.....

 

I was more thinking about N.I as a company instead of my own 2 appz that i bought from them.
Just imagine all those programs cracked,spread,and so on.
Its a lot of money,and i like further development of these nice apps they make.
So my opinion is if it not works this way,then let it work the hard way.

its just my thought

 

If it was "just an email" away, there would be no problem. 5 days and counting, no email.

 

this in response to an OLD thread, which is still quite relevant (to me anyway) apparently, user issues with the heavy-handed approach to copyright protection has not been much heeded. In early-mid November, i reinstalled Kontaky, after wating for the update etc, having never SEEN or heard of this tegistration tool and I get a serious error messge (I was in Cubase, inside of GigaStudio) which I didn't even understand (the second time it ocurred, it was clear it was Cubase telling me Kontakt had the problem); this ocurred on the 20th or 21st day after purchase. Now, I'd read most of the manual by this point, which never so much as alludes to such a procedure. So, two months after buying this instrument I've never gotten to play any music with it, and still have no access to it. A truly sorry state of affairs. I believe that when I pay good money for a program I should be free to decide when I want -or need- to begin using it, a month or even a YEAR later!!!! Of curse NI has nver responded to my emails. [I did just get a phone number, and will have ot go into pester mode.] thanx fer letting me vent
jc
right - give me a dongle anytime!

 

jezz - I just saw the
'only an email away' reply. for whom is this true? have you had this happen? I've sent a dozen emails if I've sent the one, and NOTHING.
not five days, not ten, fifteen. amda they were nice, cool, collected communications, very reasonable. this jolly attitude is eroding, fast.

 

for Akirasan: don't know where you live. I had a similar problem. Here in the US Native Instruments has a toll-free number. I called them and got my authorization code immediately.

for Pandimonium & Akirasan: if you're not getting your reg/auth emails, the likely cause is your mail service's spam filtering. If possible disable your spam filters and then use the registration tool.

the copy protection emails go out automatically and more or less instantly. If you're not receiving them then they are being intercepted. Pervasive spam filtering is an inherent problem with C/R copyprotection that everyone needs to be aware of. Sometimes the easiest solution is to set up a hotmail account since hotmail is designed to be a giant spam receptacle, at least since it was taken over by microsoft.

 

To NI: thank you very much for the communication. That's honestly what we users ask for and I can safely say that for most of us here, the communication is greatly appreciated and we don't hold grudges. Thanks a lot NI and I'm looking forward to your next 'update' =)


Cement: If you had read my FIRST post carefully, this is my 'third' authorization as I have used my two 'allowed' ones on my main audio PC and my G4 Tibook. One studio comp, and one mobile. As such, it's impossible to use the online authorization page. I have to personally email register@native or something like that and personally request for another auth code. No problems with that, but the issue now isn't that. It's Kontakt asking for another authorization key when I have CLEARLY NOT CHANGED anything at all in my studio comp. Nothing, nada, zilch, zip. When problems like this arise, then you question the efficiency and usefulness of such a copy protection system. Imagine this: you're working on a track with a client there. Kontakt decides to 'die' all of a sudden and you just think that it's no big deal - uninstall and reinstall. But Kontakt somehow decides that a component in your computer you were using just minutes before has 'changed' configuration, and as a result unable to be properly authorized. How does that make you look in front of a client? Thank goodness I'm not one of those running a commercial studio. I can only empathize with those who DO. But then again, kudos to NI for being fairly responsive. It's all appreciated

 

I'm trying to be helpful and I did't have time to read all the posts. My point is that emails don't seem to accomplish anything but phone calls do. So if you have a phone number to call, that's your best bet.

 

wow. just read the wonderful advice to a person with probblems with the copy protect/authorization/registration tool/... etc... just grow up. I had Kontakt for a little while, also have giastudio, so wa waiting for Garritan and his personal orchestra, as this makes Kontakt a viable tool, for a little less dough thatn some other options. also waiting for the DFD fr=eature, which regardless of whatever diffcultiesit may have brought up, is the wave of the future for sampling, has been an established fact for years. [I run a couple other VSTis, and drain on RAM, CPU, if can be negotiated, by any method, I will utilize.] ANYWAY; I never heard of any registration tool, not being a great fan of reading everyting on the monitor. Call me weird, call me whatever, I read the F***** manual. IT's not htere; there is no hint of any such extreme measure. I was wondering: 'no dongle?' Tell ME to bloody grow up, walk a foot, a metre whatever you measure by, you won't make a mile/kilometer, in my shoes. I am losked out of KOntakt, because I didn't use it right away, is what it comes down to. In the htrree or four times I lauched it to check certain features out, I did not look at the readme files. With some software this is unavoidabe. GigaStudio for instance has no manual. It does have an excellent turoial-type ting, cna be printed, but uses URLlinks extensively, is best to read it on monitor. Kontakt has a printed manual, with no hint to t=read anything on yer screen; I ther are going to do this heavy=handed approach, they might warn us somewhere. 'GROW UP.' I have no problem with copyright protection, I understand it quite well. It's this 'use it - within a month or less - or lose it' situation that is NOT ACCEPTABLE. I waited to use this thing, for VALID reasons, someting that I, after paying good money for the program, should certainly have the freedom to do.
THIS SUCKS. If NI were to ever want me to buy another instrment they'd have to make up for this bigtime. IE: solve it pronto.
that's all, sorry for the venting, apparently some people just can't imagine...!?!

 

No spam filters enabled on our mail server

And no toll free number from Australia. It would be a costly exercise phoning germany from Australia, especially if their phone service is anywhere near as dodgy as their email! Sit an hour on an automated phone queue via international call? no thanks.

 

Uh, firstly I now have 23 days left to register before getting locked out. Its embarrassing everytime I start Kontakt in front of a client and the registration alert comes up. Probably looks to them like I am using unregistered shareware of pirated crap.

Secondly, I emailed the address you just quoated AND had another email forwarded to it by an employee of NI six days ago and STILL no reply.

It's great you are working on a better system, this one is certainly a massive failure, still no reason to ignore paying customers emails sent to address NI say to email while you do so

 

Just to add some fuel to the fire...

I have the version of Kompakt that comes with the East West Quantum Leap Symphonic Orchestra library, but as far as I know the authorisation process is the same. I emailed NI 12 days ago requesting additional authorisations for my account, as I have used up the default 2. Now, there are four modules of this Kompakt player, all of which have to bee installed and authorised. They only work for 5 days before they expire.

I did not receive a reply in time before the 5 days elapsed, and therefore had to reinstall all four modules, type in all four 25 digit serial numbers, reinstall all the Kompakt and EWQLSO updates, and configure everything. I tried to go through the authorisation process again, but my account was disabled. I sent NI another email.

I finally received an email from NI saying that new authorisations have been applied to my account, but when I tried to activate them, found that the account was still disabled. I sent another urgent mail to NI. That was 4 days ago, and still no response. I have been trying to make do without the library since it expired 3 days ago as I really do not want to go through the frustrating, arduous process of reinstalling it all for the third time.

I sent another mail this morning. Still waiting...

I realise that NI is working on a fix for this, but in the meantime I am losing productivity and require an immediate response. All I need is for my account to be reactivated!

Thanks for listening.

©hris

 

Maybe it's time to start bringing this thread to the attention of SOS and CM magazines and forums of SOS, CM, KVR, Cubase net, Logic forums etc to help protect other people from being ripped off buying software they are not allowed to authorise. There is no way I would have handed over the money if I knew that they would refuse to even answer emails requesting another authorisation after hardware change.

 

Not sure if it's the same with Kontakt, but Kompakt doesn't even need a hardware change. You just reinstall it and the system IDs change requiring you to get a new authorisation number. Doesn't take long before the 2 authorisations are used up...

©h®is

 

Thank you for this, a more flexible approach would make me reconsider my personal boycott of NI products.

Simon.

 

just thought i'd drop my thoughts on this:

personally, i have never had a problem with C/R. the software i won't buy because of it's copy protection scheme is actually the kind that has either dongle or CD check systems. that said, i do think that C/R is a bad copy protection scheme, as obviously some people are having a lot of problems with it. since just about all software gets cracked and spread on P2P networks pretty quickly, regardless of copy protection, i think it's silly to strive for totalt protection, so the goal of copy protection should be to simply prevent making copys of the program for your friends. as someone stated before, the old NI system with holes in the CD and serial numbers worked very well. another great way to prevent piracy is to offer things like very good support, lot's of downloadable content etc. paper manuals i a good thing too, of course. in the end, i think most serious users will buy their software anyway. make people want to support the company, that's perhaps the most important. i'd not feel very bad for pirating microsoft products, that's for sure...