The other day, I came across this comic while browsing Reddit:
From Cyanide & Happiness
First, it made me laugh because of how truthful it is, and I know from experience.
A few years ago, before I was the technical director of my lab, they were installing Maya 3D with a network license system. The entire process of purchasing the licenses and installing the server and putting the license files on the machines was a nightmare that ended with someone passing around a pirated copy of Maya to use in the class. We owned the software and licenses, but the Alias (now Autodesk) licensing software was so convoluted that it was easier to pirate the software. Just recently I learned that the version of the FlexLM license server that we use doesn’t work with Mac OS 10.5, so I had to cut the package up and copy it to the computer myself.
Just the other day I was trying to watch an episode of Entourage on Fancast, legally (If you have HBO on your home cable with Comcast, you get HBO on demand on Fancast as well). After waiting 5 minutes for the website to install stuff on my machine I tried to play the show and it didn’t work. I began trying different browsers and refreshing and it still didn’t work. I began to download it via a torrent while I was trying to get fancast to work properly and next thing I knew, the torrent was done and I was able to watch it. Turns out it just didn’t work for some reason, no error, no nothing.
Both software problems, both problems with companies not testing their stuff properly for the consumers.
Now, I’m not specifically talking about DRM, more about big companies screwing consumers unintentionally, but all because they spend so much time and money on copy protection. Of course I’m not saying that stealing software is okay, and I’m not saying that companies should not protect their products, but I do believe that if your normal consumer is getting screwed over because of shitty DRM or licensing then you’re doing something wrong.
Can anything really be done to fix this that will allow consumers to stop getting screwed while protecting the company?
I personally enjoy the iLok to a certain extent. The iLok is a hardware based licensing solution that just plugs into a USB port on the computer. The software reads the license and it just runs. It’s not perfect in the least though. It’s managed online, and if you lose the iLok (or it gets stolen) you’re pretty much out that license, unless you pay for the protection. You can store multiple licenses on one iLok, and you can move the iLok to another machine and use the software on a different machine if you need to. A mobile license that (for the most part) it works! The iLok must also be purchased, which adds more licensing costs, and it also takes up a USB port. So it’s not perfect..nothing is though.
This is something to think about, and I do fairly often since I deal with licensing a great deal for work. So think about it!
