Why I LIKE iLok!!!

[sdfalk]

As far as the iLok issue, I'm past it. Regardless of how badly they may have handled it on the PR side, they fixed it. If people don't like iLoked software or the company that much they certainly don't have to buy iLoked products.

yep

[mikehalloran]

As far as the iLok issue, I'm past it. Regardless of how badly they may have handled it on the PR side, they fixed it. If people don't like iLoked software or the company that much they certainly don't have to buy iLoked products.

I have no love for the ILok nor PACE. But the stuff generally works. They have had fewer stumbles than Apple over the years. Yes, really.

I am reminded of the following:

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

Winston Churchill

[James Steele]

As far as the iLok issue, I'm past it. Regardless of how badly they may have handled it on the PR side, they fixed it. If people don't like iLoked software or the company that much they certainly don't have to buy iLoked products.

yep

True enough. That's why I'll continue to buy iLok'd products. I have no problem with it and I actually prefer it. And as has been pointed out, I don't think they've had many plug developers bail on them as a result of the issues they had recently.

[Shooshie]

The iLok is a beautiful concept. If you're going to have copy protection, it should be portable, span all upgrades, and it should all be in one place for convenience (though admittedly, that makes it more vulnerable to theft, which is probably wrong-headed since sooner or later that iLok won't work, and they won't be able to update it). The iLok is all those things when it works. I've experienced the ups and downs of iLok, and I have to say that I prefer it over any other form of copy protection. I do NOT like authorizing hard drives. I was so happy to be done with that, and then Waves goes back to it, and PSP has gone back to it, and several other prominent plugin makers are returning to that form of authorization. That means when you change computers or upgrade, you have a few days of work ahead of you. At least I've learned to keep those records in one place so that I know where to go and what to do… sorta. It's not a perfect system, because I often forget to document a new plugin.

That said, PSP's plugins are probably the easiest to install and authorize. You get both things when you download the plugin and a separate link for the authorizer. Run both, and you're done. No chasing challenges and responses… just double click the authorizer and you're done.

But Waves? I have a thumb-drive "dongle" now, which occupies yet another USB port. And if you asked me how to go about authorizing Waves, I couldn't tell you at all. I'd just have to say "read the instructions… VERY carefully." It was all so simple on iLok. In fact, I've kept Waves 8 on my MacBook Pro, so that I can just use the iLok when recording remotely. I'll probably lock in Waves 8 and DP7.04 just so I can continue to use it on location with the iLok. I don't need all the bells and whistles of DP8 or Waves 9 when recording somewhere else.

So, I agree about the iLok. Yeah, I had one die on me, but Zero Down Time saved that situation. And a recent scare turned out only to require pressing the "Sync" button on the new iLok manager software. So yeah, I'm still into the iLok. I can tell you very truly that I'm NOT into challenge responses, extra dongles, HD authorizations, and all the other damn-fool methods I've seen, many of which I have to use even now.

Shooshie