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mikehalloran wrote:Although I consider iLok authorizations a time consuming pain to set up, they do work as advertised.

How is this time consuming? I've bought software, had the license delivered to my iLok account and then downloaded to my iLok in a matter of minutes and once it's on the iLok it's done-- I never worry about it again.

Just this previous week I went to my friend Jim Watson's studio where we mixed a new song and I wanted to use a particular plug and I didn't because it would have been a pain to authorize HIS disk. If the plug had been iLok protected, he could have simply downloaded and installed the plug and I could have brought my iLok to the session and just popped it into a free USB port on his machine until I was done with the session.

iLok is especially useful when working in other people's studios if they don't own the same plugs you do.

kgdrum wrote:I have the paid version of Superduper,when I cloned my boot drive all of my apps need to be reauth except 2 that use ilock,this can not be done in a few minutes.

Sorry to drive slightly off-topic: DP needs reauth, but Reason doesn't, for it's motherboard dependent. A different anti-piracy strategy. To each his own?

I see your point, Kgdrum, but my actual main concern is to have an up-to-date clone, in case of a HD wreck, but I authorize only when needed. That is to say rather rarely, and mainly for testing purpose before big sessions. Superduper is just fine to this.

daniel.sneed wrote:Some softwares rely on HD ID, others on motherboard ID.

Well, that's true. Last month the G5 of an audio facility where I work suddenly died. Apparently a problem in the logic board.
Fortunately there was a G5 available to use as replacement. So we took the old G5's drive and we put it in the new G5. There were several software to re-autorize! Well, except for all that had i-lok authorization.
So, it seems to be a "motherboard ID" for certain software
I don't remember well, but I think that we did not have to re-authorize DP.

>How is this time consuming?<

If the new machine has never had the software nor iLok on it, it takes more than a couple of minutes for me. There are multiple downloads, I have to access accounts online etc. Part of the issue is that I do it so rarely, I never remember how and have to read the instructions again. Another part of my problem, no doubt, is that my stroke left me with damaged short term memory and only one hand that works.

Once done on any machine, of course, it's done. It takes no time at all next time I visit the machine.

I agree that iLok is an ok system. I just wish it wasn't necessary.

>Some softwares rely on HD ID, others on motherboard ID.<

Some authorizations key on the MAC address. Knowing this can lead to a quicker diagnosis if something gets weird after network settings have changed.