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Casmate help

KP3

New Member
Hey Fred and everyone else......I didnt know thats what "cracked" meant! Like I said, Ive been on the design and install side and not the software etc stuff. Never meant to do anything illegal at all...Hopefully you guys will be willing to help me in the future. Thanks for educating me.... Kevin
 

iSign

New Member
so do you need some help, or what... there's a lot of conversations here, and nobody reads them all, so what are you talking about? Maybe a link to another conversation would be advisable if you want to finish a conversation somewhere other then wherever it was that it started.
 

iSign

New Member
ok... I knew I could search out your previous discussions pretty quickly with only 6 posts to look through, but I thought the suggestion of a link to a previous post would be good advice anyway. Now I see that the other post is locked, while a link to a locked post could still be done, it may be considered inappropriate, so maybe it's best to forget that idea on this one.

I'm a long time user of casmate, although I quit using my copy 3 years ago. I still own it and don't plan on selling it, but I do know a bit about it. I also have Inspire Sign, made by the same people. I have the CD's, manuals, original box, (I think) and the security dongle. It is a legal, registered software package that I've virtually never used. I'd sell it for $500 if you were interested.

On a hunch, I also did a search on ebay & found someone selling casmate 6.52 for $250. The listing doesn't offer much info, like any mention of a dongle, which is usually a bad sign, in my mind, however the seller does have around 600 transactions & a 99.5% good reputation, so maybe it's a good deal.

I just sent him an email asking about the dongle, and manuals. I don't want it, but I thought you might. See it HERE!

Each copy came with a dongle, and to legally run it, it was originally required to be run with the dongle.

I personally believe that Casmate holds a rare position among the sign software requiring use of a security device, with regards to the US copyright law.

Where it may differ, due to the discontinuation of support & the lack of functionality in either of the 2 newer operation systems XP, and Vista... I believe that a circumvention of the security device is justified in the fine print of the DMCA in the specific case of an ALREADY LEGAL authorized software package being forced to work with today's technology, by circumventing the intended security measures of the dongle.

In your case, if you had bought the software yourself, years ago, from the manufacturer... then, and only then would you KNOW it was an authorized "copy" ...in which case I believe it would be legal for you to find a way to run it without the dongle.

BUT, since you bought it from someone who was already running it without a dongle, you have no knowledge to assume it was ever a legal copy.

As a big fan of casmate, I think it is an excellent tool that could take you far in the vinyl cutting field, other then the issues relating to running it on a contemporary OS. If the ebay guy has the dongle, it would be a great deal if you could get it for $250.

I think many laws in the US are difficult to understand only one "right" interpretation, which is why so much time is spent in courts across the land... deciding how to intrepret laws, even when the "facts" of an alleged violation are clear. Different scenarios always demand a different perspective of the letter of the law, and it's intent. Over time, different intrepretations are handed down by different judges... so there is not ONE determination in the U.S. regarding this law, or any other law.

On the flip side, signs101 is not a democracy, it is Fred's property, and his rules govern the site... so as much as I like a philosophical discussion of the various nuances of a complex issue... I defer to Fred if my perspective of how the DMCA applies to circumvention of a legally owned Casmate security key, differs from his.
 

KP3

New Member
Wow......

I feel like after reading that I should get a Diploma....LOL Very interesting stuff and I truly appreciate your leg work for me! I will look into the guy on ebay and see what he's got to offer! Thanks a million but i'll have to come up with some more cash because after buying all this equipment I am broke! LOL Kevin
 

iSign

New Member
well, they say "it takes money to make money"...and equipment that won't run, won't pay for itself very quickly.

Hopefully you can get some software with the first cash you gets your hands on, & trust the vinyl cutter to make it back for you.

That's what those things have done for all of us. Good Luck!
 

KP3

New Member
Ok guys

Bought a LEGAL version of Casmate from a local sign shop with the dongle...Yay. Ok, I created a car body template last night but cant remember how to cut out the wheel holes. I use to create a circle, put it in the location I wanted to have for the wheel opening and would? subtract and have the body and wheel opening left behind but the remainder of the circle was gone! How do I do this? I will need to do it this for the window opening too. Any help will be appreciated. Kevin:help:
 

iSign

New Member
Casmate had a strange way of doing this, and it's been a few years, but I think they referred to all contours as 'closckwise' or 'counterclockwise'
and I think they referred to the designation of one or the other as "sense" (now I'm questioning if I'm remembering wrong?)

anyway, I think in outline view, the color of the lines vary from red to blue, and if you draw two concentric circles, selecting both & locating the command 'check sense' was the way to create a hole in a contour, or what Illustrator calls a compound path
 
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