• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Dongle Duplication/Cloning ?

iSign

iSign

New Member
activitydude said:
The point is you just made available a way to potentially cause honest, hardworking software developers to lose money. Would you want someone giving your DESIGN work away for free?
Click to expand...

Terry, you will see that I am pretty much on your side of this issue every step of the way, but to single out S'N'S as guilty in some way for having "made available" any opportunity to commit a crime is ludicrious!

Not only do I think singling out him is is ludicrious because of the fact that at least 2 other similar links have been posted in this thread, but also because I told people what to search for to find those same & many other links. If I mention that sports authority sells guns, & some software shopkeepers will give you free software if you point one at them... have I also "made available a way to potentially cause honest, hardworking software developers to lose money."?

Why do I think your response is too harsh for simply posting a link? Because the technology exists, the laws are, at times ambigious, & if you'll notice...

Replicator didn't say he wanted to backup the dongle for ActivityPOS, or for Flexi... he wisely did not say anything about what software he wants to backup his key for.

Maybe he wants to backup the key for CasMate or some other software where a legal option to access his program is no longer available, in which case the DMCA exemptions would make emulation an entirely legal option.
 
S'N'S

S'N'S

New Member
iSign said:
Terry, you will see that I am pretty much on your side of this issue every step of the way, but to single out S'N'S as guilty in some way for having "made available" any opportunity to commit a crime is ludicrious!

Not only do I think singling out him is is ludicrious because of the fact that at least 2 other similar links have been posted in this thread, but also because I told people what to search for to find those same & many other links. If I mention that sports authority sells guns, & some software shopkeepers will give you free software if you point one at them... have I also "made available a way to potentially cause honest, hardworking software developers to lose money."?

Why do I think your response is too harsh for simply posting a link? Because the technology exists, the laws are, at times ambigious, & if you'll notice...

Replicator didn't say he wanted to backup the dongle for ActivityPOS, or for Flexi... he wisely did not say anything about what software he wants to backup his key for.

Maybe he wants to backup the key for CasMate or some other software where a legal option to access his program is no longer available, in which case the DMCA exemptions would make emulation an entirely legal option.
Click to expand...

Thanks Techman & iSign, you are correct in saying there are many others providing the same service, you only have to Google "Dongle emulator" and it will come up with 169,000 hits.
 
P

ProWraps™

Guest
one license, one computer. is that one computer period, or one computer at a time? better read the license. because as far as i know many companies allow you to use the software on ANY computer, ONE computer at a time.

dongles are a joke. which is why flexi has went to key authentication via the net. all you have to do is release the license in the drop down and you can re-bind it on any computer you want. again. ANY computer, ONE computer at a time.

the nature of a dongle being removable and allowing it to be used on ANY machine, makes the ONE computer, ONE license argument completely invalid.
 
activitydude

activitydude

New Member
Techman said:
He did not make it available. This service is offered freely on the net. There are more than this one company doing it. He used his right of freedom of speech to talk about this dongle problem... This subject has been discussed many times over the years.. In fact the security locks became such a problem that the copy right office issued a pass temporary directive for those who were left abandoned or without recourse.
Click to expand...

He made it available to any person who can view this thread. That means anybody. This is an open thread. And I can promise you not everyone that looks at Signs 101 is honest.
Replicator started out asking for a way to duplicate his key. If he knew about this link already he probably would not have asked. S'N'S is, I'm sure, honest in his work and would feel the same way we do about anyone giving away his designs for free.

Now, as to loss of use, if someone has every purchased our software in the last 20 years and their key got damaged or stolen we would do everything in our power to help them stay in business. The only way I can see someone being abandoned is if the software company they purchased from went out of business. We are not, so none of customers have to worry.

And as for the temporary directive, would you please post that link on this site, please?
 
Techman

Techman

New Member
He made it available to any person who can view this thread. That means anybody. This is an open thread. And I can promise you not everyone that looks at Signs 101 is honest.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but this argument is totally irrelevant. There are very few person around that do not know about alternatives. There has been alternatives for software security around for a long time. It started long ago when less enlightened software vendors used security techniques as a club against their own customers.

Anyone with hassle from a security device has already looked for alternatives. Especially those who took some pipe after a software vendor left a very expensive software package "out in the cold".

And as for the temporary directive, would you please post that link on this site, please?
Click to expand...
You as a software vendor should be fully aware of that DMCA exemption.

That exemption caused more than a few software vendors to re-evaluate their posture on abandoning users operating with older versions and while trying to force upgrades.
 
k.a.s.

k.a.s.

New Member
The fact that I would have had to log onto the internet everytime I wanted to use my software is ridiculous to me. Not all of us live in a big city, sometimes the internet does not work so then I can't use somthing I paid for. I have used Flexi for over 10 yrs ( I paid for a second key) and am still using it, but when I bought my printer I did not upgrade and started using illustrator. I understand that you need to protect yourself but I much perfer the key over the new way.

Kevin
 
gabagoo

gabagoo

New Member
I have 2 dongles for Signlab 1 for flexi and one for Omega. If you want to design offsite and not lose the dongle then just design in a software that requires no dongle and convert it for cutting or printing...ie Coreldraw?
 
S

SignsOfMaine

New Member
Basically, dongles are tough to crack, and services like "Soft Key Solutions" do the work for money, which is super sleazy and illegal. I'd be less offended if they did it for free =)

I wouldn't use their service simply because even if my intentions are good (to make a backup), THEIR intention is to make money doing illegal cracking. It definitely would allow someone to effectively make a cracked version of flexi (or whatever) and put it all over the internet, so people can use it without paying.

Pretty much all companies should have some kind of broken dongle policy. It looks like the makers of flexi do it for 150-300ish. I'd rather give them three times the money and be doing it legally than give 100 bucks to the russian crack crew, risk it not working after a while (flexi checks every 30 days to make sure everything's legit), and leave myself at risk of getting sued.
 
bbeens

bbeens

New Member
Rep-

I recommend to all of my customers to make sure their insurance covers their dongles. The cost of the hardware is a moot point. A DVD blank costs a few cents but the data on the DVD can be worth hundreds of dollars. Same with a simple USB stick. That USB stick will ensure my customers are using their software within the rights they have purchased and agreed to.

In the case of a broken dongle, we will happily send a replacement with the understanding the damaged dongle will be returned.

Bryan
 
activitydude

activitydude

New Member
bbeens said:
Rep-

I recommend to all of my customers to make sure their insurance covers their dongles. The cost of the hardware is a moot point. A DVD blank costs a few cents but the data on the DVD can be worth hundreds of dollars. Same with a simple USB stick. That USB stick will ensure my customers are using their software within the rights they have purchased and agreed to.

In the case of a broken dongle, we will happily send a replacement with the understanding the damaged dongle will be returned.

Bryan
Click to expand...

Bryan,

Thanks for explaining your policy. That is exactly what we tell our customers, make sure your insurance covers the keys. Then, when it's broke or missing you don't have to pay for it. And asking for the broken key back is just to return it to the provider and get a new one. I was going to go into that last night but, to tell you the truth, I got tired of trying to convince those who think it may be alright to crack a key for their own use, in this country or any other, and went to bed. :thumb:

Terry
 
Replicator

Replicator

New Member
I appreciate all the responses in this matter and I have NO intention of doing anything illegal or otherwise with any software . . . !
 
S

SignsOfMaine

New Member
So you're gonna do what Techman's hinting at and move to mongolia, ya?
Juuuuust kidding. (that's actually just meant to rib techman a little - doesn't matter that there might be some backwards country where it's legal. We don't live there and neither does the russian dude)

I think any company that can get the old broken dongle should charge maybe 120 tops to replace it. Putting the information onto the dongle is nothing, maybe $20 of someone's time... The dongle itself can't be more than $40 or $50. Throw in a few bucks for shipping. The fact that some companies charge $300 annoys me a little, but I'd still go with their policy. In a way we're kind of spoiled by how easy it is to copy software. We're lucky there's any kind of option... You don't get a backup copy of a $5000 wedding ring.
 
Replicator

Replicator

New Member
I'm very sorry I brought this issue to the forefront of this forum . . . It was obviously wrong of me to do so !

This subject is much to controversial and I should never have assumed that any conversation pertaining to this subject

could be handled with an objective manner, without making myself look like a garden variety criminal looking to "F" the man . . . !

My Mistake !
 
Fuzzbuster

Fuzzbuster

New Member
Replicator said:
Hypothetical :

I buy a $40,000 Mercedes and it comes with 1 key that has a computer chip.

I can go make as many keys as I want for that Mercedes, even though they are computer chipped for my car only,

and I may have to pay $150 per key, but I sure as hell don't have to pay $4000 or get stuck not being allowed to have extra keys

for the car that I paid so much money for . . . Isn't it the same damn thing !
Click to expand...





problem is your "emulating the actual Mercedes for $150 and Mercedes doesn`t like it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top