**Did You give focusrite permission to enter your home or studio???

I remember about 9 years ago a friend gave me a bunch of software on a DVD. Thought nothing of it. Then later realized it was illegal cracks of software.

.................

Stealing $100 software and maybe making money from it is petty theft, but it is pathetic and lame laziness...

About 10 years back, at my IT day gig (which also involved a large theatre)...they hired a new stage manager, a real young guy, a 20-something "kid" basically.
One day I'm in the back with the theatre crew getting him all set up with his computer and all...and he then asks about installing some software that he had...'cuz our computer users do not have full admin rights to do all that on their own.
I asked him what software...and apparently he was into the whole audio recording thing, plus a couple of the other theatre guys were also into audio and/or doing some kind of music/band thing...so they're all checking out the software and the new guys is telling them, "if you want to borrow the discs to install some of that stuff at home, go ahead.

So I look at what he has...and it was full-tilt DAW applications, like Nuendo and Cubase, and other stuff, plus a bunch of other apps/plugs, etc...
...and I asked him how are they going to install it when that stuff has a key code or dongle, so it will only work per single installation...and he says he never had any codes, and was able to install it.
I'm like WTF?...and instantly realize it's all cracked software. I asked him where did you get it, and he says from some website (it was a cracked software website) and it was either real cheap, like $50 or some free. I proceed to tell him that Nuendo alone costs several hundred.
He kinda looked at me all puzzled...like this was all a surprise to him...but I knew he had to know that you don't buy all this stuff for pennies off some bogus website.

Anyway...I said to him...none of that shit was going on any work computer... and I told him he should destroy all the discs he had that were cracked, and not give them out to anyone.
I don't think he destroyed them...and then after about 3 months, he decided he didn't want the job and moved back to his home state...I think Indiana, where he got some kind of theatre teaching gig at a local collage. He probably passed out the cracked software to his students. :facepalm:
 
Here's my 2 cents.

I'm the guy who drafts these License Agreements. I've been doing it for 10 years. Yes, focusrite has the right to audit your granted use of their IP. If you dont want to grant them that right, don't use their product. Yes, software companies do audit their customers from time to time, usually when they see a dip in their annual revenue and are looking to increase sales. I have been part of many audits and usually the SW vendors are ok with us running a report or a script given to us by the vendor and submitting the usage data to the vendor rather than coming on-site. Sometimes we are compliant, other times we end up owing millions of dollars in settlement fees to make us compliant (usually because we have installed more license than we own).

Like everything in life, everything is negotiable. If you don't want them in your studio auditing your SW usage, agree to provide a usage report. If you don't agree to anything, focusrite can decide on a path of litigation, but something so small, its most likely not worth their time and effort, unless you are a large company using 100's or 1000's or 10's of thousands of copies of their SW.
 
Like everything in life, everything is negotiable.

Except that we're almost all acting as individuals or one-person home studios and businesses. We don't have any negotiating power.
Our options are "take it or leave it", and if EVERY piece of software comes bundles with a massive, unreadable EULA; the options become "take it or quit entirely"
 
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Except that we're almost all acting as individuals or one-person home studios and businesses. We don't have any negotiating power.
Our options are "take it or leave it", and if EVERY piece of software comes bundles with a massive, unreadable EULA; the options become "take it or quit entirely"

It doesn't matter that you are an individual. These companies would much rather try to find a compromise on how to report the SW usage rather than taking it to litigation.
 
It doesn't matter that you are an individual. These companies would much rather try to find a compromise on how to report the SW usage rather than taking it to litigation.
Not to be a wise ass, but how do you know?
Sounds like speculation to me.
:D
 
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