Dongle replacement.

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enuenu

New member
I am going to buy Cubase 4 or Cubase Studio 4 soon How much will it cost me when I lose the dongle? It will happen eventually.
 
dont lose the dongle... period... it is what you are actually buying... (the license)... lose it and you start all over again in the worst case... though some dealers will help you with these problems but still a major PITA...
 
So if you lose the dongle you have to buy a new package? Wow, that's harsh. Surely there's got to be a better way to prevent software piracy. I have heard that smart pirates can easily get around the dongle anyway and the only result is legitimate users being caused an extra hassle.
 
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enuenu said:
So if you lose the dongle you have to buy a new package? Wow, that's harsh. Surely there's got to be a better way to prevent software piracy. I have heard that smart pirates can easily get around the dongle anyway and the only result is legitimate users being caused an extra hassle.
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I don't get your reasonings. Why is it harsh if you don't have use of something you lose? Do you want to be rewarded for stupidity? It's like losing anything else. If you buy a guitar and lose it do you expect the music store to replace it? It's simple/stupid, just don't lose it.

The other part is your oxymoron. If they were smart they wouldn't be pirates!
 
Wow, extra harsh. "Stupid" is such an intense word. Its not good for your soul man. I prescribe six episodes of "Little House on the Prairie" to ease your mind.

I will live with the dongle as I have no option, however I would prefer not to. Do you think it would be preferable to have a security system where the dongle was eliminated?

Peace.:)
 
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enuenu said:
Do you think it would be preferable to have a security system where the dongle was eliminated?
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Absolutely - but this isn't really a good place to rant on that... There's a few threads on this board where people have gone back and forth for hundreds, maybe even thousands of posts about this "punishing the legit users, while pirates don't even notice the DRM because it's stripped out before they download it" topic... All those posts and all those high-emotions are eventually forgotten and buried and nobody cares - (total waste of some good points on both sides).

Try the actual Cubase forums, some of the Steinberg people might actually read those...
 
Thanks. It seems I walked into a well worn subject that stirs a bit of emotion. I didn't intend on starting a rant against the Steinberg security system. I didn't even know how it worked until I made a few posts. As a prospective customer I just wanted to know how it all worked before I took the plunge. I certainly know now and that's cool. I just never heard of an expensive software product that would become scrap if you lost a little thing called a "dongle". This fact caught me by surprise at first. I am no computer expert. Sometimes newbs will tread ground that is already heavily compacted. I promise never to mention the "d" word again.
 
My apologies if I'm stirring up further controversy, but I'm curious...

...I've heard that some people buy a legit copy of the software, but then download and use a pirated version so they don't have to deal with the dongle (among other things). And not just Cubase... any software that uses one.

Rumor? Urban legend? Heinous misrepresentation to advocate piracy?
 
I guess you could then use it with a clearish conscience. However it still supports the pirate's work I guess. I'm just going to buy it and live with the you know what.
 
pointfive said:
My apologies if I'm stirring up further controversy, but I'm curious...

...I've heard that some people buy a legit copy of the software, but then download and use a pirated version so they don't have to deal with the dongle (among other things). And not just Cubase... any software that uses one.

Rumor? Urban legend? Heinous misrepresentation to advocate piracy?
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The dongle itself really isn't a hard thing to deal with, and I think that that particular story/reason for using an altered version is probably BS - however - it is most definitely NOT a rumor that there have been an extraordinary amount of cases where buggy protection schemes have made their protected software unstable, so legitimate users have acquired versions with said protection stripped out for stability purposes. So it does happen *all the time*, but for stability, not for convenience.

That said - the protection schemes that Cubase and pretty much all other music/audio software use have been pretty stable for a pretty long time now, and the only instances I'm really aware of this happening anymore is with PC games.
 
I can't imagine losing a dongle unless I moved to a new house, I mean you just stick it in the USB port and forget about it!
As far as the dongle itself goes, I'm kind of shocked that Steinberg wouldn't replace one if you did somehow lose it. Surely they have a system that registers a physical dongle to a user??
SX3 cost me about 750 quid, if something happened to the dongle and Steinberg refused to replace it or get me back up and running I would never buy anything from them again. I'm sure there is a legit way around it, you could check the mods over at cubase.net
 
jimmi said:
Or maybe I'm missing summit?
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exactly... you can buy all the (physical) dongles you want... but it's the authorization it contains that you cant buy... they sell these so if yours starts to get flakey you can have the authorization switched to the new before it roaches...
 
Superhuman said:
I can't imagine losing a dongle unless I moved to a new house, I mean you just stick it in the USB port and forget about it!
As far as the dongle itself goes, I'm kind of shocked that Steinberg wouldn't replace one if you did somehow lose it. Surely they have a system that registers a physical dongle to a user??
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If you break the dongle, they will replace it. If you lose the dongle, you have no proof. You could be just handing your dongle to your friend and telling Steinberg that you lost it.

Again, if you lost a $600 snare drum, can you call up Ludwig and get them to send you a new one? The software is free, the licence is what you are paying for. The licence is on the dongle.
 
TyphoidHippo said:
The dongle itself really isn't a hard thing to deal with, and I think that that particular story/reason for using an altered version is probably BS - however - it is most definitely NOT a rumor that there have been an extraordinary amount of cases where buggy protection schemes have made their protected software unstable, so legitimate users have acquired versions with said protection stripped out for stability purposes. So it does happen *all the time*, but for stability, not for convenience.

That said - the protection schemes that Cubase and pretty much all other music/audio software use have been pretty stable for a pretty long time now, and the only instances I'm really aware of this happening anymore is with PC games.
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Some people complain that the dongle "needlessly" takes up a USB port. Others have said that the constant checking Cubase does to make sure the dongle is still there affects performance (if not stability). I don't know how much truth there is to the latter claim, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were true. I'd be interested to know the results if anyone has run a legit copy beside a pirated copy.
 
pointfive said:
Some people complain that the dongle "needlessly" takes up a USB port. Others have said that the constant checking Cubase does to make sure the dongle is still there affects performance (if not stability). I don't know how much truth there is to the latter claim, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were true. I'd be interested to know the results if anyone has run a legit copy beside a pirated copy.
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I have a ligit copy and haven't run out of usb ports yet and I have no performance or stability issues. On the other hand I have witnessed countless requests for help from peeps who use pirated software and have performance and crashing issues.
 
pointfive said:
Some people complain that the dongle "needlessly" takes up a USB port.
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To those people, I would say that they should learn about how USB works before complaining about "wasting a port". You can connect 127 devices (in serial, hence the name, Universal SERIAL Bus) with any single USB controller (even if that controller only has a single USB port). The entire architecture was designed to allow connection of multiple devices through one port so this complaint is uninformed and really....it's just silly.

pointfive said:
Others have said that the constant checking Cubase does to make sure the dongle is still there affects performance (if not stability). I don't know how much truth there is to the latter claim, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were true. I'd be interested to know the results if anyone has run a legit copy beside a pirated copy.
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The altered versions don't even remove these checks - the dongle is just emulated in software and all those calls are still made (to the emulated dongle instead of a physical one) - so again, this is just silly.

NYMorningstar said:
I have a ligit copy and haven't run out of usb ports yet and I have no performance or stability issues. On the other hand I have witnessed countless requests for help from peeps who use pirated software and have performance and crashing issues.
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I also have a legit copy, but I do have an occasional hiccup (probably more related to the fairly old hardware in my PC - soon to be upgraded, though...finally - w00t! :p ). Unlike you, however, I have DEFINITELY seen more complaints about stability from legitimate users - the official Cubase forums are overflowing with stability complaints, but that's probably because the only reason people go to the official Cubase forums is when they have a problem - and in order to be able to post there, you must prove the legitimacy of your license...so perhaps it's not a fair comparison at all, heh... Still, I understand, and even agree with, your point, as I'm sure everyone else does, too.
 
pointfive said:
Others have said that the constant checking Cubase does to make sure the dongle is still there affects performance (if not stability).
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This is outdated information. The stability problems were fixed a couple versions ago.

I'm not saying that dongles aren't a pain, but most of the horror stories are at least a few years old.
 
I am constantly bombarded by emails offering to help me enhance my dongle, but never to replace it outright....
 
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