How much do these dongle insurance cost? What do they exactly cover? Is it hard to get the money in case of loss?

Does any one have some experience with them?

P.S.: software insurance is not in the VSL software requirements either :-)

In order to block a dongle, you would have to have a system where periodically the dongle has to connect to the Internet in order for the licence to work. Some users wouldn't want to keep removing the dongle from their studio machiens for this purpose, particularly if everything is working perfectly and they never need to take the dongle on the road.

Just insure your software, like all the other studio equipment that you have.

DG

Right! And these people wouldn't need a "call-home" system, thus they could simply stick with the current authorization method. Other people who like to "take their dongle around" could instead get renewable licenses. Looks like the current synchrosoft system could very easily allow for this type of flexibility.

Cesare

@cesare.magri said:

Right! And these people wouldn't need a "call-home" system, thus they could simply stick with the current authorization method. Other people who like to "take their dongle around" could instead get renewable licenses. Looks like the current synchrosoft system could very easily allow for this type of flexibility.

Cesare

This suggestion has been made to Steinberg many times, and it even has been agreed that it's possible, but so far no dice. It has even been suggested that in the case of Steinberg software it would be possible to rent (incorrect use of English, but used to give clarity for Americans...!) software for short periods. Certainly if you only need an instrument for one project, it would be fantastic if you could just buy a limited period licence.

DG

But then why don't they implement such a system if users are so interested in it? Did they ever give an explanation?

@cesare.magri said:

But then why don't they implement such a system if users are so interested in it? Did they ever give an explanation?

Steinberg has never been good at communicating with users, and are usually so dogmatic about things that if the idea doesn't come from their collective brain trust it is not usually implemented.  [:(]

DG

Links to two similar discussions on the Syncrosoft key (one is mixed iLok/Syncrosoft):

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=242311&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

http://vi-control.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10465

Does anyone have infos about the software insurance policies? and how much we are expected to spend to insure dongles?

Cesare

Honestly, I would say that these items should be covered under your home contents insurance, or if you own a business, as business contents insurance. Just ask your insurance company, and I would say that you probably just have to advise them of the dongle and the licenses as a specific advice, that these items are a part of the contents insured. Let them know the replacement cost, and what it is a plastic software licenser containing the license to use X software replacement cost up to the cost of a new purchase. - something like that. That makes sense to me.

Most home insurers will only insure the dongle, but not the software licences on it, which is spectacularly useless to us. The best thing to do is to contact your studio equipment insurer and get them to include the cost of replacement licences with your other studio equipment.

DG

Just wanted to chime in and say I'd love to see VSL implement the Waves solution, with temporary licenses in need of reactivation every 90 days or so. That would sure make me sleep better. I'm really paranoid about loosing my dongles.

@The Minstrel said:

Just wanted to chime in and say I'd love to see VSL implement the Waves solution, with temporary licenses in need of reactivation every 90 days or so. That would sure make me sleep better. I'm really paranoid about loosing my dongles.

I love the Waves TLC program.

HOWEVER, before VSL does a similar solution, the engineers and designers must make it SO EASY that a caveman can do it (sorry, a reference to a US insurance company marketing slogan that has jumped the shark). Right now, getting auths and manually copy/pasting to the eLicensor is quite a process -- can't imagine doing this every 90 days for a dozen or more auths on multiple dongles. Waves consolidates auths into "bundles" so I only have 2 auths to deal with. Just sharing.

I do NOT wish to have any authorization issue come up every 90 days. That can corrupt a project actually, one day a library isn't authorized and the next time you launch the project there might be something pointing to that in preferences resulting in an unstable project that has to be rebuilt. I definitely experienced this with my broken dongle issue in the interim before re-authorization, and I wouldn't want this kind of thing cropping up to add to my worries.

If this were *an option*, sounds swell. But having it as policy per se I don't like at all.

Waves TLC is an option.

http://www.wavesupport.net/content.aspx?id=4077

Auths and prefs are totally unrelated, and one changing should never interfere with the other. Something else must have changed (software version, etc.). A missing auth should NEVER change any session data. 

Sounds like something else was going on here. Different version of the software? This happened to me on numerous files when upgrading VEPro -- so separate backup is always crucial. VSL version changing is always cautious time -- but never related to authorization. Separate issues.

I would have to research that before I agreed or disagreed, 'auths vs prefs in the case of VSL'. In the case of many plugins I am definitely familiar with enough to 'know', that statement is *not true*. IE: you delete preferences and now a new authorization is required. As per hosts*, EG: I delete Cubase preferences and previous issues of blacklisted plugs appear, which were ignored according to the old preferences, and now.require sorting.

What specifically happened is I failed to have the right key in the right machine, and I instantiated something which required it (*: In VE Pro, which is information I omitted). That was the only problem. It did result in an issue with that vi frame. There was no update involved in that problem.

Regardless, Waves' would be a good *option* to have, I guess.

After I finish today's orchestration, I will pull my dongles and restart all machines, and relaunch a clone of my session (after backups are done. Interested to see what happens if an auth is missing. 

In ProTools, a missing iLok auth simply loads the session, with the plug or VI disabled. I have forgotten to insert an ilok after a remote session, and it's simply a matter of inserting the iLok and enabling the plug. No data has ever been lost. I must assume VSL is the same? I'll test for my own knowledge and share the results later.

J

Of course, the suggested solution with reactivation every 90 days would not suit everybody. I would never argue that it should be mandatory. But it sure would be nice if VSL would provide such an option, as a means for their customers to protect their investment.

Regarding corrupted projects, for some reason unknown to me, my eLicensers (got two of them) will occasionally fail to be recognized by my system. Usually one of them only, and it has never happened with my ilok or WIBU-key. Anyway, due to this source of irritation, I've loaded Cubase projects only to find that Vienna Instrument or Vienna Ensemble cannot be loaded. The only thing I need to do to get up and running again is to close Cubase (without saving the project), reconnect the eLicenser, find the VSTblacklist.xml file and remove the nodes referencing VI/VE. Never had any problems beyond this. I imagine saving the project might cause problems though.

Obviously the 90 days solution wouldn't suit everyone, essentially professionals with big studio equipment seem to be less interested in it. It would rather suit the hobbiest, essentially the SE user who are more prone to take their dongle and software around since...well since they have no studio :-)

But I think it would be easy to satisfy both world simply by providing the 90 days method as an option. Originally VSL was probably more "pro-oriented" but, with the introduction of SE which opens to the non-professionals, new solutions need to be found.

I don't honestly believe that insurances are a good solutions: I might be wrong but I believe it wouldn't be that easy to get your money back once your key gets stolen or lost or brakes. It would probably take loads of paper work and time or it would have to be an awfully expensive insurance which would turn out to be totally unconvenient. It's unthinkable for a non-professional to consider this solution which porbably works only if you insure a whole studio. I think this is rather a trick of the sotware company to try to put the blame on the user "well you should have thought about that, you should have insured your software" and try to soften their responsibilitie, but from the practical point of view I don't see this solution working for non-pro costumers...

@passenger57 said:

Hi I'm new to this thread. I was getting ready to spend several thousand on Vienna Products, but am very honestly nervous about the vienna key failing or being stolen. Has there been any more progress on this subject since this thread was first posted? I need peace of mind with this kind of investment and I'd be happy to pay extra for it in the form of some sort of protection like ilock has.

iLok does NOT have any protection from theft or loss, unless you are speaking of Waves TLC.

iLok "ZDT" (zero down time) is no protection, really -- read the fine print. If you have a ZDT iLok and your iLok is damaged, ZDT will restore a bunch of temp auths that will work while your iLok is being repaired. HOWEVER -- if you lose or your iLok goes missing, ZDT will get you some temp auths. It is then up to you to figure out how to replace the auths -- and just like VSL, you best have insurance for many (most). Unless you have Waves TLC, which is the time-bombed/phone home solution...

If you are paying $29/year per iLok for ZDT, and you THINK you are protected from loss or theft, you are mistaken. You are better off investing in better insurance, or a theft deterrence system.