As it has happened to other people on this forum before, I've lost my Vienna Key. After contacting the support center I was informed by the sales manager that:
"The license is stored on your key, and by loosing the key, you also lost the license to use the product."
So the results is: you cannot keep using the licenses you've bought cause licenses and keys are in a one-to-one relationship and the only solution is to get new licenses. Does not matter whether you are willing to provide an official police statement declaring that you have indeed lost the key (with penal consequences if you claim the false): you have to get new licenses. You can get new licenses for half price though, which is a bargain (for them).
I've asked the Vienna support and CEO where in the License Agreement or in the documentation do they mention this key/licenses identity and I've received no answer to it, because, actually, it is not written anywhere: in the license agreement you'll only read that you have purchased the license to use the software.
I thus wonder why customers (paying costumer!) should be so penalized by a copy protection system that is built for the sole benefit of the company. I just want to list some disadvantages that come with the key:
- any time you want to run the software on your laptop you have to remember to bring the key with you;
- the key makes one of your USB ports unusable (and I, like many mac users, have only 2 USB ports on my laptop);
- the Syncrosoft system makes code much slower: essentially encrypted code is converted into machine code using thousands and thousands of CPU computations for the decoding. It has been speculated that some of speed bumps reported by programs using the Syncrosoft system (like Cubase, Nuendo or Vienna itself) were often just consequences of Syncrosoft improving a poorly written copy-protection code.
- the key itself does not prevent several users from using the software. For example, I use the key a few hour per week, the rest of the time I could be lending it around to friends who might share my music passion and the protection system wouldn't complain a bit. However, one of the reasons why Vienna refuses to reactivate your licenses, when you lose your key, is that now a random person who might have found the key on the train or on the street where you lost it, who has no idea what it is for and who, very likely, does not posses the installation files, might be using it.
- there is no way to back up your licenses (I had indeed bought a second key hoping I could keep a safe copy at home, it was not possible).
- there is no way to deactivate your licenses: once they are on a key they have to stay on a key (you can move them through keys although one license can only be on one key at a time)
- if you loose the key you loose your investment!
- if the key gets stolen you loose your investment!
- If the key is broken or defective you may end up paying a fee in order to get your licenses restored on a new key (that you have to buy).
The funny thing about it is that the Syncrosoft system has been long cracked and thus paying costumers, as always, are really the only ones dealing with the inconveniences. What do you think? I'll try to keep looking for a solution and let you know.
All the best,
Cesare