I'm thinking maybe VSL should outline this whole thing and associated costs to the customer in a detailed email and send it to everyone who is currently a VSL customer. It's giving me the willies.

What happens if I leave the eLicencer plugged in as it also contains my Cubase licence?

Do I delete all the VSL licences in the eLicencer before or after the iLok is inserted?

So what, we have to buy another 20+Euro dongle, wait 2 Covid weeks (4 weeks) for it to arrive, request from VSL all our licences, wait for them to be delivered, copy paste the activation codes into the iLok manager all this while thousands of people are simultaneously doing the same. I hope you guys are hiring a 100 more staff and servers to deal with the immense amount of traffic. Not stoked.

Hi JBuck,

No need to worry, we are already working on all points you mentioned, and make the migration as comfortable as possible.
Your Cubase license will be fine, and there will be no need deleting licenses from the eLicenser.

Best, Ben

"You will need an iLok USB-key or an internet connection when using iLok Cloud. Machine activation will not be available for our products."

Thanks for that crucial info, Ben. It makes a huge difference for me. (And it's my fault for not taking the trouble to look up and learn about iLok's Cloud facility.)

While doing serious work with Logic + VEP + VSL instruments I disconnect from Internet. That's because I don't want Internet jibber-jabber triggering any new and possibly hefty processes in my system while I need every last ounce of my CPU power to be focused on the work I'm doing; and I do like to be free of all distractions while working (not to mention concerns about commercial snoopers gathering usage and who knows what other data).

So now it's looking like I'll have to go for the iLok USB dongle key option, continue to have one of my USB ports tied up, and continue to worry about the disruption if that thing fails.

In short, no benefit for cases like mine; just an awful lot of work and the price of a new iLok dongle to switch over to the new scheme.

Ah well. C'est la bloody vie.

Whether the Ilok implementation has started ?

@Ben said:

You will need an iLok USB-key or an internet connection when using iLok Cloud. Machine activation will not be available for our products.

Best, Ben

That's not good. Is machine activation more susceptible to misuse?

So, without a constant internet connection a person is simply going from one dongle (eLicenser) to another (iLok). The dongle seems to be one of the reasons why people don't want to buy VSL products and you really haven't addressed that since a constant internet connection will seemingly be irritating to people. I'm not sure if it will be comparably irritating, but I'm sure it will be irritating to some none the less. 

It doesn't impact me because I'm not bothered by the dongle, but it makes it difficult to be an ambassador for your products because most people don't share my opinion when it comes to dongles.

Thanks for the clarification.

God Bless,

David 

I am still not stoked that I have to buy another dongle $$$. Not stoked at all. VSL should be selling these at a reduced price. They are not cheap. We the users are not benefitting from this move in the slightest. 46 euros is an expense that VSL should cover as it was not mentioned in any fine print anywhere that VSL reserves the right to change the entire licencing system at the expense and inconvenience of the customer with no actual benefit to the customer at all. Not stoked!.

Why no machine licencing. Why change at all? One dongle to another dongle is hardly progressing. I know I will get a reply saying "everything is going to be alright, don't worry we have it sorted". But do VSL have 46 euros they are willing to part with on my behalf and the rest of the VSL customers?. iLok are going to make an enormous amount of money out of this deal and we the users get shafted for 46 euros.

In the absence of detailed info on the topic, I'd tentatively guessed that this upcoming migration to a different licensing security system by both Steinberg and VSL was being driven entirely by Steinberg's new and rather secret strategy.

That is, until I found this little snippet in Steinberg's forum, dated May this year:

https://forums.steinberg.net/t/migration-from-elicenser-to-ilok/718648

So now it appears - please correct me if I'm wrong, VSL - that Steinberg and VSL are each going in their own direction on this matter.

And looking more broadly at opinions from user perspectives, I found this decent opinion-editorial by MusicTech sums it up nicely - for me at least:

https://www.musictech.net/features/opinion-analysis/steinberg-elicenser-whats-next/ 

So now I'm really puzzled by VSL's strategy of offering either iLok dongle or iLok Cloud but no machine activation. Much earlier in this thread, my take on VSL's move away from a dongle key was that it bodes well for VSL's future business. But now I'm not so sure about that - and I find it a bit depresssing. I'm certain I'm not alone in wanting VSL's customer base to keep expanding, since that can mean big benefits for both VSL and users. And I'd wager a substantial amount (indeed I'd probably bet the farm) that if we were able to poll a huge number of music tech users on their feelings about any dongle key, the majority would give it the thumbs down.

As for the idea of continuous Internet connection being required, I'm aware of the trend of ever more pushy and absurdly hyper-ambitious IT-centric corporations trying to "catheterise" the web into ever more punters (especially as we see happening in China). That's just another nasty, underhanded, slippery slope, and I don't believe they'll succeed in the long term. What may appear now as an unobtrusive and ever so helpful litle 'web catheter', might well eventually become more and more like 'enteral feeding' - somewhat like TV before Internet came to the rescue. But nowadays, fortunately, we've had Edward Snowden and others alerting us to the cynical, sociopathic, dark side of the web. Public resistance to the sly, underhand tricks will at some point become gigantic - perhaps even including colossal crowds with pitchforks and flaming torches turning up at various IT corporate HQs, lol. (Storming of the Bastille in 1789 was a weird historical glitch, out of the blue, right? Lolol.).

I don't see VSL as an IT-centric company at all; so why would they adopt the idea of the 'web catheter'? Who convinced them that that crock is a good idea and the way to go? Or is it perhaps just that there is no other viable off-the-shelf solution at present?

Being a user of Avid, Slate Drums, and UVI, I will prefer using the existing "zero downtime" service rather than paying for two different "protection" systems. Even though that I'll end up throwing out 4 eLicensers.

Though I do wish that there was an option for machine activation (like Adobe, DxO, CCC, Waves, etc.) -maybe there are piracy issues with this type of licensing. IDK...

Hello LPA, 

There is currently no way to use our products without a physical key, but that will change with the transition to iLok and the iLok cloud. 

Best, 
Paul

So I just tried to install and check out Gullfoss (Dynamic EQ Plugin) that requires an iLok account. I forgot my ilok password and user name as I haven't used it for years (since hollywood orchestra days). I requested to reset and recover the password and user name. They sent me an email with a link to click as per the usual procedure. 

First, no matter what password I typed in, I would get a strange 'Capture Invalid' come up. I triple checked I had followed all their requirements for a safe password.

Second, I tried to create a support ticket which led me to a page where, you guessed it, I had to sign in to my iLok account, which is going to be hard considering I don't know my user name or password.

Third, I thought I would return via the email link to the original page to have another shot at resetting and recovering my password. The link was now dead. It would just give me a blank screen.

Moral of the story:  If VSL are going to migrate over to this company and expect thousands of users to deal with iLok, I would suggest someone at VSL tell them to get their iLok'n act together.

Hi JBuck, 

I just tried the same and didn't have any troubles. 
We will keep an eye on these procedures, and I hope that you situation was just a glitch. 

Thanks for letting us know, you are absolutely right that these basics have to work reliably. 

Best,
Paul 

@beatpete said:

Paul:

I'd just like to re-iterate how useful it would be to have a third option to have iLok locally on each computer therefore not requiring a dongle OR an internet connection.

Looks like a good option, three iLock dongles in my case is a lot of money, and there will be situations that somebody doesn't want to be dependant on a good working internet connection to work with the VSL products.

Does this all mean that I can have my VSL licences stored on an iLok dongle and the iLok server so if anything happens to my iLok dongle I can use the cloud instead?.

This is why machine activation would be great for the users of VSL products. Then we can just deactivate the licences on the machine that was damaged/stolen and reactivate the licences on our new machine. Done.

Very safe for VSL and users. 😃

Why not?

Hi JBuck, 

There will be no machine activations available with our products. 

All other possibilities that come with iLOk (Zero Downtime, Theft & Loss Coverage) will be available for all users. 

Best, 
Paul

1) If I choose to use the iLok cloud service for my VSL licences, will I need to first deactivate all licences on my eLicencer dongle. If not, what is to stop someone using both at the same time?.

2) Is there a quick way to transfer multiple licences from dongle to cloud and vice versa in the iLok licence manager?. AFAIK I must drag each licence to my account one by one. For someone with over 20 VSL licences this seems very tedious.

If I choose to use the iLok dongle and it becomes damaged, will I be able to immediately transfer my licences from my damaged dongle to cloud via the iLok licence manager and continue using my VSL products?.

Hi JBuck,

@JBuck said:

1) If I choose to use the iLok cloud service for my VSL licences, will I need to first deactivate all licences on my eLicencer dongle. If not, what is to stop someone using both at the same time?.

2) Is there a quick way to transfer multiple licences from dongle to cloud and vice versa in the iLok licence manager?. AFAIK I must drag each licence to my account one by one. For someone with over 20 VSL licences this seems very tedious.

If I choose to use the iLok dongle and it becomes damaged, will I be able to immediately transfer my licences from my damaged dongle to cloud via the iLok licence manager and continue using my VSL products?.

1) You don't have to decativate your eLicenser licenses. You CAN use both at the same time. Great, right?

2) I'm afraid I don't know of a bulk-transfer, but I also hope that this is something that will be added by iLok. 

3) If your dongle is damaged in a way that does not let you access the licenses, you cannot transfer any licenses from it to the cloud. Here is an overview of the possibilities with iLok. That's why iLok offers Zero Downtime. And this is the link to the iLok FAQs regarding broken, lost or stolen iLoks. 

Have a great sunday!

Paul

@beatpete said:

Paul:

I'd just like to re-iterate how useful it would be to have a third option to have iLok locally on each computer therefore not requiring a dongle OR an internet connection.

Quite a few composers I'm in touch with state the dongle/cloud (or, to put it another way, lack of machine activation) is the only thing preventing them from purchasing VSL products.  It's anecdotal, but I see that sentiment echoed throughout various forums as well.  I suppose it comes down to a cost/benefit analysis...

Hi JBuck,

Regarding Bulk-Transfer: You can select multiple licenses in the iLok license Manager and transfer them at once (Ctr-A / Cmd-A to select all, ctr+click to select multiple, click+shift-click to select a range; drag-and drop to new location)

Best, Ben