You've been heard. Response re: 4.9 and Encryption
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Looks interesting, even if it is probably a long way off. Anyway OT for this thread.
They wouldn't be of help in the plugin situation, but they could hold a 'generic serial' for studio itself. Sorta like how Adobe has done for their CS2 products since the DRM server for them is no longer available. (A good example of a company mired in DRM still recognizing their responsibility to their customers in the face of that DRM's components no longer being available.) May need a version of the Studio software meant to work with that since I'm guessing the Adobe stuff is using a version of the software that just doesn't phone home to unlock. Not that I think Studio does a phone home pre 4.9. If it's just a check off an internal algorithm then a generic serial would be enough.
+1
Yeah, remember, in any business, we never get to talk to the people who actually have power. They're too smart for that. ;)
A more readable product.
Developers COULD have been working on the tiny fonts problem.
As controversial as it might be, it wouldn't have come anywhere near THIS level. 
See there, I could have saved them a lot of trouble, but I'm pretty sure they probably can't afford me.
Side note: I noticed that some of us are capitalizing the word "Encryption". See, I'm doing it too. Because it's a thing now.
He's a Vice President and this is not a big company. If he does't have actual empowerment, then why would he even bother? If a VP has no real power, then how high must one go to find somebody who has any real authority?
In most investment banking organizations Vice President, or VP, is the first promotion beyond an Associate (which is what the vast majority of employees are), so there would be thousands in a typical bank. I would not read too much into a title.
Are you making up new words again Steve? tsk tsk tsk!
+1,000 to who knows how many
DIM is a very convenient LIST, fast to use to see what's installed, fast to click to the ReadMe, faster in every way. If it isn't easy to sort through thousands and thousands of products, I won't be adding to the aggravation by buying more.
They are, as has been stated ( apost, I think, by DAZ_Vince).
Hee Hee. Gosh, if only the forum had a decent spell checker that worked without having to manually engage it every time! And let me add, didn't waste my time spell checking quoted text.
This doesn't diminish what has been pointed out is the DRM diversion is a loss in opportunity cost to the company which is passed on to the end users/customers.
In another post one of the Daz_ people mentioned that Connect is being moved to a separate tab to help fix those usability problems.
I hope they flesh it out to a full featured package manager myself, along with some features to help with database management (import/export, backup, rebuild, etc,etc)
Technically you are correct,and so does DAZ Studio. However the topic refers to DRM for the content not the render software. The Poser application does require a serial number to work, just like DS4 does. After launch DAZ decided to give DS away so it provided keys to everybody. DIM managed serial number registration for DS. They are listed in the serial number tab of your DAZ account page.
For people using Connect, that would be fine, as long as they leave DIM in place for people using 4.8 and even 4.9. Why mess with something that isn't broken, that does exactly what it needs to do and shows the user what they own, what's ready to install, and what's installed in three simple tabs? With the abilty to click "i" and go quickly to the ReadMe, there's nothing NEEDING to be changed. The expression, "Don't reinvent the wheel" comes to mind, but change that to "Don't mess with a perfectly good wheel" would be more appropriate.
Agreed!! +1
It has been said that DIM is not goign away. And apparently it didn't do exactly what it was meant to, judging by the issues support had with people having trouble getting content to work.
Preach. My phone spellchecks for the forums at least, but the it doesn't do formatting.
I'll refer you to this bruhaha.
Poser spokesfolk talking about how they would never DRM their content when they released a program that you might have to reactivate every 6 months, and weren't even upfront about it is... well... I mean, I admire their chutzpah. ;)
FWIW, what I've seen in the last few days is a lot of people not realising that anything installed via Connect means a whole new parallel installation, whether or not that item is already installed manually or via DIM. Also, for anyone who wants to, or needs to, move their content (e.g. because their C: drive is a small SSD) they don't know that they must also move the Connect location setting.
None of these things are immediately obvious, and all of them are vital. Why did no-one at DAZ catch this in time to come up with a fix, before us guinea-pigs were allowed to play with the beta?
<squeek>
Today I used my PC+ coupon to buy an encyrpted item. It installed with no issues, loaded into a scene with no issues, and gave no indication that it was any different from any other item. Isn't that what should matter most, rather than hypotheticals?
Maybe vote NO when you personally experience a problem. I have heard of one user so far who appears to have had a problem.
Thing is, when the content isn't DRMed then someone can make another program to work with that content. May suck for the bottom line of the maker of the program when they have to compete with an alternative software, but it's great for content makers and customers.
from that interview, I came to the conclusion that SM's position on anti-theft technology basically boils down to this;
"It's ok for us to use it to protect our commercial interests, nobody else deserves to protect their commercial interests though."
SM's spokesperson completely marginalized the work and effort that goes into making high quality 3D assets.
The objection people have with encrypted products (in general) has nothing to do with problems they are having, but rather looking at the general mechanism of delivery, flexibility of use and retaining the choice to manage their content as they see fit. In other words, owning and controlling their content without any external intervention. Some people are okay with the new model, some are not. In the end it will come down to sales. If the store sees a sharp drop in purchases of encrypted content as opposed to other content (and content providers complain that their products are not moving as well when sold encrypted), DAZ may be forced to re-think the approach (but I doubt it). In any case, it's too early to tell as a lot of the encrypted stuff has either been given away or provided at steep discount so looking at the impact now is not an accurate assessment of what will happen when the proverbial rubber hits the road.
This. Quality sells. It always has, and it always will. If a company is getting lots of pirates and low sales, I hate to break it to you, but your product isn't that good. If it is worth buying, there will be buyers. People keep trying to compare software to physical real world comparisons. That simply doesn't work with digital content. This is not like getting your receipt checked at a door, or any other number of real world comparisons that people on each side of this argument have tried to make. Digital items are whole different ball game. Sure, it sucks that a few pirates are out there. But what sucks more is DRM, and it always hurts a paying customer more than it ever does a pirate.
People have mentioned that Denuvo DRM. It is also worth noting that the only games using it are all huge AAA games with massive budgets. That is because Denuvo is EXTREMELY expensive to buy. I sure hope it is worth that epensive for those companies. Meanwhile, the storefront GOG chugs right along and grows larger and larger every year. Their Witcher series is selling millions of copies, and each sequel has sold more than the last. I wonder how that is possible when they have no DRM to protect their software???
Perhaps that is due to that thing called quality. Perhaps it is due to the consumer trust that they have built up over the years.
Speaking of consumer trust, it is quite a powerful thing. Take the Xbox One. When they initially releaved the console as using a DRM check in cheme, the public destroyed them. They moved quickly and removed all of the elements of that DRM before launch. Yet this did not help. The damage had been done. Sure, the One is selling ok, but it is a very distant 2nd place to the ps4, when it could be neck and neck with ps4. The 360 had slowly built up a lot of goodwill with customers. One single press conference killed ALL of that goodwill.
There is also a recent article about Rainbow Six Seige being hurt by its publisher. This game has received pretty solid reviews all around, and it is a fresh take on a tired genre. But the game is not selling as expected, Ubisoft had predicted it would sell 7 million copies. Again, it is reviewed well and it is indeed a good game. So what is going on here? It is because Ubisoft has lost the trust of gamers in their Rainbow Six series. The public perception over the game is largely about the DLC practices and other things Uisoft has done over the years. In many ways, though, this DLC is not all forced on to people...kind of like this Daz DRM. But that doesn't matter. Perception and trust are killing the game's sales.
This is one of the many traps you can fall into with DRM. You can go ahead and think you are doing something to protect content creators. In reality, you are doing something that damages customer perception and trust in your product. Pirates will pirate anyway. Real users often get the shaft. I don't see how that helps anybody. The only people who make money off this are the ones that sell the expensive DRM schemes. So I guess they are doing quite well.
We are not sure that discussing the copy-protection on Poser is helpful - presumably a pot-calling -the-kettle-black argument will not affect those who think DRM is always bad ("two wrongs don't make a right"), people who are happy with DRM in prinnciple won't care that Poser has a version too, and while the differences between the two systems may be a point of reference for those who take a case-by-case view the case under discussion is the Daz system and the steps Daz is taking in an attempt to ameliorate some of people's concerns. In light of that, we are going to ask that the discussion of the Poser DRM and the post from the Poser Product Manager be dropped.
DIM could have minor issues, but IMO one of the problems is that DIM installs to where the vendors said to put the files. We ALL know how half-assed the file system is, that DAZ IS RESPONSIBLE for not having firm guidelines as to how to structure products. DIM is a script, it can't say "How stupid to put this there." So when people have "issues" getting content to work, it could possibly be where the files were put, they only are using part of it, etc, but the files are where DIM was told to put them.
Second, if people have the studio open when using DIM, that's not DIM's fault. So I'm assuming a lot of the "this didn't install" correctly is also user error. Then the rest of the users' concerns are all valid, but subtracting these two scenarios may eliminate some/many/a lot of those issues. (For those of you using DIM and having problems, I am not saying it was your fault, each situation is unique. I know I've been guilty of having the studio open when using DIM, and the files didn't install right, so I'm speaking with first hand experience of doing something that wasn't DIM's fault.)
And I don't have time to go back through all the threads but either a Daz Employee was misquoted, or you're saying something else- but what of the comments referring to when the DIM was reduced in usage, it would be removed? (Anyone who knows where that post was, please post it.) Glad to hear that it's not going anywhere, I've bookmarked your post.
Hypotheticals are important. Just because it works well for you doesn't mean that it isn't a new way for things to break. Like a new moving part added to an engine it becomes another spot where something could go wrong, and we should be concerned with how that could happen and what it means if it does. That may mean choosing not to spend money due to the added risks, real or perceived. That is a valid decision as none of us can decide what risk is acceptable for someone else.
DAZ obviously is attempting and has attempted to minimize and mitigate those risks, but they are still real concerns even if expressed in hypothetical terms. If they don't sway your purchasing decisions that doesn't mean that I might percieve things differently and make different purchasing decisions.
That is aside from other philosophical objections one may have to influence their decisions. After all, purchasing the DRMed products can be seen as support for DRM and the ideology associated with it regardless of your actual reasons for purchase. Remember that in the name of DRM companies have gone to some extreme measures including software that caused damage to users systems.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_copy_protection_rootkit_scandal
I find the concepts embodied in DRM troubling, and I'm very reluctant to support it's adoption by a company even in the mild form presented here. And we are still at the adoption phase. This isn't like Steam where DRM was a component of their business model from day 1.
I guess my post was aimed at those who are still on the fence about the whole thing; the customer who is only hearing "DRM is bad" from this crowd and little to nothing from users who are actually buying and using encrypted content. I'm also reinstalling all of my content using Connect - which is not something I would recommend to anyone else now that I've done a lot of it - but I've been sharing my findings with others who didn't want to try it and the whole experience has been useful for all interested.
I base my opinions on actual experiences, both my own and those of others. If I start hearing about many customers being unable to access their content for days at a time and DAZ doing little to remedy the situation, I would absolutely have second-thoughts about buying any further DRM-enabled content. I didn't like the idea of Adobe switching to a subscription plan, especially after paying $600 for CS6 not six months before Creative Cloud was launched, but I gave it a try. I've had it since the start and it's been well worth it. If I had listened to everyone on Adobe forums speculating like it was the end of the world, it would have been my loss. That's all I'm saying here.
People have brought up the Steam comparison several times (usually negatively) but it's not as simple as a 'has a thing' flag:
+ Steam brings all of your games together into one easy place to manage them
+ It also makes it very easy to find and buy more, good for both customers and developers, who would otherwise be strung out all over the place
-There's DRM
You can see how people might say "but they're trying to make Studio the same! Put all your content in one system that is also great at finding more!" The thing is, games aren't 3D Assets. A game is a finished end product that isn't something you work with to do something else.You will never really need to open a game in another content management system. Steam may have DRM, but the games actual files are in place on your computer unencrypted (beyond what the game would normally be) so if a certain asset of the game needs fixing, it's possible. You also don't mix games together to form something, so it doesn't matter if some of your games are in this one system and some not.
Steam was also the first online game distributor to achieve success and was thus able to set the rules at the start. DAZ can't do that today since the 3D content market is an existing one and there are alternatives for customers and artists. Today, even the mighty Steam is facing competition from other retailers who are using the lack of DRM as a key differentiator. http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/5/8524597/gog-galaxy-open-beta-launch