You've been heard. Response re: 4.9 and Encryption
This discussion has been closed.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Brilliant idea!
EDITED: never mind, I deleted my original response. I'm not going to argue with you over this and get into another fight where a dozen posts get pulled.
Thank you. I will remove my comments now, and I hope that the others will do the same.
Folks, Steve has apologized and corrected it. It's over, let's make it disappear.
It seems there is still some confusion about the "poison pill" details. As I read it, this paragraph from the initial post in this thread:
specifically says "no longer in a business position to, OR IS UNWILLING TO", and lays out both use of a software escrow company and an addition to the EULA, providing enforceable legal protection from Daz management sinply reversing this policy. So in my view, that concern is being addressed.
I suppose a lot of what is bothering me is my memories of when the various sites were more about being communities for digital artists that also had stores. Daz always was more businesslike than most but it seems in the time since I last was actively working on art they have become almost reminiscent of how EA is in the gaming industry.
Time was, it felt like the people running the company were fellow artists or at least understood artists, but now it feels like there has been a strong shift to a more corporate way of doing things. Maybe this has been happening for a while, I've been away for some time. But as I suffer with the crippling of my library with no more than a form letter "we got your ticket" message, I really do get to feeling that all DAZ wants is me to hand over more money for less. Less control, less usability, less reliability. Products I can no longer edit at all levels for whatever reasons I may have. That may just stop working anytime some key system decides my hardware has changed enough or just if the key somehow gets corrupted. A content library system that has potential to go badly wrong for those of us who aren't able to be online in all situations. A store tab shoehorned in like the Content Paradise of old...
Hmm, we've got DRM, buying and dismantling or sidelining other stores and software, putting out products that seem to be minor variations of the same old themes... But I suppose EA is successful enough they barely notice upset customers so it worked for them.
Yes, I saw it and have removed my posts concerning it, as I accept his apology and the discussion is no longer needed. I hope that everyone who quoted me will also remove their posts. It's over, folks, let's make it go away.
I will repeat my earlier suggestion:
Take a popular item, like the Trenchcoat. After it's past the normal high-volume sales period, (4-8 weeks) offer it for sale unencrypted for the same price. Don't announce it in advance.
See how many customers jump on it. I'll be one of them. I really, really want that Trenchcoat!
That will give you a rough idea of how many people didn't buy it because of encryption.
Easy. Bloodless. Informative.
Poser users might like to Google "interview-with-charles-taylor-about-drm-and-poser-software"
Hasn't poser had digital rights management for years? I know it use to have a fit if I tried to have it open on two computers at once and it seems like there was some discussion about its need to phone home at some point. Both of those are ways of managing digital rights.
Or even non-Poser users. I don't like Poser because I don't like using it and had issues with their web interfaces (or their tone when I cancelled my trial) so I'm not about to jump over there, but the people seem sensible enough.
Software vs assets (sort of like Photoshop having DRM vs every Photoshop Brush and filter having its own DRM.) I don't know how he thinks he's going to make the software licence benefit users, though.
Having been a PA up until this week I have held my tongue only because I had my wrist slapped several times for speaking out. What I have seen has left a very bad taste in my mouth and my lack of purchasing in the last two and half years probably shows that. I picked up the freebies but little else. There are PA's that are for this and PA's that are not but DAZ is going to do what they want anyway. Look at the removal of the dark theme as an example. You are all stuck with this glaring white background and shades of grey lettering and highlights because some marketing firm said that it creates trust and makes people more likely to buy things.
Before you go and call me disgruntaled or say I am being petty, I started creating content when a firend here offered to get my foot in the door as Genesis was coming out. Real Life and my personal views of certain things made me stop creating content and I hold no ill will to management for severing ties with me, they are a company that is driven by content created by others and they were only doing what they felt they needed to do.
There is a great deal I disagree with them on but won't say here on this thread, I will however say that I think they are wrong and since their first posts that were suddenly changed when 4.9 first came out in Beta due to the massive backlash I believe that they are saying what they need to to calm people and have no real plans to change what they are doing. It will only be by not purchasing content here as a form of protest that they will understand that not all change is good.
+1 Completely agree with everything he says. Interesting, but not surprising, that Daz's rivals are jumping on this as a means to show that they care more about their customers.
"At this time, we at Poser have no intent to introduce DRM to content. We think our customers are already honest." - Love it!
you Charles Taylor!
Whilst DAZ's big announcement to hand over the Poison Pill to a third party was not something that in anyway solved the issues for me, the solution you have outlined, would.
I saw that in an email, and it is an interesting read. Obviously since SM makes the bulk of their money (for Poser I mean) from software sales, rather than content sales, it is easier for him to dismiss DRM than it is for DAZ.
Let me add, if someone else purchases Daz, they cannot violate the EULA.
When you purchase a company, you purchase their contracts and obligations as well.
So confusing, got two different answers in 2 different threads.
so, Is this correct ?
It is encrypted at DAZ, if I DOWNLOAD it to my hard drive, that version is un-encrypted and stays that way.
So that even if I do not have an internet connection live I will be able to work with the stuff I have on hard drive regardless.
as long as I already downloaded it
yes / no ?
If you buy an encrypted product, it downloads encrypted via connect, and the file stays encrypted. You login once in Studio and you are authorised to use the encrypted item (until your hardware changes or some other unknown things.) So you basically get the key until you change your computer, online or not.
good to know, will not buy any encrypted stuff
I hope they clearly mark the items.
When a company loads something on your computer that stays encrypted
and they are the only source to use it because only they can unencrypt it
then you don't own it, you are only renting it.
making those items useless to me
so, please mark those items so we can avoid them, maybe a check box in the store to filter them out.
Ditto.
+1
Yup. Once a product was available unencrypted, it might get added to wishlist. Or bought immediately.
(Encrypted only content will NOT get added to wishlist.)
DAZ_Steve said:
" Daz Connect is pretty much like DIM inside Studio"
it is not at all
From the FAQ
Does Daz Studio 4.9 require me to be online to use Daz Connect installed content?
You are not required to be online to use products installed using Daz Connect.
You are required to connect at least once to validate your account, but you can work offline from that point forward. However, working offline will not allow you to benefit from using live product and metadata updates, installing content from our servers, or using the Store page in the Smart Content pane.
Also, repying to this point, from another of your posts
You do not actually own the product, you purchase a license to use the product. That is fact now, has always been fact. Daz 3D or the PA "Owns" the product.
then you don't own it, you are only renting it..
For all practical purposes, we own it. Right now, there are ways to insure that you can't take items that we've purchased away from us.
With encryption/DRM, we cannot insure that.
After all, it's already happened with other DRM plans. Like Kindle.
+1
Question: say you buy an item now, with whatever rights come with it (rendering images usually.) No encryption, you have the files, paid for, etc. Obviously having bought and now "owning" the item doesn't mean it's yours to do with as you wish and claim it's your own - but can the artist then change their terms post sale so that you are for example no longer allowed to use the item in renders? Or are the terms at time of sale the only binding ones?
(This is relevant for encrypted content.)
An interesting side effect of all this is that I have adopted a new purchasing pattern that has saved me quite a lot of money this month. It goes without saying that DRM'd products are unpurchasable for me, and that will never change, but what about the non-DRM items? Well, one thing that has stopped is the "Instabuy". I am now concerned that any product marked as non-DRM have been marked that way as the result of a mistake, so I leave a couple of days to let DAZ make corrections before considering moving it into the cart. And then, guess what? Some of the things I was thinking of buying, would have just bought pre-DRM Day, I look again and think: "No, I don't really need that."
So, out of this dreadful mess, I say thank you to Steve Spencer - for the first time DAZ really is saving me money!
+1
When you purchased it, in effect, you entered into a contract with whoever had the rights to sell it to you. That contract cannot be changed unless both parties (You and the seller) agree to the changes. So, no, the artist can only change the terms for sales made after the change.
That doesn't mean that it can't happen. Kindle/Amazon got into a lot of trouble when they removed Mark Twain's books from Kindle users who had bought them, because they were still under copyright and Amazon had never gotten the proper permissions to sell them. Cost Amazon a fortune and a lot of good will, because they refused (at first) to refund the affected customers' money!
It can't happen to those of us who, for whatever reason, never put their art computers online, or who store backups to everything on external hard drives (or both...). :)
All these issues have made me look at items more closely too. Although for me it's more like:
- DRM?
- On sale in some way?
- Does this item do something that nothing else I own does in some significant way?
- Would it be too much of a pain to make it myself?
- Do I actually need it for anything I'm working on right now?
Some items are passing all those questions and being bought, but most of them go onto wishlist as "maybe it'll popup in a sale one day and I'll reevaluate."