You've been heard. Response re: 4.9 and Encryption

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Comments

  • shadowhawk1shadowhawk1 Posts: 2,203

    Actually there is, I am still running 4.8 so I don't use connect and have no intention of using it, so that is not an option for me. I would like to see daz come out and state they are going to offer an encrypted freebie for X number of days and then will offer the same freebie for the same number of days to see what the breakdown is. 

  • PetercatPetercat Posts: 2,321

    All of this talk of hackers figuring out how to unencrypt individual items is pointless.

    All they have to do is figure out the key for Daz 4.9, and everything becomes useable.

  • shadowhawk1shadowhawk1 Posts: 2,203
    Petercat said:
    Kerya said:

     

    Oh - I just had a brilliant idea for a test - offer this as Encrypted Daz Connect AND as DIM - and watch what people are downloading - the Easy install (uhm ...) with Connect or the "I am sorting my content myself" way.

    (Entirely unselfish idea, no, I don't need the Make a wish pretties, I don't, I don't ... uhm)

    Or they could wait and offer it unencrypted a month later add see who snaps it up.

    Those would be the sales lost due to encryption.

    If they would do that with the Trenchcoat, I guarantee at least one sale!

    (I know, I'm beating a dead horse here, but dammit, that horse deserves a beating!)

    {{Hands Petercat a new stick}} That might be an even better idea. Offer an item for sale encrypted ... Say some skimpwear since it sells best and would give you the best numbers and make it known that it is being offered as an encrypted item for a set period and then offer it for the same period unencrypted and jusdge the sales and popularity for thier DRM. 

  • PetercatPetercat Posts: 2,321
    edited February 2016
    Petercat said:
    Kerya said:

     

    Oh - I just had a brilliant idea for a test - offer this as Encrypted Daz Connect AND as DIM - and watch what people are downloading - the Easy install (uhm ...) with Connect or the "I am sorting my content myself" way.

    (Entirely unselfish idea, no, I don't need the Make a wish pretties, I don't, I don't ... uhm)

    Or they could wait and offer it unencrypted a month later add see who snaps it up.

    Those would be the sales lost due to encryption.

    If they would do that with the Trenchcoat, I guarantee at least one sale!

    (I know, I'm beating a dead horse here, but dammit, that horse deserves a beating!)

    {{Hands Petercat a new stick}} That might be an even better idea. Offer an item for sale encrypted ... Say some skimpwear since it sells best and would give you the best numbers and make it known that it is being offered as an encrypted item for a set period and then offer it for the same period unencrypted and jusdge the sales and popularity for thier DRM. 

    That's why they don't tell anyone that it will be offered unencrypted a month later.

    Thanks for the new stick, it looks suspiciously like a trenchcoat... (too much starch).

    Post edited by Petercat on
  • a-sennova-sennov Posts: 331
    Havos said:

    "Make A Wish" has only ever been available (officially) via DAZ Connect Encrypted. Look for earlier posts where someone mentions that this product was exported to hexagon (I assume the hacker that did it posted this info) in order to create an unecrypted version.

    Just to make things clear:

    • I've posted this info here (on page 38) but I'm in no way associated with the person who made and uploaded this package
    • It is not a 'crack', 'hack' or whatever intrusive tech involved in making this package - just normal documented operations, anybody who have this product can make the same (without uploading it, obviously :) ), even without Hexagon
    • as I initially wasn't interested in this product (in either form) I do not have it so I cannot verify if what's being distributed is actually 'Make a wish' that's available in the DAZ store. I also outlined the reasons why nobody (except, maybe, DAZ) can.

     

  • HavosHavos Posts: 5,574
    a-sennov said:
    Havos said:

    "Make A Wish" has only ever been available (officially) via DAZ Connect Encrypted. Look for earlier posts where someone mentions that this product was exported to hexagon (I assume the hacker that did it posted this info) in order to create an unecrypted version.

    Just to make things clear:

    • I've posted this info here (on page 38) but I'm in no way associated with the person who made and uploaded this package
    • It is not a 'crack', 'hack' or whatever intrusive tech involved in making this package - just normal documented operations, anybody who have this product can make the same (without uploading it, obviously :) ), even without Hexagon
    • as I initially wasn't interested in this product (in either form) I do not have it so I cannot verify if what's being distributed is actually 'Make a wish' that's available in the DAZ store. I also outlined the reasons why nobody (except, maybe, DAZ) can.

     

    I did not think you were the hacker, sorry if that was the impression my post left. I was merely pointing out that the person who was the hacker had said how he did it (or so I assume as I had not seen the torrent in question)

  • shadowhawk1shadowhawk1 Posts: 2,203
    Petercat said:
    Petercat said:
    Kerya said:

     

    Oh - I just had a brilliant idea for a test - offer this as Encrypted Daz Connect AND as DIM - and watch what people are downloading - the Easy install (uhm ...) with Connect or the "I am sorting my content myself" way.

    (Entirely unselfish idea, no, I don't need the Make a wish pretties, I don't, I don't ... uhm)

    Or they could wait and offer it unencrypted a month later add see who snaps it up.

    Those would be the sales lost due to encryption.

    If they would do that with the Trenchcoat, I guarantee at least one sale!

    (I know, I'm beating a dead horse here, but dammit, that horse deserves a beating!)

    {{Hands Petercat a new stick}} That might be an even better idea. Offer an item for sale encrypted ... Say some skimpwear since it sells best and would give you the best numbers and make it known that it is being offered as an encrypted item for a set period and then offer it for the same period unencrypted and jusdge the sales and popularity for thier DRM. 

    That's why they don't tell anyone that it will be offered unencrypted a month later.

    Thanks for the new stick, it looks suspiciously like a trenchcoat... (too much starch).

    {{Hides can of starch}} Really I didn't notice ... 

  • a-sennova-sennov Posts: 331
    Petercat said:
    All they have to do is figure out the key for Daz 4.9, and everything becomes useable.

    Not that easy :) Content is encrypted for you exclusively while you download it via Connect so you need your personal key to decrypt it. Your key is made using your account credentials and some system configuration data, that's why you need to authenticate first time and then each time your system is changed. Possibly it's how their future 'poison pill' will work - it will ask your account name, get your current sysinfo and generate actual key for decryption locally instead of getting it from DAZ server.

    So, to really crack the system one have to make keygen :)

    Disclaimer: I'm not hacker, just curious to know how things are ticking :)

  • TaozTaoz Posts: 10,237
    a-sennov said:

    "Poison pill" is not yet provided. This thing has to be 100% reliable by it's nature but how shall I be aware of this? I cannot test it until DAZ is gone and after that - who will provide fixes if they will be needed?

    The Poison Pill is as I understand it just a program that decrypts the encrypted files, if that's correct it's a fairly simple program and there's no reason to believe it will be unreliable.

     

  • a-sennova-sennov Posts: 331
    Havos said:
    I did not think you were the hacker, sorry if that was the impression my post left.

    English isn't my native language so there are times when I can misunderstand something :)

  • PetercatPetercat Posts: 2,321
    Taozen said:
    a-sennov said:

    "Poison pill" is not yet provided. This thing has to be 100% reliable by it's nature but how shall I be aware of this? I cannot test it until DAZ is gone and after that - who will provide fixes if they will be needed?

    The Poison Pill is as I understand it just a program that decrypts the encrypted files, if that's correct it's a fairly simple program and there's no reason to believe it will be unreliable.

     

    There is also no reason to believe that it can't be hacked as well.

  • PetercatPetercat Posts: 2,321
    a-sennov said:
    Havos said:
    I did not think you were the hacker, sorry if that was the impression my post left.

    English isn't my native language so there are times when I can misunderstand something :)

    Trust me, a-sennov, it's easy enough to misunderstand when it is your native language!

  • HavosHavos Posts: 5,574
    Taozen said:
    a-sennov said:

    "Poison pill" is not yet provided. This thing has to be 100% reliable by it's nature but how shall I be aware of this? I cannot test it until DAZ is gone and after that - who will provide fixes if they will be needed?

    The Poison Pill is as I understand it just a program that decrypts the encrypted files, if that's correct it's a fairly simple program and there's no reason to believe it will be unreliable.

     

    Indeed it should work, I hope, but you can not test it until after DAZ's demise, and if it fails to work, who will you sue?

  • TaozTaoz Posts: 10,237
    Petercat said:
    Taozen said:
    a-sennov said:

    "Poison pill" is not yet provided. This thing has to be 100% reliable by it's nature but how shall I be aware of this? I cannot test it until DAZ is gone and after that - who will provide fixes if they will be needed?

    The Poison Pill is as I understand it just a program that decrypts the encrypted files, if that's correct it's a fairly simple program and there's no reason to believe it will be unreliable.

     

    There is also no reason to believe that it can't be hacked as well.

    No but that would be pointless as the Poison Pill itself will decrypt the files right away. And it won't be released unless DAZ goes out of business anyway.

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    a-sennov said:
    • as I initially wasn't interested in this product (in either form) I do not have it so I cannot verify if what's being distributed is actually 'Make a wish' that's available in the DAZ store. I also outlined the reasons why nobody (except, maybe, DAZ) can.

     

    If it is using any of the promo art...then that is enough of an infringement to report it to Customer Service.  Daz has a team to into things like that...but to do so, they need to know about it.  

  • a-sennova-sennov Posts: 331
    Taozen said:
    a-sennov said:

    "Poison pill" is not yet provided. This thing has to be 100% reliable by it's nature but how shall I be aware of this? I cannot test it until DAZ is gone and after that - who will provide fixes if they will be needed?

    The Poison Pill is as I understand it just a program that decrypts the encrypted files, if that's correct it's a fairly simple program and there's no reason to believe it will be unreliable.

    Seeing all that 'database saga' from SQLite to Valentina to Postgres with the latest 'we have a script to correct your lost custom categories but it's not for everyone' I believe the pill will just erase all content to the hell :)

     

  •  

    They already have gotten that freebie Make A Wish on the hacked sites.   A fellow vendor friend of mine trolls a few to make sure his products are not listed there and has seen the Make A Wish on two different torrents.

     

     

    That's the unencrypted version from DIM that is being shared.

     

    There was no unencrypted version of that set. It was releasedfrom the start as an Encrypted set for people that were requesting a freebie to see how the encrypted sets worked in connect. 

    But it was mainly, or entirely, un-rigged props so fairly easy to work around with no hackiong required.

    You've just described a large part of Stonemason's catalog. And several other high end packages in the store. I worry that if they aren't protected by the current system that it could lead to something stronger and more restrictive being applied. We've already lost some methods of export and editing with the current Encrypted content. How much more would need to be locked to protect props and poses? 

  • IceCrMnIceCrMn Posts: 2,319

    What export options have you lost?

  • PetercatPetercat Posts: 2,321
    Taozen said:
    Petercat said:
    Taozen said:
    a-sennov said:

    "Poison pill" is not yet provided. This thing has to be 100% reliable by it's nature but how shall I be aware of this? I cannot test it until DAZ is gone and after that - who will provide fixes if they will be needed?

    The Poison Pill is as I understand it just a program that decrypts the encrypted files, if that's correct it's a fairly simple program and there's no reason to believe it will be unreliable.

     

    There is also no reason to believe that it can't be hacked as well.

    No but that would be pointless as the Poison Pill itself will decrypt the files right away. And it won't be released unless DAZ goes out of business anyway.

    I was talking about hackers creating their own version to do what Daz's poisoned pill is supposed to do, but doing it now.

  • We've already lost some methods of export and editing with the current Encrypted content.

    What export methods have been lost? As far as I am aware they are untouched.

  • We've already lost some methods of export and editing with the current Encrypted content.

    What export methods have been lost? As far as I am aware they are untouched.

    Funny, I'd swear I'd heard that Carrara couldn't work with encrypted .dufs, and the DSON exporter was likewise unable to. Guess I was mistaken? 

  • BarubaryBarubary Posts: 1,230
    edited February 2016
    Barubary said:
    frank0314 said:

    We had the same upheaval when Daz went to all packs being in zip format. Have the same with DIM. Had the same with Genesis replacing V4-M4. I see a pattern here. You can't make everyone happy.

    Yeah, Genesis replacing V4 / M4 was quite an upheaval, too. I remeber it well. Many were afraid that this would begin a split in the 3D world between Poser and DAZ and that DAZ would, in the long run, move away from Poser.

    Of course, as DAZ and many DAZ fans insisted, this was nothing but fear mongering and conspiracy theories. DAZ was comitted to their Poser users as much as ever.

    This was, in fact, my own position back then.

     

    Maybe, if we closely examine the situation today, we need to ethink how the terms 'fear mongering and conspiracy theories'.

    I can't see how this is the same situation. With Genesis, while there were compatibility issues there were new features and improvements to the figure that could not exist without breaking compatibility. This DRM adds nothing to the content and in fact places limitations that had not been present before. DRM is not progress, it's not some new feature that improves content in any way and again I ask anyone to show me any way the DRM makes anything better for the end user in any real fashion. I can name several ways Genesis was an improvement on V4/M4 for users, can you name one way an encrypted product is an improvement to users over an unencrypted version of the same product?

    I get that the intent of this argument is to paint those opposing DRM as just fearing change, but there are real issues involved with DRM that should not be dismissed so lightly. This isn't fear mongering or conspiracy theory but actual concern over a system that is provably hobbling our content with no benefit to us.

    Well actually, I did mean to say the exact opposite. (the misunderstanding might stem from me writing that post 'on the go', which also explains the abundance of mistakes blush)

     

    The 'fear mongering and conspiracy theories' turned out to be pretty much correct. DAZ has almost completely stopped supporting Poser, the market has been pretty much split in half (although they might not be equally sized halves ^^).

     

    Back then, I did give DAZ the benefit of the doubt, which was wrong.

     

    DAZ did, of course, play it smart (intentionally or not), doing things step by step, until there were not enough Poser users left here to really oppose the change and everyone else had become used to the new status quo anyway (although Genesis in itself was kind of a stumble).

     

    For now, DAZ Connect seems not too inconvenient for most people and not too intrusive. Maybe it's because DAZ wants to be nice. Or because they want to ease us into it and that's just what they think they can get away with at the moment.

     

    Maybe, two years from now, it would be much more conveniet and much more secure for us, if DS can ONLY read encrypted content. But, hey, does anyone really want to shop somewhere else for content at that point?

     

    Obviously, that's just speculation on my part and maybe it's not even on the 'likely' side of speculation.

     

    None of that gets decided now, not on DAZ side and neither on ours. What gets decided now is what kind of framework is put into place and what kind of control DAZ should have on our content libraries and the marketplace as a whole. And that's something we should think about.

     

    And I'm not at all saying it's without it's conveniencies. There are quite a few positives to Connect, I do not dispute that. But we have to think about the price.

    Post edited by Barubary on
  • We've already lost some methods of export and editing with the current Encrypted content.

    What export methods have been lost? As far as I am aware they are untouched.

    Funny, I'd swear I'd heard that Carrara couldn't work with encrypted .dufs, and the DSON exporter was likewise unable to. Guess I was mistaken? 

    Assuming you mean DSON Importer for Poser then no, you are not wrong - but those aren't export options from DS, rathre they are native DS import options for the destination applications, hence my confusion.

  • LeanaLeana Posts: 12,738

    We've already lost some methods of export and editing with the current Encrypted content.

    What export methods have been lost? As far as I am aware they are untouched.

    Funny, I'd swear I'd heard that Carrara couldn't work with encrypted .dufs, and the DSON exporter was likewise unable to. Guess I was mistaken? 

    No, they don't work with encrypted files. But that's not an export method, Carrara and DSON importer use the duf themselves.

  • Barubary said:
    Barubary said:
    frank0314 said:

    We had the same upheaval when Daz went to all packs being in zip format. Have the same with DIM. Had the same with Genesis replacing V4-M4. I see a pattern here. You can't make everyone happy.

    Yeah, Genesis replacing V4 / M4 was quite an upheaval, too. I remeber it well. Many were afraid that this would begin a split in the 3D world between Poser and DAZ and that DAZ would, in the long run, move away from Poser.

    Of course, as DAZ and many DAZ fans insisted, this was nothing but fear mongering and conspiracy theories. DAZ was comitted to their Poser users as much as ever.

    This was, in fact, my own position back then.

     

    Maybe, if we closely examine the situation today, we need to ethink how the terms 'fear mongering and conspiracy theories'.

    I can't see how this is the same situation. With Genesis, while there were compatibility issues there were new features and improvements to the figure that could not exist without breaking compatibility. This DRM adds nothing to the content and in fact places limitations that had not been present before. DRM is not progress, it's not some new feature that improves content in any way and again I ask anyone to show me any way the DRM makes anything better for the end user in any real fashion. I can name several ways Genesis was an improvement on V4/M4 for users, can you name one way an encrypted product is an improvement to users over an unencrypted version of the same product?

    I get that the intent of this argument is to paint those opposing DRM as just fearing change, but there are real issues involved with DRM that should not be dismissed so lightly. This isn't fear mongering or conspiracy theory but actual concern over a system that is provably hobbling our content with no benefit to us.

    Well actually, I did mean to say the exact opposite. (the misunderstanding might stem from me writing that post 'on the go', which also explains the abundance of mistakes blush)

     

    The 'fear mongering and conspiracy theories' turned out to be pretty much correct. DAZ has almost completely stopped supporting Poser, the market has been pretty much split in half (although they might not be equally sized halves ^^).

     

    Back then, I did give DAZ the benefit of the doubt, which was wrong.

     

    DAZ did, of course, play it smart (intentionally or not), doing things step by step, until there were not enough Poser users left here to really oppose the change and everyone else had become used to the new status quo anyway (although Genesis in itself was kind of a stumble).

     

    For now, DAZ Connect seems not too inconvenient for most people and not too intrusive. Maybe it's because DAZ wants to be nice. Or because they want to ease us into it and that's just what they think they can get away with at the moment.

     

    Maybe, two years from now, it would be much more conveniet and much more secure for us, if DS can ONLY read encrypted content. But, hey, does anyone really want to shop somewhere else for content at that point?

     

    Obviously, that's just speculation on my part and maybe it's not even on the 'likely' side of speculation.

     

    None of that gets decided now, not on DAZ side and neither on ours. What gets decided now is what kind of framework is put into place and what kind of control DAZ should have on our content libraries and the marketplace as a whole. And that's something we should think about.

     

    And I'm not at all saying it's without it's conveniencies. There are quite a few positives to Connect, I do not dispute that. But we have to think about the price.

    Alternatively Daz had no intention of abandoning Poser at the time and did try to mantain compatibility (DSON Importer was, after all, introduced well after the release of the original TriAx figures to try to make the content more usable in Poser) but as techinical obstacles and customer uninterest stacked up it became impractical to continue (at least for now).

  • a-sennova-sennov Posts: 331
    mjc1016 said:

    If it is using any of the promo art...then that is enough of an infringement to report it to Customer Service.  Daz has a team to into things like that...but to do so, they need to know about it.  

    Hmm. Promo art is not mentioned in EULA, also it's not included as part of the Content we buy (personnaly I would like it to be) so to my understanding it's usage is inethical maybe but it's not an infrigement as long as pirate doen't claim that he has produced it. Actually there are sites like posercontent that aggregate (legally, I presume, as DAZ put banners there) info from multiple stores and present it with the same promo materials.

    As for report - anybody can google 'daz3d make a wish torrent' - it'll be the very first link from the list. I think DAZ is capable to write script to do this on regular basis.

     

  • Leana said:

    We've already lost some methods of export and editing with the current Encrypted content.

    What export methods have been lost? As far as I am aware they are untouched.

    Funny, I'd swear I'd heard that Carrara couldn't work with encrypted .dufs, and the DSON exporter was likewise unable to. Guess I was mistaken? 

    No, they don't work with encrypted files. But that's not an export method, Carrara and DSON importer use the duf themselves.

    I suppose they're more properly considered imports than exports but on a base level they're ways of getting DS content to work with other software. I'm just asking how far is DAZ willing to go to lock down content in the name of 'protection'? They clearly wanted to avoid cutting off any export/import options, and managed to only hit two as 'acceptable losses', but how effective is the DRM really going to be with large categories of high value content unable to be 'protected'? And how can they protect that content without rendering it useless or at least crippled elsewhere? 

  • a-sennova-sennov Posts: 331

    ...as techinical obstacles and customer uninterest stacked up it became impractical to continue (at least for now).

    Existance of Dusk and Down (and Antonia - AntoniaWM) proves the opposite to me - there is interest to have the cross-compatible figures. V4 also lives on because she works anywhere.

  • a-sennova-sennov Posts: 331

    Funny pirate story: after posting the previous message I went to close the 'torrent search' tab but accidentally spotted something called DynCreator. Out of curiosity I've read the description... and rushed to the store to buy it :)

    So I'm away to test it... suspect it's already too much of me here anyway :)

  • Here's a solution do away with encryption make connect an optional plugin for those who want it and keep dim for thsoe who prefer it

This discussion has been closed.