The new anti-piracy "illusion" and simple logic

[kohlrabi_Croce]

I happen to be lucky that I do have an around the clock internet connection,
so I am not in the predicament of many here. So I won't be asking
for a refund, but I feel for those who don't have an internet connection.

Radiance just told me that: "It's not about the 'new anti-piracy system' illusion that everyone has. i've said it a lot of times, it's *not* an antipiracy system, just wait until 2.3 is out and then make your judgements."

in this thread:
http://www.refractivesoftware.com/forum ... 663#p27663

So I want to take a look, logically, at what he did say.

In this thread:
http://www.refractivesoftware.com/forum ... &start=130


In the last post, Radiance said:

_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Post Re: *** Octane 2.3+ will require network connection for use ***
I'm gonna go ahead and close this topic,
i think everything's been said that has to be said.

* wait and see when we release the new 2.3 intermediate and comment then on the system.
* we are NOT developing an anti piracy system. we are developing a new workflow that has the side effect of eliminating piracy, of which i'm sure everyone will really like. (unfortunately i'm not going to elaborate on it as we have competition reading our posts and i don't want to give them our new ideas prematurely.
* we will make sure that you will be able to use octane render in a comfortable way with less piracy related time lost than current, even using a slow internet connection. (eg the whole 'wait until your license key arives via email' will be gone, including the whole 3 activations, as you will be able to activate/deactivate your license whenever and whereever you want, it's fully floating, including your app preferences.)
* this is something we *have* to do, otherwise there will be no octane in 6 months anymore.
* the current 8x less sales is definately correlated with the sudden explosion of cracked copies and torrents, we've been selling at a very stable and good volume up until 2 weeks ago, which is quite a long time after the end of the 50% off deal.

So, just have a bit of patience and see what the 2.3 intermediate release brings...

Yours,
Radiance
________________________________________________________________________________________

Ok, in the second bullet point radiance states that he is not developing an anti-piracy system, but admits
that it is a side effect of the new system.

In the third bullet point, radiance states that " we will make sure that you will be able to use octane render in a comfortable way with less piracy related time lost than current, even using a slow internet connection." Ok ,what does this mean? Right away the focus is on "less piracy" which makes it better for us the customers.

In the fourth bullet point, radiance states that: "this is something we *have* to do, otherwise there will be no octane in 6 months anymore." Why do they HAVE to do it? Because of Piracy! They don't have to do it
because of new and wonderful features, they have to do it because of piracy. We are not fooled about it.
It is not merely a side effect, it is the main reason they are doing this, unless the benefits of being forced
to connect to the internet in order to use Octane means we will then have access to a huge render farm
of Fermi's. But I don't see any reason why a developer would force his entire customer base to use such
a wonderful thing. No, this is more on the order of: this is for anti-piracy, and it's for your own good.

In the fourth bullet point, radiance said: "* the current 8x less sales is definately correlated with the sudden explosion of cracked copies and torrents, we've been selling at a very stable and good volume up until 2 weeks ago, which is quite a long time after the end of the 50% off deal."

More evidence that this is really about anti-piracy, and radiance's statement that this decision is not about anti-piracy, is absolutely not true.

It really is about anti-piracy, and the new features whatever they are are just a side effect, and the
people who don't have a solid permanent internet connection are out of luck.

Again, for the record, I am one of the lucky ones who does have a solid permanent connection,
and I don't do any kind of super-secret work, so it doesn't affect me, but I'm looking at the
truth of things here, by means of simple logic. Am I going to get banned too now?

[tungee]

Pffffffffffffffffff..........................

[Carl S.]

You have no idea what the new features are. You are going off his posts that are intended to only talk about the anti piracy purposely leaving any feature talk out.
You then twist this by using your lack of knowledge of what the new features are into some conspiracy theory.
Even if this was the case and anti piracy was first and foremost and features were second? SO WHAT! Who really cares?
The biggest mistake here was Radiance talking to his customers about this. I hope a few unreasonable loudmouths who work under very rare unrealistic conditions don't ruin that for the rest of us. Amazing people have to complain even when it doesn't affect them at all.

How about come back with this "clear logic" after 2.3 is released?

[iknowmedia]

@Carl S., Amen!!

[andrian]

Amen twice !!!

[n1k]

Chill out people. Why can't you wait few more days and see what future brings? Nobody is going to die:)

Cheers,
n1k

[tylerzambori]

You have no idea what the new features are. You are going off his posts that are intended to only talk about the anti piracy purposely leaving any feature talk out.
You then twist this by using your lack of knowledge of what the new features are into some conspiracy theory.
Even if this was the case and anti piracy was first and foremost and features were second? SO WHAT! Who really cares?
The biggest mistake here was Radiance talking to his customers about this. I hope a few unreasonable loudmouths who work under very rare unrealistic conditions don't ruin that for the rest of us. Amazing people have to complain even when it doesn't affect them at all.

How about come back with this "clear logic" after 2.3 is released?

If I don't get banned and have all my posts removed, I will be happy to come back
and do a re-analysis after the new features are made public.

You betcha!

The reason it matters is: truth.

It does no good for the developer to tell us we are just imagining it's all about
anti-piracy when it clearly is. And being brow-beaten by other users doesn't
change the truth either. They "have to" force people to
only be able to use Octane online, because of anti-piracy! This was stated
clearly, and then the claims that people are having illusions about it being about
anti-piracy started.

This leads to crazy-making.

[kohlrabi_Croce]

Sorry, wrong ID. I have two because I bought two
copies of Octane. My mistake. I have it set up
on two different computers because I have a copy
of octane on each, and also access to the forum on each.
Had to move to the other computer and forgot.

edit: With the new setup I might be able to manage both
licenses with one ID, so my original thinking about
can now probably be updated.

PS: somebody did just get banned this morning,
for asking for a refund, so I'm not imagining things.

[radiance]

Hi,

The new feature for 2.3 that we decided to move from beta3 to beta 2.3 (eg earlier) is called 'octane live',
it's an idea that i've been working out in my head over the last year,
and i'm sure it will set a trend with competitors, and many octane users will love it.

It requires an internet connection, and we decided to move it from beta3 to beta2.3 (i've already said all this in posts) due to the large piracy that has sprung up during the last weeks, basically crippling our sales.

So, we did not develop this as anti-piracy or DRM feature in it's own right. I explicitly said that we have delayed 2.3 to develop octane live now, instead of at beta3, due to the recent surge in piracy.

I don't understand why people with internet connections here complain.
You'll get a lot of new functionality, you can deactivate and reactivate your license on any machine (no more 3x activations and waiting for machine keys via email), you'll have your setup on the new machine as your app config will be floating too, and much more.
Every day you start octane you will see new things.

Radiance

[ROUBAL]

Well, I didn't want o put my nose in that again, but my point of view is more simple :

It is the point of view of a simple customer who has put a lot of faith in a great tool.

The question "is it or not a question of piracy" is not the main important. And though, if you had read some of my posts you may know hat I also undestand the ideas of radiance, because I have been ruined by piracy in a previous activity.

I come back to the simple point of the aforementioned customer :

It clearly appears now that for X factors the unexpected new requirement of an internet connection will prevent a large part of customers from using Octane in good conditions, and some time to use it at all (example the lack of mobility).

I would also be interested in knowing the opinion of Octane's partner : Cubix, who sells a special PCMCIA adapter allowing to use anywhere Octane with a simple laptop, using the power of the external GPUs included the Cubix box. How many laptop adapters will they sell if Octane is no more mobile ?