If you don't complain when you're served crud then you deserve what you get. That's something my friends from the US understand well. This has nothing to do with maturity or lack of it but a response to poor quality products and bad service which doesn't reflect well on a business.

OK, while I understand the frustration, I live in a dark hole in Africa with limited internet, (not to mention electricity and other essentials, like NO M&Ms!), as far as Magix is concerned, I use a line of products they bought a few years ago called XARA. They use this same serial number setup and I can honestly say I have never had any problems at all with their products in this area. Actually, Xara programs are the most stable on my system. I am glad that Magix is the company that bought the Vegas line. If they work with it as they have done in the past with XARA, I will be content. BTW, I am a Vegas Pro 13, SoundForge 11, Spectral Layers 3 among others user. Have kept upgrading in Pro since version11, but upgraded Studio to Pro having used Studio from version 6. Bought into Sony Vegas because of stability issues with other software. Nuff!!

"I have no problem with a Magix protecting their intellectual property but not over the Internet. "

I do not know if your guys have asked yourself WHY SCS did not continue to develop Vegas further. To my opinion the answer is simple: there are so many cracks and hacks available, for every Vegas version, that SCS has lost a lot of revenues.

And before we end up with the situation that due to cracks the loss in revenues becomes so huge that the developer and owner does not see a sound business case behind the product, I am willing and understanding that there must be a better protection. Because otherwise we will end up that the product goes out of market. And we werde not so far away from that situation I think.

So we will have to accept that something will become different here. I do not know what, that is up to Magix. I have no issue with TMPGenc too that I use a lot, to compensate missing features in Vegas. So that is not the end of the world.

Well said Wolfgang.

I'm so grateful that a company has purchased and indicated a willingness to continue developing Vegas.

In order for them to do so on a financially sound basis, I have no problem whatsoever with them taking any steps necessary to stop the thieves that have been using this software without paying for it.

Onwards and upwards ....

I am just wondering, is there such a thing as 'non crackable software'?
Why is a dongle not crackable? Doesn't it contain software too than can be bypassed/replaced?

I am not promoting it, on the contrary, I am just wondering if Magix CAN make Vegas uncrackable. It would be great if they can.

VMP

"is there such a thing is a 'non crackable software"

Well Steinberg seem to have succeeded with their USB eLicenser ("dongle"); it's been a long long time since I've heard of anyone touting illegal versions of their products. There are scams on the auction sites but that's simple fraud, nobody ever gets a working version of the product advertised.

The downside is that even their trial versions require a hardware dongle!

It's very obvious why Sony stopped developing Vegas. It wasn't cracks. It's because of illegal immigrants who would work for pesos. There's no way the Japanese can compete with that.

I have the 'ilok' dongle which is needed to run the NI Native Instrument software.
It would be great if a single/universal dongle could be used for the different software.

Them eating up all the USB ports isn't a good thing either, also not sure how these dongles are affecting the system itself.

VMP

In 2015 the MAGIX activation requirements changed, and while initial activation does require internet access, users are no longer obligated to be online once per month for license validation. The requirement to be online once per month is still communicated on the MAGIX web site as people are still using versions of the software which did use that system.

Then, That's good to hear Eric !

Hi Eric,

Thank you for confirming that as users we will not be Obligated to be online once a month for license validation. Does this mean though, that in 6 months, the software will ask for Internet connection or does this mean once we activate the software we are "good to go"?

Thanks.

The only time internet access is required is for the initial activation. The only time you would be required to access the internet again is if you reinstall the program.

Thanks Eric for that info!

Hope you are having a great time with the new team and working on the new software.

I hope the new forum will have a similar and clean design like this one.

Best,
VMP

Its would be nice if MAGIC just transfer this forum to their server and change the SCS forum to MAGIC forum. The current MAGIC forum is horrible gui.

"...It's very obvious why Sony stopped developing Vegas. It's because of illegal immigrants who would work for pesos..."

What the hell are you talking about??

>The only time internet access is required is for the initial activation. The only time you would be required to access the internet again is if you reinstall the program.

I'm fine with that. My PCs are always connected to the Internet. Welcome Eric! It's absolutely wonderful to see representation from Magix here!

Thanks Eric for confirming my 2nd question.

I am Super excited to see what happens in the world of Vegas Pro with Magix!

Thanks again for replying!!!!!!!!

Great to know that the MAGIX copy protection will not be too intrusive.

Hopefully Jamon is using sarcasm in response to the equally unfounded view that Sony stopped developing Vegas due to cracks. Why then did it release a whole new range of editing software, presumably ripe for piracy, if that was the case? Why drop ACID and carry on developing Vegas for years afterwards if piracy was the cause of poor sales?

When a business stops producing something it's usually because no one wants to buy it any longer. When Ford stopped producing the Cortina was that because so many of them were being stolen that no one wanted to buy them or because they were out of date and something better had come along? Every time a software company folds or stops developing a product the default excuse, based on little evidence, is to blame piracy rather than the quality of the product and service.

Did MySpace fail due to piracy or because Facebook came along? Has Windows Mobile tanked because of piracy or because it was too little, too late? Software is just as susceptible to the same market forces as every other product. Did not both Sony and Microsoft on more than one occasion have to rescind certain copy protections in the past because it was hurting sales? Protect your intellectual property, yes, but don't punish customers while doing so.

There is also another reason for dropping products - new company policy due to management change, product consolidation, take overs, asset stripping etc. I'm no expert on the history of Sony but I seem to remember this happening on various occasions as reported on this forum. Like every other huge multinational, Sony re-consolidates its business in the hope of maximising profits, sometimes with success and other times not.

While it can be argued that market forces act in various and complex ways to force products/services off the shelf, the act of software piracy is a huge factor in software world. Actually software is far closer to intellectual property in its form and delivery than almost any other common item. AND IP by its nature is something that suffers theft in the marketplace over and beyond other types of products/services.

VegasPro is most likely the largest volume of pirated software of any NLE worldwide and that fact accounts for a large part of whatever status VegasPro has endured in the past or will endure in the future!

"[I]Why drop ACID...[/I]"

Sorry, I just had a flashback.

Thanks, Eric, that's very good to hear. Looking forward to see a Magix version of Vegas.

Cue the jingle bells: 'It's the most MAGIXAL time of the year' for Vegas :-D.

VMP