jwall wrote "I'm not in love with the activation process, but unlike you, I can stand a bit of inconvenience without crying to everyone on the forum."

Once again son, its not crying to the forum members. last I looked, SONY reps do monitor the boards and hopefully these issues will be addressed. Just because people like yourself dont mind the inconvience doesnt give you a right to contribute to the inconviences of others. It may not bother you and thats great. But there are others on this forum that it definitely does bother and we have just as much right to be unhappy with it regardless of whether you are ok with it or not.

Unless i'm missing something I'm puzzled why you need to burn a CD, a floppy or USB drive at alll? Direct from the Sony FAQ it states:

"The computer where I've installed my Sony Pictures Digital application is not connected to the Internet. How do I get an activation code?
After installation, you will be prompted to register. Select I would like to register over the phone and click Next.

On the next screen, your Computer ID is displayed. Write the number down on a piece of paper.

Go to the Registration Form.

Enter your information and choose your application from the drop-down menu. Click the Submit Form button.

Enter the Computer ID and serial number into the appropriate fields. Click the Continue button.

Verify the accuracy of your e-mail address. This is the address to which your activation code will be sent. Click the Continue button.

Once you have received the e-mail with the activation code, take this code to the computer that is not connected to the Internet and enter it in the Activation Code field."

Sounds like all you need is internet and email elsewhere and you can do it all just by typing info (yes you have write it down and take it elsewhere).

While you are right, check the timing of the post. It was after support hours. What is someone supposed to do on the weekends in a system crash on a deadline?

Edit. Also wanted to add that if you select register Sony software in VV5, it brings up two options, Register Online and Register from another computer. No phone activation on this one.

The registration process has been broken for years. I reported it and nagged about it here long ago. Sonic Foundy ignored it. Apparently they still don't realize how many people this effects. For what its worth Vegas and other Sony products aren't alone with their half-ass activation schemes.

<rant>
I just spent the better part of an hour going through the same thing with Macromedia's Flash. I had a technical problem where the tech wrote back to uninstall and reinstalled. You know what that means. Anyhow following the instructions to the letter it not only prevented me from uninstalled the software, I couldn't re install either. Almost an hour, getting switched to 5 different people to resolve the moronic activation issues. Total insanity. We as consumers should let it be known loud and clear that we will NOT BUY software that requires mickey mouse activation schemes than are more often broken that working.
<end rant>

Sorry,

Not having VV5 I just assumed the same "over the phone" would work. If that isn't there, I tend to agree that it ain't too pretty a scene. I haven't had any other problems registering other SF software this way up until now.

Plasma, its ok. Its just something that has changed from VV4 to VV5 and its a pain in the ass. Thats why I took the suggestions of purchasing more hardware (reagrdless of the cheap cost, its the principle) to work around the issue to give me the functionality that I and others have paid for.

As much as I hate Adobe, at least after you entered your serial number, I was never made to activate, register, and give my personal information so it could be used for marketing purposes (which is where alot of the personal info submitted ends up.)

Reasons Why Im glad vegas fights to protect its sofware....

1 If it was easy to Hack then a Lot more people wouldent buy the program when they could use it free..... Vegas would lose Money and need to increase the cost to Honest Users...

2 Why should I pay and dishonest People get it for nothing I work HARD To afford this Stuff..

3 The whole editing game would be cheapened !

Im sure the registration Process is a Trade off... Designed to be as easy as Possible at the same time as secure as Possible....I JUST Hope that Software Manufacturers can come up with a better way... So that the Software Is Totally in the Possesion of the Purchaser At some Point In the Future..

I agree Mark. I used always hate dongle version software but at least I didnt have a problem using the software on the road or after support hours. It just seems like the onyl one who benefits from the trade off is the warez pirates.

The bottom line is, Sony has to *something* to try to discourage piracy of their products (or at least keep track of how severe it is). Regular "get serial number with the CD, enter serial number during installation" doesn't cut it anymore. If not online registration (with the option of using a different computer or over the phone), then what's the alternative?

Rob

"If not online registration (with the option of using a different computer or over the phone), then what's the alternative?"

Dongles.

If not online registration (with the option of using a different computer or over the phone), then what's the alternative?

Grace period. Just like Vegas 2, 3, and 4.

My whole deal with this "registration" is that this can be used (down the road) to prevent me (the paid license user) from using the Software that I paid for. I brought this issue up with Sonic Foundry and they told me in an email "they are working on making this issue smoother". My whole beef is in the past I purchased "downloadable" software only to find out that I have to key in a Serial number and then a registration key. I now cannot use a program I PAID for because the company is no longer in business. The software, VidoeCraft from Andover. If I purchase a full "boxed" edition, I should NOT have to now register the software in order for me to "use" it. Sonic Foundry several years ago indicated to me, that if the software was installed from an actual "CD" I would not have to go through the registration process. Yeah, right. That did not last. I have a lot of software from Sonic Foundry, one of which is Siren Jukebox (which is no longer made) and if Sony decides to stop providing "a registration key" I'm screwed.

I've also noticed something that I have not before. My Pentium 3 PC crashed and I erased everything on the PC and I reinstalled everything I had on there only to find out that my Computer ID is now Different from before!!!!

Protecting "downloadable" software is OK with me. But when I have purchased only CD "boxed" products from Sonic Foundry/Sony, I would expect I should be able to use it when I need to and NOT go through the hoops to register it. --There is my two cents again--

Click "register online" two times, failing each time, on the third attempt click "cancel". You'll get a "Register over the Phone" option.

I really think there should be a grace period. I didn’t realize that was taken away in DVD Architect 2. I thought Vegas 5 still had a Register Later option for 30-days?

If someone needs to reinstall on a weekend or evening, does not have Internet access (as a lot of us who are on the road have experienced) and has a deadline to meet, they should NOT be held hostage to an activation code for software they legally purchased. A simple grace period of 30 days like Vegas 4+DVD and all the Sonic Foundry software before it had, is the only sensible solution. It still deters the casual copier (because we all know that nothing deters the hackers) and it allows paying customers to use what they’ve paid for in a difficult situation when there is no Sony rep to phone.

~jr

Activation schemes are a real sore point with me. First because they target Joe Average and not the determined hacker, second because the activation scheme frequently breaks down and doesn't work as it is suppose to.

Sadly Vegas falls into that category. Normally the online method works but the register by phone and/or email or from another computer fails far too often. While Sonic Foundy was more or less a mom and pop operation and maybe couldn't afford to have someone on duty at night or on weekends Sony is a huge multi-national fat cow with very deep pockets. To insult their customer but ignoring a BROKEN registration scheme that many have reported as broken YEARS AGO and failing to come up with a method to re-register during off hours when you may need to re-install regardless of the reason doesn't reflect well on customer "service" and that's why service is in quotes. Needs work in this area.

Its rather amusing that the team that gave us something as elegant and problem free as Vegas can't seem to fix a broken registration process.

Take you machine ID and serial number to work adn call the toll free number from there...I did that for Noise Reduction 2a. Also, there is apparently a 24/7 registration page at Sony where you (shuuder) manually enter your info and get the activation code via email in a couple of minutes.

> Activation schemes are a real sore point with me.

WARNING: Long post, too much coffee, you’ve been warned. ;-)

Same with me Billy. There was a post on this very topic not to long ago on the ACID forum and I related three of my own horror stories, one where Windows XP activation wouldn’t let my wife boot our PC without registering on the internet but you can’t get to the internet until you fully boot! (can you say Catch 22?) She lost a whole day of work until I got home to figure out what to do. Is Microsoft going to reimburse me for her lost work? NOT! Once when I had software with a dongle and I would forever leave it at work or at home and not be able to work at the opposite location until I drove back to get it, (I will NEVER buy software with a dongle again, it’s why I didn’t upgrade my copy of Cubasis VST to Cubase VST. Steinberg lost me as a customer over that one) and the third when I gave my kids a new computer and found that one of their favorite programs on their old computer required that you register with a web site that no longer exists to install it. So I paid for it and my kids can’t use it. How do you explain that one to children?

So what's the point?

The point is: the pirate’s wife has no such problems with Windows XP activation and doesn’t loose any work time, and the pirate has no problem running Cubase VST on his PC without a dongle, and the pirate’s children can run any software they want because daddy has a hacked version that doesn’t require the dead web site to register! So who gets hurt by these protections schemes? THE PAYING CUSTOMER! That’s who.

We all remember when Sonic Foundry looked like it was “going under” and people were scrambling to find a way around the activation codes so they can continue to use software they paid hundreds of dollars for. We’re not talking a $49 game here folks. Vegas 5+DVD ($799), Sound Forge 7 ($399), and ACID Pro 4 ($399) adds up to a $1597 retail investment. If I bet my business on that investment working for me, then I expect to be able to use the software when I need to. Not between the hours of 9:am-5:pm PST or when I have an internet connection. Crashes and file corruption in Windows is all too common. I must have reinstalled Vegas 4 a total of six (6) times on the same PC during the time I used it because of various PC problems. Thank God I had an Internet connection each time and the activation work. But that was six opportunities for lost business if it didn’t.

I work in software development. Our licenses alert our customers when they have exceeded their threshold. They DO NOT stop working and potentially cause the customer lost business. You need to treat your customers with respect that they will “do the right thing” and not hold them hostage like criminals. Sony should find a better way of protecting its programs. As the title of this thread suggests: The registration process sucks!

If you think serial numbers alone are not enough to discourage casual copying I disagree. Remember you are not stopping the pirates. They will break any scheme you come up with either software or hardware based. You are stopping the casual copier who wouldn’t have access to the serial numbers unless they went to pirate web sites to obtain them. If they are willing to do that, then they are willing to download the hack that removes any protection at all. So adding activation is NOT stopping anyone willing to look for a pirated version or serial number crack. Activation IS potentially impacting paying customers in a negative way that, given Murphy’s Law, could lead to lost business.

So what's a possible solution?

Sony could provide activation free copies on “CD only” to customers with burned in customer numbers (which would of course have to be encrypted and sprinkled about the code to obfuscate it). If Sony finds a copy floating around the Internet, it can look at the imbedded customer number to track it back to its source and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. Customers would be reluctant to "sharing" a copy if they knew there were a serial number in the code that could be tracked back to them. Would it stop the pirates? No, but nothing will. Not even dongles. It WILL stop the casual copier because it implicates them in the copying.

Companies that use activation should also be REQUIRED to provide an “activation free” copy to existing customers IF they ever discontinue the product. I would like to see that in Sony’s End User License Agreement. (Actually, I’d rather see the activation go away in favor or embedded customer numbers) I’m sure Sonic Foundry Siren Jukebox and Super-Duper Music Looper customers would love to have an activation free copy of their programs so they can continue to use them after Sony drops activation support. It’s the right thing to do for a customer that paid you money because without our money, your company would cease to exist.

Remember: The customer is always right

There are lots of potential customers who won’t use iZotope because they use PACE. (a rather nasty protection scheme discussed in this thread) and iZotope has listened and decided to drop PACE!!! Prosoniq has also dropped PACE in their products due to customer complaints. They reported no drop in sales after making their programs protection free! So your money talks people. When you don’t buy a program because of its copy protection it hurts the company who makes it. Be sure to write them a letter and tell them that they lost your sale and why (otherwise they won’t know why they’re loosing sales). Don’t forget to mention the competitor’s product that you did buy. (that always get’s ‘em) Supply and demand still works. We have the money, they want our money. ;-)

~jr

Well lets see, if registration process sucks for V5, then its the same for the following:

Quicken
Norton anti virus
Windows XP
DVD -X Copy
Dynapel Steadyhand
About a million other applications.

Acidsex, I see no solution to your problem and so as you see the meteor headed toward Earth, hold up your hands and say "Begone meteor". This is a metaphor meaning "go with the flow".

JJK

JJK

jr,
think I mentioned this before, thread too long to remember, but the other sore point with me is all these schemes cost money, money which the customer ends up having to pay. You've obviously looked into them and I'm pretty certain they don't come cheap. As you say no one really benefits from then (apart from the guys writing the useless code) and lots of people are hurt by them.

Bob.

To add insult to injury....

I just ordered the upgrade. Doing it online it asks for your DVD-A #1 serial number. I use a screen capture utility to copy it. I carefully type it in. Comes back invalid. I double check, number was entered correctly.

Grrrr!!!

I click on the "checkout" button, it accepts the so-called INVALID number and processes my order anyway. So much for Sony "security".

SONY, WAKE UP!

I don’t know what you screen captured, but the number in the About dialog box is not your serial number. It’s you activation key and computer ID. Your serial number is what you typed in from your owner’s manual or email confirmation when you first installed the program. There has been a LOT of confusion on this. I was on the road when I upgraded and I had to call home and have my son search for my manual and give me the serial number so I could upgrade because the installed software won’t tell you.

~jr

Wow, lot of confusion on this serial number thing. If I open the "About" dialog box, what's shown IS my serial number. (Same as the one written on the 1st page of the Veags 5 Quick Start Manual).

-Dan