At 12:45 AM 8/9/03 +0200, Tobias Giesen wrote: >I haven't played around with this, but >there are definitely ways. AND there will be forums where these ways are >discussed. If needed, anonymously.
Turning you into a criminal already, and they haven't even shipped it yet! :) IP Ethix Lite, Chapter 1: How copy protection erodes the moral ground in 24 hours or less. I'm voting with my wallet. Maybe I'm the only one. As soon as Fin2K3 becomes unworkable in a few years, I'll see what the licensing status is of future products. Unless, of course, Makemusic announces a skeleton key escrow program and version sunset schedule (and promises they aren't using the PACE virus), in which case I'll buy it immediately. It would take almost no effort to create a key escrow, and I can imagine no reason why they wouldn't be able to do it before the product ships. It would be *great* PR, too, and lead the way for other companies to combine an IP protection scheme with protection of their user base from their own failures. Now, not too tangentially: Tobias, you seem certain Makemusic would have to support this product into the future. Why? Can you point me to any law which requires Makemusic or its successor to provide license keys? There's also a "force majeure" clause in just about every software contract or end-user agreement or warranty (to quote an actual one, terminating a license "due to fire, strike, war, civil unrest, terrorist action, government regulations, acts of Nature, or other causes beyond the reasonable control of the party claiming force majeure"). Is there one in F2K4? I don't know. We'll see. Paragraphs 1, 4 and 5 of the present (2003) warranty are a kind of a poor man's force majeure clause, though they don't claim it outright. Oh, one more thing. Look at their stock price chart. Not to mention that there was this report on May 12 (http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2003/05/12/daily18.htm l), a mere three months ago: MakeMusic! revenue down, loss shrinks MakeMusic! Inc. reported lower revenue for the first quarter of 2003. But the Eden Prairie-based maker of software for teaching music said its losses were $10 million lower than in the same period a year ago. The company noted that sales of its software were hampered by the fact that its Finale program is not yet compatible with the Macintosh OS X operating system, and a significant number of subscribers use Macintosh computers. The company said its next version, scheduled for release this summer, will run on OS X. MakeMusic! announced that revenue for its first quarter ended March 31 was $1.7 million, down 15 percent compared to revenue of $1.9 million for the first quarter of 2002. Net loss dropped to $2.1 million, or 78 cents per diluted share, down from losses of $12.9 million, or $5.58 per diluted share in the same period last year. STILL confident? Ready to sign away your livelihood? Look, I go back as far as most of you with Finale. I was a beta tester for 3.0. I have always wanted them to succeed, even when their product was a disastrous mess. But there are lots of other companies perfectly successful without selling victimware; I count 50 whose software is on my computer alone. Sometimes there are issues of ethics which have to be addressed before issues of economics. I'm apparently in the minority, and willing to be 'obsolete' if it's the right thing to do. Makemusic has done the wrong thing. Dennis _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
