RE: [Finale] Finale 2004 Copy Protection
If we switch to Fin04, *we can't go back*!!! The technology to go back can and will be developed (if needed) as a plug-in, even if Finale dies. In fact, MusicXML already provides backwards compatibility to an amazing extent. Cheers, Tobias ___ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Finale 2004 Copy Protection
I'm certain that having your final sentence in the back of their minds makes a lot of folks more comfortable! - see snip below! Regards, Keith in OZ But both Tobias and I can be somewhat cheerful about it, because in that hopefully unlikely scenario, either one or both of us could fairly easily write a program to downgrade the files. :-) -- Robert Patterson http://RobertGPatterson.com ___ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale ___ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Finale 2004 Copy Protection
Johannes Gebauer wrote: I very much doubt that this will make any difference to Finale sales, though. This is the point that burns me up. Finale 2003 was a terrible upgrade--perhaps the most useless we've ever seen. So it sold really badly. So some marketing genius decided this must be because users were copying it instead of buying it. So Finale 2004 had c.p. Now we get certainly the best upgrade since Finale 2000. It's gonna sell like wildfire, c.p. or no c.p. But the marketing genius who thought up c.p. is now gonna say how brilliant he was to add the c.p. Sheesh. I wish I could bring myself to be as sanguine about the future as Tobias and some others are. I certainly trust the current bunch at MM as much as he does. But no amount of putative legal protections could preserve us against bankruptcy or corporate death. Furthermore, I am deeply skeptical that the legal protections even exist, at least as they have been purported to. I imagine that corporate bankruptcies, mergers, and/or buyouts can be arranged so that all prior obligations to customers are simply wiped away. E.g., would it not be possible for, say, Sibelius to buy the rights to Finale source code w/o assuming any obligations to MM's customers? Then when MM died--and I can only imagine the latter in conjunction w/ the former--Sibelius would owe nobody nothin'. A real-life example of this is the possible buyout of Peoplesoft by Oracle. If this happens, most Peoplesoft customers assume they will be forced to switch to Oracle's competing product. I should mention that the animosity between Peoplesoft and Oracle is probably more virulent than that between Sib and Fin, so these what-if's are more than mere smoke blowing. And Johannes is very right about the level of commitment required from us. If we switch to Fin04, *we can't go back*!!! So, if (no, *when* because nothing is forever) MM sings its swan song, we will be fully committed with no fallback. And if this happens to be 12 months from now we'll all be screwed. But both Tobias and I can be somewhat cheerful about it, because in that hopefully unlikely scenario, either one or both of us could fairly easily write a program to downgrade the files. :-) -- Robert Patterson http://RobertGPatterson.com ___ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
[Finale] Finale 2004 Copy Protection
If the copy protection scheme were merely a challenge/response where I had to supply a registration number every time I installed, I would be completely comfortable with it. Legitimate users *are*, however, penalized by the scheme that Finale 2004 employs, because it makes our continued use of Finale 2004 dependent upon the continued existence of Coda (or Make Music or whatever the Name o' the Year is) and also their continued willingness to provide reg codes for Finale 2004. Going on about 12 years, I still occasionally fire up Finale 2.6.3. I recently discovered it still runs in Classic. This will be the 4th computer (in sequence) on which I've run 2.6.3. I'm wondering if 2.6.3 had had a reg scheme like that in Fin04, would I have been able to register it? Would MM (now into about as many ownership changes as I've had computer changes) still have the willingness or expertise to do so? In some other cases of software I've owned equally old, the company isn't even around to authorize it any more. I'm accepting MM's decision because I have no choice other than pass on the excellent set of new features. But that doesn't mean I am not penalized or inconvenienced. -- Robert Patterson http://www.robertgpatterson.com ___ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Finale 2004 Copy Protection
Robert Patterson Finale wrote: But both Tobias and I can be somewhat cheerful about it, because in that hopefully unlikely scenario, either one or both of us could fairly easily write a program to downgrade the files. :-) Are you taking pre-orders? If so, please put my name on the list! ;-) -- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
Re: [Finale] Finale 2004 Copy Protection
Robert Patterson: Going on about 12 years, I still occasionally fire up Finale 2.6.3. I recently discovered it still runs in Classic. Yeah, but it doesn't *print out* (from any driver) under System 9. For that reason, I have been systematically updating all my 2.6.3 files as orders come in for them. The increasingly transparent updating algorithm in recent versions of Finale makes that much less painful than it would have been even three years ago. This will be the 4th computer (in sequence) on which I've run 2.6.3. I'm wondering if 2.6.3 had had a reg scheme like that in Fin04, would I have been able to register it? Would MM (now into about as many ownership changes as I've had computer changes) still have the willingness or expertise to do so? In some other cases of software I've owned equally old, the company isn't even around to authorize it any more. Precisely because olim-Coda has made updating files from one version to the next so painless, I have not saved any obsolete version of Finale since 3.7. I do not expect to have FinMac 2K4 on my machine for more than 2 years, tops. -- Andrew Stiller Kallisti Music Press http://home.netcom.com/~kallisti/ ___ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
