WAVES is promoting their new "TLC" program covering dongle theft & loss in a major e-mail campaign delivered today.
You can see the
Waves webpage their email links here. The email is a marketing message. The link seems, appropriately, to have been crafted by the corporate lawyer.
Which is a very sore topic for me, because my iLok dongle key was inside a laptop case stolen in Houston in 2007, the day after Thanksgiving.
I got a little more "TLC" from WAVES today -- no how, no way are they going to relent in their demands for thousands of dollars (WAVES Diamond Native Bundle) to restore access to software that I paid to use. Even though I was paid up and current on my "WUP" Waves Update Plan maintenance contract at the time of the theft.
Beware who you deal with. I'll copy the COW on today's correspondence:
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WAVES reply to my iLok theft appeal:
Your homeowners or business insurance will definitely cover this type of item with proof of ownership and replacement value. I know this FOR A FACT, as I had a claim this past year when Delta lost one of my bags that contained not only my personal ilok and Nuendo syncrosoft key, but also a Waves ilok and Cubase dongle
My final response to WAVES:
What you know FOR A FACT is a specific set of circumstances.
Well, that is the end of the story then. Because my employer's insurance has a $75,000 deductible. Being a home builder, I know this was setup to cover things like bulldozers and backhoes, or an office fire. But in my circumstances, it amounts to a total loss. There is no way on earth my employer is going to pay Waves twice, especially when there was no ROI on the initial purchase. Not to mention current brutal housing market. In fact, to this point, I have spent more time screwing around with Waves installs and copy protection schemes than I have spent in actual productive use of the product.
Maybe I singled Waves out a tiny bit too much. I also lost a Nuendo key, but quickly bought Apple Logic for $500. Electric Image replaced their $8,000 dongle (cheaper at today's prices) for $50. I lost another iLok with some other authorizations on it, but those companies all came through. BIAS Audio has ditched dongles, and reauthorized everything at no cost.
I really don't have time to fight all this. Older, sadder, wiser. But still sore, and very unhappy with Waves.
I've read the Waves website, and understand your concerns about unauthorized use. In my case, the theft was random, but a more likely scenario would be pilferage in a recording studio. In that case, maybe the dongle would resurface on eBay or be used "hot" in somebody's studio (why didn't Waves address that in their copy protection scheme?). In my case, the thieves almost certainly didn't know what the dongle was -- they broke into my Suburban for a GPS, then got lucky finding a laptop in the back seat.
I've seen a lot of other copy protection solutions, including some from vendors impacted by the same laptop theft. In the most consumer friendly, I was able to logon to my user account on the vendor website and deauthorize my prior installations. Simple and fast -- good for the vendor, and good for me.
But Waves addressed this with a one-sided solution that was all about Waves, with no thought for the customer. Just as a comment on society, I've really about had it with absolutely authoritative, one-sided terms-of-service agreements. To the point I am ready to speak to my congressman. For instance, GoDaddy domain registrar has a blanket TOS saying the contract is binding including any and all future revisions, regardless of scope, and with no requirement of notification. So conceivably, they could unilaterally amend the agreement to take title to Manhattan, the State of Texas, or somebody's home. This is absurd, and is bound to result in more government, more consumer protection laws, more bureaucrats, more compliance costs, and more pressures on business viability. All because of sucky business practices, pond scum lawyers, and bad deals where people fail to get along.
At some level, I consider Waves business practices as calculating as a cheap lawyer, the bottom feeders who troll below the level of actual merit, in the land of sleazy extortion and xeroxed demand letters. The value of what you do is not worth a lawsuit. If I had ever actually used your product, then, through dongle theft, lost access to a lot of carefully crafted work, I would have been forced to pony up several thousand dollars. In effect, Waves hardcore dongle policies only work when they hold hostage a customer's own creative works.
QuarkXPress, notoriously, had a similar attitude towards their customers after Hurricane Andrew hit Florida near Miami in 1986. Every other software vendor reauthorized their customers with no hassles. Not Quark -- "Talk to your insurance company." Then Quark antagonized Adobe with an arrogant hostile takeover attempt. Look at them now, in light of Adobe Creative Suite and InDesign. When karma comes around for Waves, you can be sure a lot of people who know you a little too well will not be grieving.
Danny Grizzle
Satterwhite Log Homes
(903) 238-4465
