Dear Poser Community: The online community is a partnership. Without you, our tools would have a smaller market. Without our tools, there would be a very stark landscape for creative character animation. For those who have been in the community since the very beginning, you know we were there from the start. Remember the original email list we created at Meta to discuss Poser 3? That list is still alive at eGroups/groups.yahoo.com. From this list came the idea to build an archived resource for Poser topics, which became the inspiration for the original Poserforum.com. Since then, various wonderful flavors of Poser communities sprang forth. To help those communities grow, we built in links to these forums and email lists in Poser 4; promoted the communities from both the Meta site and the Curious Labs site; shared the URLs with partners, artists, and new customers; and contributed sponsorship funding. We were there every step of the way. But we need to work together to ensure the partnership between community and us continues to flourish. In the spirit of that partnership, weve decided to change our position on the security measures originally planned for the Service Release to Pro Pack, which will include Max 4 support. To be clear - we will not include interlock security technology and the server registration in this soon to be released Pro Pack updater. You will not be required to register your updated Pro Pack. You can download the free Service Release from our site and install it, without additional unlocking steps. Unfortunately, this change cuts into our ability to protect our intellectual property, but this is where you come in to the partnership. You can help us to discourage the illegal use of Poser, Pro Pack and 3rd party content. If you encounter WAREZ versions or obviously illegal uses of Pro Pack or Poser, please let us know at legal@curiouslabs.com. Forward copies of the header information with recipient names from any unsolicited email containing Pro Pack that you may have received. If you have an illegal copy of Poser or Pro Pack, show your support of Curious Labs by purchasing legitimate copies. Those of you who have used our tools without paying for them, we ask that you consider holding up your end of the deal. Piracy is not only unfair to Curious Labs but to the Poser community as well, who rely on Poser's continued development. I thank you for your support at all levels. To Steve Yatson, Anthony Hernandez and Karen Carpenter thank you for donning Kevlar fire suits and pitching in, it was heartening to see your contributions. Service Release 1 will be available the beginning of next week. Please check our website for up to date information. Sincerely, Steve Cooper President, Curious Labs, Inc.

Very good decision and I am happy to know that a release will be there soon.

I was surprised by this change in plan, but pleased in anycase. I hope we as a community will do our best to combat software piracy. -JeffH.

Great news from Curious Labs. I hope the people who really care about Poser's future keep their end of the deal and help CL weed out the pirates and theives...

As one who expressed grave concern about your security measures being included in your update I appreciate your change of heart. I know this was a difficult decision and I accept your request for increased vigilance against piracy, warez, etc. In addition, I hope that a better way to protect your intellectual property will be found to support future releases of Poser and the Pro Pack. Thank you.

Outstanding, Steve! (I would have updated anyway :) How about another Poser dinner at Siggraph this Summer? -Steve BTW: thanks for being so friendly with E-On software. I'm really looking forward to using Poser with Vue 4.

Absolutely top!

A very nice and wise descision, Steve! Bring up any other software protection and I support you all the way. This feels a little bit like coming home again. - Zoot

Arrrrgh! I keep hearing about Vue 4.0 but when I called them to find out how much I need to save to upgrade they don't know what I'm talking about. Anyone know? Thanks CL, appreciate not having to jump through hoops, although I would have upgraded since you stated you would make sure we would be covered if you pulled up stakes. Marque

Great!! news steve I eagerly await the updater release next week BTW i would have updated even with the security measures But its nice that you guys have given us loyalists this option Long live poser!!!! Mocap

They have given, now you must. What I mean by that is that CL has put their livlyhood and their future in our hands. We have been give a big responsibility to be on the look out for AND report illegal use and copies. CL and Steve have given us what we want. But now if thing get worse it will be largley our fault. So Be happy , but remember now we must give back. Alverson

I am giving, I'm PAYING for the update. shaking her head Marque

You guys are the greatest!

I agree with Lalverson Vigilance must now be the word on everybodys mind

It'll be our fault? It wouldn't have worked to begin with, except to stop casual pirates. Even Microsoft says as much with their protection scheme for XP. Sorry, but let's call a spade a spade. However, it is still a pretty bold move for them since I know how much damage can be done. Wishing them the best of luck since I know we'll be on the lookout as well as they will will be. It may be a bumpy ride, so let's see if we can help them with the suspension. :)

I was under the impression that the legal users were vigilant. I have reported warez to both Daz and CL, but I'm not going to go hunt them down. I think they should do the copy protection just to keep the warezers from getting the program, I support it if I can be assured that I won't be burned by it. Marque

Actually according to Right Hemisphere the protection works. People can get to the older versions but updates are not out there now. So if it's the same copy protection it may be the way to go. Marque

Now i'm interested again. I watched all the problems you all had. Been sitting on the fence all this time.I wasn't ready for the pro pack, am not still, but I want to get it at a fair price (before it goes up) so now i'm MUCH more inclined to buy it - because I clearly see that there is a real realationship between CL and Renderosity. I'm very cynical about this stuff, and CL is the first one i've ever seen (to this degree of welcomed involvement) to 'walk the walk'. I'm still not gonna install it anywhere near my beloved 4.03... i'll put 'em on the husbands pc.... It's a fair move. For this release. I can understand that more secure measures will have to happen at some time. And I also think that is fair. Do you agree?

I sure hope this good news gets at least a good proportion of the level of discussion that the grumble threads that brought it about got. I haven't even got the Pro Pack and I think it's good news. I think it's excellent that Curious Labs responds to its loyal user base like this. You never know, if we can be effective at slapping warez down significantly, we might be able to avoid having copy protection buried on our hard drives and 'phoning home' in Poser5. That'd be great, 'cos then I'd buy it - and I know I will so want to buy it! :-)

Well done! I suspect that this simple action will do more to combat illegal usage than any copy protection you could have incorporated.

Thank you Steve. I firmly believe you`ve made the correct decision on this. The originally announced security technology stood out as being troublesome in the extreme, both to the hobbyist and (as I am) the professional character artist alike. Great news, and I look forward to the service release.

Jolly good show, Steve and Curious. I was already impressed with CL's style - I'm even more impressed now. If I had a hat, I'd tip it ;-)

Steve, Many thanks for the trust and goodwill. I hate dongles... and the pirates which force a need for such protection. I really like the ProPack, so will definately be hanging on the doorstep waiting for the upgrade. :) Carolly

Excellent news! ....................... To Marque: E-on doesn't seem to have decided yet, or I'm pretty sure they'd have listed an upgrade price somewhere. But that's just my opinion. I've asked too.....

Well it sounds so great, hope it's not more than I can cough up...lol Oh, and CL, thanks for making us feel like we have a say, that was pretty decent of you. Now we need to figure out how to protect Poser, there has got to be a way to do it and still not make us all crazy...er. lol Marque

Kupa, You are the man and a true Poser. Thanks for listening to the community. We (at Daz) wouldn't have blamed you if you had continued with the Interlock system, being a company who has been negatively impacted by Piracy as well. I have to say that we really admire your support of and involvement in the Poser community and your flexibilty in working with all of us. I hope that the community will show their support back to you by doing whatever they can to help stop piracy (as most of them do already). I think that ultimately community support can be the best way to fight piracy. Hopefully the community's response will alleviate the need to resort to these measures in future products. Dan Farr President, Daz Productions

doing the Happy dance...doing the Happy dance... I feel so much better. :) Steve, thank you!! I realize this was a tough decision. Especially with the way some of us reacted. Me included. My reaction was as a person who does reinstall regularly. (I have re-installed my OS and key apps several times these past 2 weeks - ah the joy of upgrading coupled with poor cooling and a faulty power supply. :)). DonnyD

Thanks again Steve This is deeply appriciated and like others here I understand this must have been a difficult desicion. You can count on me being another one of the community's members that will report warez and continue to purchase CL's products. David Lara

Best news of the day... Thanks!

I believe this is the right decision in the long run & applaud CL. I have been concerned lately with a lot of the talk about security measures not just from Poser but from many other companies (ie. Micro$oft and WinXP). Poser is a great product and I will continue to support it in the future with my $$$

I am new to the Poser community. I purchased a legitimate copy because I have personnally seen good systems and companies wiped out by the piracy of their software. However, since I loose at least a harddrive a year due to heavy usage, I was very apprehensive of the loading scheme. Poser Software is very inexpensive compared to a new copy of Windows 2000 Professional or Office 2000 Premium and especially Autocad. I had enough cash left over after buying Poser 4 to buy Vicky 2. Now that the installation security problem is fixed, I will allocate the funds to buy the Pro Pack in July (I am not skilled enough to use it yet). I believe that some form of security should be used though. The best one is one that carries the identity of who made the copy. If it is obvious that you will be ID'd you may not give away copies and have an out if you are asked to do it at work.

Oh dear, oh dear,... I've been just off home and off the net for 4 silly days, left virtually minutes before the news came out, and so I got no chance to reply early in public... and I'm very sorry about missing that chance. Thank you very much for listening to us, and to take our fears and concerns seriously - and of course I will support you, your company and your great products as best as I can. I'm very tired and will fall asleep the very next minute, so I'll have to read the anti-warez stuff tomorrow. Hovewer, COUNT ME IN !!! Thanks again, and the very best of wishes, MartinC PS: Apologies for the Dead Parrot...