I have said more than my fair share on the official site's thread... but consider this...

DAZ has had a very questionable history of non-communication, double talk, and out right going back on their own promises. It should surprise no one, them least of all, that customers are assuming the worst from this development.

Their roll out / announcement of it was bungled, again, and started the paranoia fire. They compounded the issue by being heavy handed with the message deletion and mod modification.

I have no proof of it, but I am willing to bet that last year's price increases are the cause of this year's DRM plans. Prices goes up, sales go down, piracy increases because the perceived value has increased, discounts become more extreme, the sale price brings the new increased price down to the old prices. The vicious circle just feeds on itself.

The executive that came up with the plan to raise the prices can't blame the downturn in revenue on their increase the price policy, so pirates are blamed.

All of this is theoretical conjecture on my part.

Am I saying piracy is not a problem? No. Am I saying that DAZ shouldn't find a way to protect the PAs and their assets? No. Am I saying that DAZ has completed effed up the roll out? Yes. They poisoned the well before the water was even drawn. They snuck out this new direction and acted like they had something to hide. So no one should be surprised that customers are questioning the motivation as well as the future direction of their plans.

You know what is not theoretical? All the previous broken promises. Selling DS4 for an extreme amount of money, then turning around and giving it away for free a month later. Promising there would be no more "barn burner" sales, then having one six months later.

I've been a DAZ customer for, I believe, 20 years, since the Zygote days. I've been through Metacreations meltdown. The Corel days. I was there when Canoma was unveiled. etc. etc. I've been up and down this roller coaster so often that I am use to almost all of the bumps and curves.