Morpheon posted at 1:24PM Sun, 08 November 2015 - #4236799

"Then DAZ is going to lose some PA's since some have expressed the opinion on the Message boards that they do not want their product encrypted."

Must have missed those when I was still following that thread, or they posted such after I dropped out. The only content creator I was aware of was Zev0, and he was all for it.

There was at least one that I recall that specifically said they would not take part. Zev0 is an interesting case, I buy a lot of his stuff, it's extremely useful. But Zev0 writes mainly scripts, which actually I have no problem with encrypting - I'm never going to need to alter them. And in fact DAZ has used DRM for plugins before - you need installation keys to get them to work.

I don't have problems with DRM as long as it doesn't get in the way of me using content I have paid for, and DAZ is bending over backwards to assure us that isn't going to happen - for obvious reasons. My bigger concern, which they are also addressing, is that they not screw up my filing system - smart content has never worked well for me, and until I can be certain a database change on their end is not going to wipe out weeks of custom category work I did I rather manage my content through a folder system.

As I said, enough people raised that issue that they are taking another look at the idea of putting everything in the data folder which frankly I think was brain dead to start with.

I was at one time an avid music collector. I still listened to a lot of it when they went to CD's. Then MP3's came along, and suddenly the music industry was up in arms, adding all sorts of garbage that got in the way of me playing music I had bought the rights to listen to. The height of that was an MP3 player I bought, and used Rhapsody on (the other services were just as bad at the time). Rhapsody would allow you to download music for a monthly fee, and you had to sync your device once a month. Well half the time when I tried to sync the MP3 player it would corrupt, I'd need to reformat it, and re-download 8 GB of music. Frankly at this point I only listen to, and buy from Indie bands.

Movie DRM is every bit as tight, and frankly you never notice it. If you buy a DVD you can play it on any device you own. You can't make copies of it, but you never paid to do so. The only consideration is if the price they charge for the DVD is worth the content on it. That's your decision.

If I am paying you for content, the pirates are your problem. Don't ask me to accommodate for what you feel is necessary to battle them. As long as I can use my legally licensed content in the way I am used to, I'm fine with whatever DRM scheme you come up with. As soon as that scheme impacts me, the worth of licensing content from you is diminished.

I hope DAZ keeps that in mind. They're going to lose a lot of customers if they don't. With their present set up of providing the program for free, and paying for development with content sales, they can't afford that. Wherever you stand on DRM, those are the facts.