LaurieA posted at 1:20PM Wed, 02 December 2015 - #4242022

Wow, I only needed to read maybe 4 posts to get the new DRM system and people still think their stuff is all gonna be in the cloud? Reread please. The stuff still downloads to your computer. You got control of your own content on your own hard drive...the only way the cloud enters into it is keeping your stuff there for you to DOWNLOAD. Same as we've had for years now. Seems the actual DRM part of the equation is pretty transpartent too....log into Daz servers once...maybe it checks once in awhile. What program nowdays doesn't do that? Photoshop until they went all cloud based checked EVERY time ya opened it. A lot of software does. Did everyone stop using Photoshop? That was a rhetorical question btw...we all know the answer to that one ;).

I don't have a problem with artists trying to protect their creations or a company protecting its assets...uphill battle that it is. Seems that people are having a huge problem with any DRM at all...which I find strange. I rebelled against what SM did to GameDev, but it was only the implementation of it, not the fact that they were trying to protect their assets. It's only when it starts to become a clusterf**k for the customers that I have a problem with it. If Daz can keep it pretty transparent, what's the huge problem?

Laurie

I've read the writeups from DAZ as well and my understanding of what this brings based on my experience with things DRM related. It's my experience when companies start doing stuff like this, that other changes for the worse usually follow. We have no idea of the "unintended" consequences of DRM from a technical standpoint no matter how many assurances you get from DAZ to the contrary. The usual line is that there's no impact whatsoever, or that it won't affect you. But then reality sets in along with the error messages, or the people who have activated their id on a new machine or lose it when their old machine gets struck by lightning, or when people who work on multiple computers can't get their work done because they're limited by DRM imposed limitations. I work typically on no less than four computers on a daily basis with access to several more. Let's say that you have small operation of ten computers or so and let's say the limitation of DRM is five computers? Do you purchase the exact same license again? Why should you? You purchased the product didn't you? Why should you have to purchase it again?

After they implement something like this, is usually when the "adjustments" to your licensing start to show up. Since it's DRM, you have no choice but to accept whatever's imposed on you. That doesn't even begin to cover the technical aspects of "unintended consequences" Then you're dealing with things like mis-input data on a product id or your digital id get's corrupted or version conflicts because someone was asleep at the switch when they roll out a new version. It adds another level of "things that can go wrong" when it comes to working in DAZ studio. This stuff plagues even companies like Microsoft companies all the time. You get error messages like "You cannot play a Windows Media DRM protected file or a Zune DRM protected file on a computer that is preconfigured with Windows 7" see KB976590. Or if you retstore your computer from a backup image and find that your DRM content is now inaccessible because their security reads that as an attempt to circumvent DRM. No, my experience tells me that I don't want to deal with DRM.

I don't want encrypted files. Like most people who work at this stuff, we like to be able to tinker and improve things or retask old assets but who's to say that six months after DRM comes out they make it so you can't edit DUF files with DRM applied to them? And what happens when DRM says you now no longer can export DRM items to other applications without paying an "Export Fee?" Even if DAZ came out today and said that will never happen, it's not worth the bits and bytes it takes to publish it. We all know that is subject to change without notice. Don't believe me? Have you seen the new Apple pencil? Or have you tried to purchase Reallusion products on DAZ?

Or think of this... Some PA decides take DAZ to court over royalties or something like that and suddenly all the stuff you've purchased from them is no longer available for some reason? I have even experienced this with Amazon.com when I got some free books because one of the kindle books I purchased suddenly disappeared from my library. They had to pay it out as a result of the class action lawsuit because of that.

I choose as a consumer not to deal with it. With the way things are now, I have choices which did not exist years ago, so I don't have to.