No doubt the new encryption will curtail some of the casual illegal sharing among friends/family. However, if the crackers (meaning those that just love to crack software protection schemes) see this as someone throwing down the gauntlet, and worthy of their time, then the once encrypted content will show up just like the current un-encrypted content, either being fully un-encrypted, or with a simple way to install the encrypted content and have it fully functional on any computer. If this happens, then what will the real benefit to curtail real pirating be (not casual sharing)?

Sure, those that once shared the content casually (the friends and family plan), can no longer do that, so they will either decide to purchase their own (if they can), they will go without, or they will now be visiting the pirate sites because they are mad at DAZ. For the other consumers of pirated content/software, they will just have to wait until the illegal version shows up for download. Once the cracker understands how it is encrypted, the time to wait for the cracked version to show up will probably be minimal at best. Of course, they may feel that the stuff from DAZ isn't worth their time to crack, because it's monetary value is low, and may not have the status value they want.

Encrypted content will reduce sharing of content via the "friends and family plan", but it will take a while to learn if it stops other pirating or not. It will also take a bit of time for DAZ to get any sort of real understanding if and/or how this will/has impacted their sales.

For me personally, DAZ Connect only, or encrypted only content carries a lower overall value index. First and foremost, it is not directly usable in Carrara (or Poser). Second, I prefer to not have software or content that has any sort of protection scheme, simply because of inconveniences that are often associated with the protection schemes, which also may at some point for unforeseen reasons include loss of use of the product. I'm not saying with the right item I won't purchase encrypted content, but it is devalued because of the encryption, or being connect only. For example, I really, really like Lynsey for Genesis 3, but because she is encrypted I chose to pass on her (and spending $49 dollars to get her free was a no go too). In fact, there hasn't been one encrypted item yet that I would buy. Lynsey was the closest to getting my money, but the value, because of encryption, simply wasn't there for me. Your mileage may vary.

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