Rhia474 posted at 7:34PM Sat, 26 October 2019 - #4368376

Just a thought: has it occurred to anyone that the phone home feature is maybe taking time to detangle from the code? I am not a programmer, but I know what a mess Poser's code is with the owner changes, 3rd party room additions etc. maybe 4 months since the acquisition was not enough time to get it out in a manner that does not damage something else?

I would, though, agree on the communications lacking. I requested a few times that for heaven's sake at least add 'new home of Poser' to their main page so people don't see nothing but DAZ content on the fist landing here. I was assured something is being worked on, but official communication about such things would be nice, especially if it was done in a way that reaches a lot of people.

I have seen that put forward as a possible reason elsewhere Rhia474. I'm not a programmer either so I leave that to the people who are. However, that said does a presumably experienced coder find it so difficult to trace the 'guilty' code? Now admittedly, many people who have had firsthand experience of IT bods would instantly reply in the affirmative, but, joking aside, it doesn't explain why Bondware has been able to take that code and change it from SM's monthly 'phone-home' informing the user that they needed to reactivate their license to a thrice-monthly requirement to 'phone-home' to avoid losing their lease. Note that word 'lease'. That's one of the points which was emphasized by my lawyer friend. It could be argued that a simple continuation of SM's monthly activation requirement could have been allowed under the 'custom and practice' rules giving Bondware time to install their own system. However, what has happened is that Bondware has changed the rules. More importantly, they have changed them after the fact. In brief, we purchased Poser (from Bondware) on the basis that we were buying a permanent license. SM's backdoor introduction of the monthly activation notwithstanding. Now we are being told that unless we 'phone-home' every nine days or so we will lose our lease. The actual wording is 'renew your lease'. The fact that it appears on a pop-up window warning you to phone-home constitutes a statement of policy (implied) because it is a notification from the owners, Bondware and that makes it a statement of intent by Bondware. The implication is clear. Bondware has either changed the rules without the advanced notification they are required to give with regards to purchase and the form that purchase will take regarding terms and conditions after the purchase has been made (without consent) or somewhere along the way some coder has reached a point where they have decided, "that'll do". (The equivalent of an electrician poking the wires with his finger to find out which is the live one!) and Bondware has simply decided to run with it. That is just storing up a whole lot of trouble for the future and its something which is potentially liable to turn on its owners big time. Not exactly good business practice from a company who appears to want to reverse Posers fortunes and tun it into a viable and successful part of the 3D community. Remember also that this is with regard to a program which has already experienced a whole load of grief due to the previous owners ill-fated handling and their underestimation of the great regard with which Poser owners view it! That's why I view Bondwares blanket silence on the matter as something to deeply regret. As things stand, that silence is speaking volumes and creates a vacuum which is being filled with speculation and no small amount of misinformation together with the sort of glib answers like 'the answer to that is above my pay grade' and 'maybe it will be different in the next version of Poser!' which serve no purpose other than to further exacerbate an already fraught situation. The only people who can address that are Bondware and its well past time they stepped up to the plate of the many people whose concerns they have so far chosen to ignore! Rant over! Respect!