Were pleased to announce that release of Service Release 2.1 (SR 2.1) for Poser 5 will be available tomorrow. Once it is available for download, we will post a notice in the various forums. SR-2.1 will be a free download from the Curious Labs website.

This release is the culmination of many weeks of both external beta testing by the community and engineering fixes in response to user reports. Its been a tense few weeks for us. Some reported bugs proved difficult to isolate and seemingly random on some machines. Our Engineering and QA Departments did a stand-up job both of finding and fixing bugs and enhancing Poser 5. We are very pleased by the support this beta program has seen and by the results it has produced.

In addition to ongoing fixes, SR-2.1 will contain a significant change, one that we only implemented after very careful consideration. Quite simply, we decided to place application stability ahead of application security. As a result, SR-2.1 will bypass the current security measures found in Poser 5, resulting in improved reliability and efficiency. Software piracy is a huge concern for Curious Labs and we remain committed to protecting our products in the future so long as this protection does not adversely impact usability of our products. To circumvent the current copy protection, simply install Service Release 2.1 to any shipping version of Poser 5.

We hope and trust that this latest patch provides enhanced stability and functionality to Poser 5. Our improvement efforts are ongoing and we will continue to provide the support and updates as the need arises.

Steve Cooper
Curious Labs

Thanks Steve. Look forward to trying it. Stay cool. Q

Thank you. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I have a feeling that nixing the security will releive alot of headaches for everyone. Thanks for listening.

Wow! You mean the copy protection scheme is now null and void?? That'll get you a few extra sales from the hard-core dissenters. And does this also mean that the protection was causing some of the instability? Hmmm.... I just hear the chorus of 'I told you so' already. Well, I still haven't installed my copy, nor taken it out the shrink-wrap, so I have no personal views, but it's good to see CL trying so hard to keep the community happy. You guys get some sleep now, y'hear! mac

YES. Thank you so much for putting use above security.

Thanks Steve. Regardless of my other opinions I sincerely hope that this latest move by Curious Labs will encourage the various communities to keep a watch for Poser 5 warez and to help Curious Labs fight that trade in the way they've done in the past. Perhaps even a little more enthusiastically and pro-actively. It's not easy watching your work get warezed, I know that as well as any of the other companies and merchants around and it's nice when people support you and help by chasing links and sending you information to help fight it. Good luck.

Terrific news! Thank you, kupa.

Curious Labs listens and responds to the Poser community. Just wanted to say that.

Does that mean we can remove the Interlok device drivers? (Provided no other third party program requires them, naturally) given a choice I'd rather they were nowhere near my system? Also, in the event of a re-install what happens? Do we still have to re-register, or just re-install then patch with SR2.1? It'll be interesting to see if people report less problems now... later jb

Holy wow! Thank you so much!

Good news... the patch and the loss of the security system.

"Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch! Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is dead"... Sorry, a little side joke. ;0)

Kupa, You should hear a collective sigh followed by applause. Thanks, Visque

praxis22 wrote: Also, in the event of a re-install what happens? Do we still have to re-register, or just re-install then patch with SR2.1? Over on PoserPros, Steve Cooper answered a similar question with - "You should be able to reinstall Poser 5, than apply the patch, without any re-authorization required. The patch doesn't need to be applied to an authorized verion of Poser 5."

Good news. Thanks kupa.

well, I'm not sure I'd stretch it that far visque, or any of the thankful ones :) I for one, am still po'd by the past event of installing this...p5...the release condition. As far as the patch....I'm damn happy its coming out as a final...and its just wonderful CL folks put in all that time to fix it, but, again, I defer to the original release condition. The security thing should not have been there in the first place. Most of us objected to it before and since. Yes, CL deserves to protect its property, but at what, or whose expense? no need to rehash this all over again. And as it sounds from kupa's statement above, the security was part of the instability problems. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is...I would not have expected anything less from Curious Labs...I find it hard to thank someone for fixing what shouldn't have happened in the first place...but I'll take it, and continue with my quest to learn and use Poser 5. I hope I can get to like it as much as the previous versions. Now, having riled everyone up by my statement, my copy of Poser 5 has been running pretty decent lately, especially since the SR2 beta releases...and I feel good overall of the condition it is now in...as far as at least being able to use it...it is now where I would expect a release version of software to be. Its really too bad CL couldn't have continued working on the product for a few months more prior to release. The fact CL is commited to further enhancing and updating Poser 5 is indeed great...I thank them for that. Hopefully some of the other issues brought up here and other forums can be addressed. So for me, I'm willing to call it a clean slate and get on with posing...suppose I should wait to see the results of SR2.1 before I cave in completely, LOL

This is really stand up of you. Thanks for putting us ahead of the warez kitties. 8^) Marque

YIPEE!!!! You got rid of the copy protection! I can finally get Poser 5 now! Thanks Curious Labs! One giant stride forward for those of us who use removable hard drives! Now I can take Poser 5 from my home PC to my work PC without having to call you and get a new code! Great move! Thanks a ton!

see..new business already :)

Well said Questor. I think we're such a tight knit community and very "warez" aware. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep a diligent eye out for illegal copies and keep Curious Labs in business!

Ouch, This is a brave step... Just goes to show how deeply the trendrils of the copy protection go! The fact that they are affecting stability shows that they were a step too far. H:)

Thanks Steve! Pleased to hear this.

Hats off! a wise choice. Punish the criminal not your customer. I just hope CL can get it's money back from whoever sold you that copy protection scheme. Take the money you save from the copy protection headache and give your REGISTERED customers access to some free content or some other goodies. This type of value added copy protection will win praise.
My $.02

now I'll install it

A special thank you to the Engineering and QA departments, it sounds like you guys are the unsung heroes of this release. Thanks for all your hard work, it truly is appreciated!!!!

Good news to hear :) Now i just need to upgrade my computer to RUN the blasted thing sigh

Next question: how many megs is this thing? Those of us with dialup do not have warm fuzzies about monster downloads. Would a CD be possible? And, by the way, if it is going to fix something I already paid for...!

Well, of course you have to put use above security when that security measure is causing the computer to reboot everytime the security system even thinks that the code is being tampered with when in most cases it's not. I was stalling buying it because of that issue, very scary business there. Glad to know it won't be an issue when I finally get my copy.

Looks like your timing might pay off. I have it under good authority that the security found in P5 has been indeed causing most of the bugs and other problems, a revelation that many of us have suspected all along. After tomorrow we'll all know for sure. Hi Mab.

That's encouraging to here, Lapis. I'll stall a little longer and see how things turn out. I gave my word I'd buy it, but as some clever person pointed out, I never said when that would be. I had the forms all ready to turn in to purchase it when I heard about this reboot issue that had to do with the security system. I read up on the issue and everything. I'll bide my time. Sooner or later, there will hopefully be a stable version of P5.

Thanks Kupa and CL. Welcome news for many Im sure. As one who has had no problems with P5, and not criticised it publically I take back everything Ive never said!

Applause! Looking forward to it :)

Bravo! I believed in Curious Labs all along. Thanks. -jjsemp.

Am I the only one worried at all by this turn around on the security system?

But does this new patch actually remove the Copy Protection totally from the main program itself? If I installed Poser 5 on a new drive, would I need to authorize again?

c1rcle, I'd like to know the reason why too... I figure it was either too costly to maintain, (unlikely) Pace weren't forthcoming with technical support, (possible) or that it was making the app so unreliable, (which was hurting sales) that leaving it in was thought to be more of a danger to the bottom line than taking it out. I think the latter is the one I'd put money on, but I guess we'll just have to see how much SP2.1 improves matters. later jb

from what I read from kupa...SR2.1 will REMOVE the security protection from the current install....or will we have to reinstall.... And also, I would presume that we would need to install the patch prior to actually running Poser 5, otherwise the dreaded copyprotection thing would popup asking for authorization codes and stuff.

I know we're all praising CL for fixing a program that should have worked fine when we purchased it last September, but... {Our Engineering and QA Departments did a stand-up job both of finding and fixing bugs and enhancing Poser 5.} I don't mean to sound catty, but when did CL hire a "QA Department"? Or is this something new since it seems like they didn't "QA" the first release of Poser 5.0? And did the "Testing" department help out? Oh, no, SR2 has passed the Engineering and QA departments, but it hasn't been tested! That's okay... that's what we have the Beta Forum for: let the users test it! And where's the list of the hundreds of items that SR2 fixes? I'm surprised they didn't mention the lower pricing as well.

Oh come on, give CL credit for posting the fixes and attempting to rectify their software problems. Would you all rather have them just ignore stuff and let poser 5 be a bargain bin addition?

No I applaud the guys & girls at CL for working their asses off fixing the problems, from kupa's post it sounds like the protection system has caused a large number of the problems. I was just being a little paranoid thinking back to past posts about the possible closing of CL & their leaving customers with a program they cant reinstall because no-one's there to sort out the registrations codes. I'm sure it's just the stability problems that have decided them on dumping the protection.

That's good news. Now with the teething troubles fading, I'm looking forward to watching people getting deep into P5 and their reactions as they realise just how awesome it really is, (in working order). Many good things to come......Mike

Where's the patch ???? Its tomorrow already..my day is nearly finished...

It's on their site Dave - do not pass go;)

yep...got it..using it :)

np :)
~SR
Due to recent cutbacks,the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned of

how can I find my way ?

Chaos, panic, disorder-my work here is done

~SR
Due to recent cutbacks,the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned of