Steinberg are changing their system of licensing for their software products from the familiar USB e-licenser. Robbie Dwyer shares the details including an update of some late breaking news.
Traditionally in November, Steinberg releases the latest versions of their software but this year has seen them wait and instead make the announcement that Cubase 12 Pro is coming in 2022. While this is of course exciting and details and specifications are yet to be released.
What we do know is that they have been listening to their customers for a number of years and are about to make a significant change to the authorisation of their software.
For many years now, the arms race for software manufacturers to protect their products has been vital to the success and continuation of their existence. Unfortunately, the people who suffer such difficulties with these anti-piracy solutions and inconveniences are loyal customers.
However, Steinberg has taken the brave step of leaving their long-established e-licenser dongle protocol, which is similar to the PACE iLok used by many companies.
The first two pieces of software to implement the new Steinberg Licensing method will be Cubase 12 Pro and Dorico 4 (Steinberg’s version of Sibelius). Then as the system starts to develop, they will roll this new Licensing system across the rest of the Steinberg range, as well as add further features to this system.
So why the change now?
Steinberg have recognised that the market has significantly changed in terms of the technology (both for better and worse depending on who you talk to), but the creative individuals work patterns have also changed, so they are looking to embrace new methods to give the customer a greater sense of freedom and flexibility of software that they own.
How are they going to achieve this?
Steinberg wants to move away from the ‘inconvenience’ of the physical USB dongle license method and enable users to authenticate up to two devices. This means that they can have a system at home on a desktop but also another authorised version on a laptop for portability.
This all revolves around your Steinberg ID which you will use as your authentication, which Steinberg says will have you up and running within minutes.
It will require you to have an Internet connection at the time of logging in to the device, which for some will see as an issue. However, by the sounds of things, once a device is authenticated, it will not need an internet connection for up to 30 days. Steinberg believes that the devices you are using will not usually be without Internet connection for more than 30 days.
However, what it will do in the background is reach out to the Steinberg servers to recertify itself all the time you use the software.
Just to add my thoughts on this, I think now with the amount of data people have their phones, it is simple enough to tether a laptop to a phone to authorise it and off you go again.
Steinberg has said that you can have two devices active at any one time, but if you need to use another computer, then it is a simple process of relinquishing a computer in the licensing software and activating that new device. Again, providing flexibility to the customer.
For those that do not have a computer connected to the Internet, then there will be an Offline Activation that will be coming soon and the indications are that you will need to renew it every year, whether you briefly connect online or use the traditional code generated by the company.
How will this all be managed?
By the looks of things, Steinberg will be implementing a management system software similar to that used by ilok and the Plugin Alliance. Here you will be able to manage, activate and deactivate computers as you so wish.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in reality, but it is great to see that companies like Steinberg are implementing this moving forwards and trying to be as flexible and as helpful as possible. It is never easy making such changes, especially when as a company you are trying to protect the very assets that allow you to exist.
We will wait with bated breath to see what Cubase 12 Pro has to offer, as well as the new era of managing their software. I for one applaud the idea especially when you consider how precious dongles are and we can’t afford to lose or break them.
What do you think, step in the right direction or a disaster waiting to happen?
UPDATED:
Since this piece was written Steinberg have announced as of yesterday (December 15, 2021) they have listened to the feedback from customers and have decided that once the software has been activated, you will not need to reconnect to the Steinberg licensing server for every 30-days for the purpose of activations. In addition to this, they have increased the number of activations from two to three computers per single-user license.