Hi everyone,
Today we learned that one of our very nice and passionate customers had their gear stolen. Apparently the thief got away with the laptop computer and Pangolin laser controller hardware. This happens from time to time. In fact, it seems more common that the FB3 would be stolen, rather than all the gear. But it's easy to imagine.
Some of you know that -- in the past, when Pangolin hardware was stolen, if a customer came to us an explained the situation, we would offer hardware at a discounted price (usually very close to our cost), as long as the customer also supplied a police report. We believed this was a reasonable prerequisite.
Well last year a situation arose (I'm sorry to say involving a really unreasonable customer) that made us re-think that policy. If your laptop is stolen, Apple will neither give you a replacement for free, nor give you any discounts. In fact, I could not think of any other company in the entire world who would give you a discount. So why should our behavior be any different (aside from that we wanted to be nice guys up until then)? After all, if the company has insurance and files an insurance claim for the full cost of Pangolin hardware (and software), but we give them replacement hardware at a discount and software for free, this could be a way of actually profiting from the situation! So starting around this time last year we changed our behavior to be more in line with the rest of the world. Your stuff was stolen? While we're sorry to hear that, file an insurance claim...
The situation with the customer mentioned above involved not only their computer and FB3 hardware but also the BEYOND license. Because our software licensing is essentially hardware dependent, when the hardware gets stolen it basically means that the software gets stolen too... Due to our licensing scheme, there is no way for us to "turn off" software that has already been turned on. And also no way for us to defend against the occasional false claims of things being stolen. (I'm sorry to say, not everyone is honest in reporting what really happened...)
Because of this, it meant that the customer must also purchase an additional BEYOND license -- obviously something that added to the heart break of the whole situation. The customer was understandably upset about this. It seemed as though Pangolin was being unreasonable. After all -- as they put it "Resolume and other companies" can just transfer a license.
I'm not familiar with Resolume (other than knowing what it does) and I don't know what "and other companies" they were referring to. However, if these softwares are activated online, then it becomes more understandable. For example at Pangolin we use Adobe products and also 3D cad called “Solid Works”, which requires online activation, and which will allow itself to be run on a limited number of computers (in the case of Adobe, 2). When we try to use Adobe or Solid Works on a third computer, it automatically deactivates all of the other computers. Especially with Solid Works it represents a huge inconvenience, but I will admit that, in the end it works and I can't think of anything better.
Now, turning this model to Pangolin, up until now we have not required online activation, or required an internet connection to be present at any time during the entire lifetime of the product. Up until now, we believed that this was a good idea, and that especially DJs liked to keep their computers off the internet as a way of preventing viruses. (Hehe, and preventing damn Windows 10 from updating…)
The main point off this post (and I'm sorry for taking so long to get here) is — what would be better? And especially — are we now living in an age where permanent (or at least periodic) internet connection is acceptable, and where software activation “on line” is acceptable?
Up until now, we believed the requirement of an internet connection was not acceptable. But if we’re now living in an age where online activation is acceptable to everyone around the world, then all I can say is — AWESOME!!!
As some of you know, we’re battling piracy now and it’s not easy for us. But if everyone will go online — at least from time to time, then it will be much easier for us to battle piracy, and also obviously easy to deal with situations like equipment being stolen and transferring licenses.
So I'd like to hear from the members here at Photon Lexicon. Would the majority accept online activation?
Best regards,
William Benner