I have not yet received concrete response

[emianna]

Good day!
I write in Italy and the 2 June 2010 I have purchased the program Bob's track builder pro installed and functioning until, to August, I had to change but motherboard because bearings and I also changed the operating system.
This is done after 15 days the programme in question to stopped work because, according to the programme are gone are the days of evidence, but I having you buy regularly do not see why so far have not received a small response after sent well 2 mail on 7 August and September 3 to the address that is situated in the site of Bob's track builder address dedicated to communications for problems with the licences.
If you believe that I you buy tell me what it takes to try the purchase, I have kept all, otherwise, if you do n't receive answer and practical solution, as the money that I have spent to have the program, I would just say' to the competent authorities to denounce the possible theft.
I make this that are 2 months that aspect, but has everything, there is a limit.
Thank you of the attention and the answer I would'.
Emilio.

 

[Raido]

Emilio, you are not the only one with this problem. Personally, I think BTB needs a drastic overhaul of its licensing system.

 

[woodn]

Found this on Whois

Brendon Pywell (BPYWELL@IINET.NET.AU)
+61.414399744
Fax: +61.414399744
13 Carebong Rd
Frenchs Forest, NSW 2086

I understand your frustration, Brendon has not been around for about a year now, he more less screwed the people that supported him!!

I don't care if we every see V0.9, but why not stay involved with what you started? Its not that hard to post in a forum from time to time!!

 

[jay_p_666]

I don't understand your problem. Did you generate a new license and upload to BTB website?

 

[chub_pearson]

Emilio,
Your license is made from the motherboard, hard disks, operating system you use when it's issued, so if you change the motherboard your license won't work and it will expire two weeks after you change them like it's a demo version.

Alas, you can't get a new license until your old one runs out, so if you set it for six months that's how long it takes. If you don't know how long it is, log in to the BTB website, look under 'yourname'/license and it will tell you when it expires. Always use the minimum length of license - 1 or 2 months.

I understand your frustration, Brendon has not been around for about a year now, he more less screwed the people that supported him!!

I don't care if we every see V0.9, but why not stay involved with what you started? Its not that hard to post in a forum from time to time!!

Woodn, screwed is a harsh term. I don't know if you've ever given up your job to try and make a living doing something you love rather than just working, but that's what Brendon did. The fact that it didn't work out, and he had to turn his attention back to more pressing things, i.e. supporting his wife and family, doesn't mean he owes you anything. You bought BTB at whatever stage you did, and you got all further updates as promised. The fact that there won't be any more updates is just a sad fact of life and inevitable, nothing lasts forever.

Sorry, I'm not particularly having a go at you, but it does annoy me all the time that people seem to think Brendon has let them down in some way. We have BTB as it is, and it's great, anything that would have been added with further updates, we'll just have to go back to figuring out how to do it by ourselves.

And the licensing system works fine as long as you always set it to the minimum so any foulups only keep you locked out for a minimum period.

 

[Raido]

Your license is made from the motherboard, hard disks, operating system you use when it's issued, so if you change the motherboard your license won't work and it will expire

Yes, like I said: needs an overhaul.
Imagine if Microsoft made your Windoze stop working every time you change something in the hardware.



...Oh wait, that's kinda how it works in Windows-world already.

Woodn, screwed is a harsh term. ...and you got all further updates as promised.

Well... Not if your program isn't working, you didn't.

I don't think Brendon 'screwed' anyone, but the way the licensing system was set up did leave a lot of people in the lurch - people who paid for their warez but were left with non-functional software all too often. As always, this kind of draconian copy protection always hits the users who got legal copies, not those who use warez.

 

[gwaldock]

I agree with everything that Chub said; Brendon owes us nothing.

I bought my first copy of BTB way back in 2007; despite having TWICE rebuilt the PC in which it was/is installed I USED IT YESTERDAY!

I bought two more licenses in early 2008 and I USED ONE OF THEM TODAY (on a new laptop)!

BTB works as advertised; there is nothing else like it and we are fortunate to have it. If memory serves, BTB was hacked (and distributed) by some cheap, short-sighted *sshole; THAT is why licensing was made so restrictive and THAT may have contributed to Brendon discontinuing development of BTB.

Best regards to the editing (but not hacking) community!!!

 

[Raido]

Agree with the latter, disagree with the former. BTB 0.8.0.3 was cracked late last year, but the licensing system was in place many moons before that. Like I said, it's not the pirates who were bothered by it - they never are, but the 'real' buyers of the software always are.

 

[emianna]

Therefore I have you saying that in practice I, until 2 December 2011, which is the date that tells me when I put my license, I can no longer use BTB?
Well, may also be my ignorance is not properly understand the explanation, but if there are many people with the same problem, I am sorry but Mr Brendon must remedy this or take a person who solves these problems, why, I repeat that I have given the money you good and here I am with a handful of flies.
Obviously has interest in solving the problem, and I, having spent for a virus that I burned the motherboard, I must also be about a second time with this, I hope, stupid mechanism for granting of licences.

 

[martinez]

When your license expires, you will download new license from the same source - for free. I think this conversation goes to nowhere.

 

[Raido]

And you can be sure that the server you get your licenses from, will go 'nowhere' sooner or later as well.

That's one of the things why it's not setup the right way - you cannot depend on servers staying online all the time. Apart from large corporate or government sites, most tend to disappear or relocate after only a few years. Already, url's and links from 2003 or earlier tend to be inoperational more often than not.
In other words, you can never, never really trust 'the Cloud'.

That's largely why personal computers were developed in the first place: people wanted to do work for themselves, and not be dependent upon university or corporate mainframes connected to dumb terminals.

 

[martinez]

No offence, but if I think this way, I would better forget BTB, licenses and all concerned stuff. I'm sorry, I want fo finish my track which I started long time ago and luckily (maybe) my BTB still works

 

[mianiak]

My POV,

Waiting till Dec 2011 for your license to renew is very bad. It's not even Dec 2010 yet.

As much as I appreciate this software and I appreciate Brendon's work, I have to be logical and honest about the whole thing.

The logical calculation is that the licensing system is very bad, no one can argue with that.
The new buyers who have not been part of this forum community will not know any different and will easily register the program for 2 years which will open the door to get caught out like Emilio has been caught out. Plus new users are probably using win7 and will also not know the difference.
Many of us have been caught out by this problem.
This IMHO leads people to abuse the system and hunt down the crack. Then word about the crack spreads faster and more and more people start using it.

A few months back I built a new system, but not before I replaced a few parts first to try and find the problem, each time I added a new part I reinstalled Windows (an old pre sp1 copy of XP), each time I reinstalled Windows I had to contact Microsoft and get activation. Plus I reactivated 3dSimed each time. But not BTB, I had to wait for 2 months. Mind you I had put off fixing my system for a few months so an not to kill BTB.

Brendon has to do 2 things, there is no argument, this must be reviewed.

1, Simply just allow the re registering of existing licenses like Microsoft and Dave does with 3dSimed.
2, add a phone home system to the software so that it can be tracked if a user with a renewed license uses the old license.


I am sorry if I offend anyone with my words, I don't like to get involved with these sort of discussions, but it hurts me to see honest people suffer when there is a simple solution.

 

[Raido]

Mianiak, imho in my view even your solution is overcomplicated and will lead to issues. I tend to look at these things in a long-term view since I've been around since before the Internet got online. I've seen similar issues many times before.

Like I said, you simply *cannot* rely on servers being 'up' into all eternity, or even in the course of a few years. They *will* go down and that *will* leave you in the lurch if you need to re-register licenses. Like you said, people will be forced to hunt for the cracked versions to avoid these issues. Not to mention the hassle and costs which a program's author has to go through to keep his servers and licensing software up all the time!
Only a 'register & pay once and be done with it' (as it should be) will suffice in the end.

(Same goes for re-registering Windows, btw - did you know that Mac OS X, like Linux, despite being payware has no registering or copy protection system at all? I thank my lucky stars for that, since even the Mac can be enough of a hassle now and then.)