Jeff,I worked for both Flight1 and Aerosoft in the past and will continue to do so in the future, so I know both protection systems.Aerosoft's current (= old) system uses serial numbers plus online activation. Originally the user had to contact the support after three installs to have the installation counter reset. This was changed after a few months and the user was able to reset the counter by himself. This didn't require and authentification except a customer id and password. Post both on the internet and anybody is able to re-activate and use ALL your serial numbers.That makes the system, well, let's say absolutely worthless and reduces online activation to a hassle for the customer only, with no visible advantage for either Aerosoft or the developers. The new system is as effective as the old one (means: uneffective) but works without the online activation stuff. So there actually IS an advantage for the customer.I have a new product almost ready for release and Aerosoft will be the publisher. They approached my team and me several weeks ago with the idea and we discussed the pros and cons of this change internally. Our decision was to take the risk and give it a try. I don't think it's a high risk as in my opinion every copy protection is going to be cracked and everybody who doesn't want to pay for the product will always be able to get it illegally. We will probably lose some sales, yes. But not a lot of them. On the other hand we will also win some new customers who wouldn't buy Aerosoft products before because of online activation.One more thing: I'm not an employee of Aerosoft nor did anybody ask me to write this. It's my personal opinion, no more, no less.Best regards,Hans Hartmann

>I'm also certain that they do not wish to have anyones' stuff>stolen so why they would say something like this is just>beyond all comprehension.Then it would be wise to elaborate on the reasons instead of criticising this step, wouldn

Jeff,I just hope that money and time you invest in combating piracy 'pays off' in extra income. You seem very sensitive to the piracy battle is lost attitude you read in their message I just read their message as an every protection the add-on industry has come up with is cracked by the hardcore pirate crowd from now on we just protect against casual pirates statement.Maybe its just that in your personal opinion the reaction of them should be we invest in a new even beter protection system... But in this war you could take some casualties by turning off legit honest customers that give up on the 'instalation dance'In my opinion this change in Aerosoft policy is a benefit for me the honest customer. I feel beter with less intrusive protection and to me its a great incentive to buy from them. I hope for them that it works out and that they will keep the same (or even beter) income from their sales.Maybe its a break in the industry line but this is an industry never has been one voice and there have always been distributors that released add-ons with little or no protection.

Hi Hans,So when will the Piper PA31 Cheyenne be out? I couldn't have guessed I would buy so quickly from the new Aerosoft online shop.For those that don't know about this release:http://www.mailsoft.com/Cheyenne/cheyenne.htm

We're about to start the last round of testing so we're shooting for some time next week. But as usual: beta testers are mean people and always try to surprise the poor and pitiable programmer with loads of buf reports ;-)

""so it's kind of impossible for anyone in the software businessto prevent a certain degree of piracy. It should be assumed aspart of the business itself.""LOL, then you could just say that eventually your home will be broken into, so just expect it, same difference. It probably is assumed...which is why costs increase.Regards, MichaelKDFWhttp://www.calvirair.com/mcpics/tfbeta.jpg

"LOL, then you could just say that eventually your home will be broken into, so just expect it, same difference. It probably is assumed...which is why costs increase."Its very likely your home will be broken into. Now do you invest in some protection (beter locks, protection screens, small alarm system) or will you hire a personal guard that protects the house and pay him well (so he won't steal from you an can't be bribed) to prevent the brake in? 100% effective anti piracy costs to much so we will never get to that point.The rest is a simple cost benefit equation. What level of anti piracy gets you the most customers. Aerosoft just made an interresting gamble. Lets all see how that works out for them and then continue this debate...

Hey there Hans,Good to hear from you, I've been really looking forward to your stuff that's coming out. :-)I'm certain also that even their new scheme will be just fine in terms of the level of protection versus the ease of use to the customer, it was their public statement about the 'why' that just totally got me bent. There was no call what so ever to make a statment about outright nothing we can do to fight piracy.It's like I think I saw Michael just posted: Should you let someone break into your house because you don't feel like you can prevent it? Heck no you wouldn't. You'd still call the police or defend your property yourself. So why shouldn't we be unified in our approach as an industry?I'm sure you've read it and can understand where I'm comimng from here. There new scheme here becomes irrelevant so to speak as far as anyone else is concerned because that's the attitude they're taking. I just don't want them to take that attitude with anyones' products.

Uwe,You're missing the entire point. I agree with them making their activation proces less intrusive. You do understand that right?What I don't agree with is the public statement as to why.They could have just as easily said "we will still continue to attempt and report illegal distribution where we see it and impliment means through our processes to try and combat the problem, however our new measures are purley intended to make your purchasing process more convenient" Instead they just said we can't do anything about it. They should not even have mentioned piracy anywhere in their statement.They could have also stated they they were doing it for the reasons you just pointed out, but they DID NOT. What they did state was actually a 2 faced statement about the whole thing and make this whole industry look like a free for all for pirates.Do you see now why I'm just a tad upset?I know Mathjis has been around for a long time. He's been a very well respected member in this community as far as I can remember, but come on folks.

Boshar,Let me make this very clear: We use the F1 Wrapper. There is nothing at all intrusive about that. NOTHING AT ALL----ROFL.Alot of what we can do simply takes alot more time than money. It costs us nothing to make reports to interpol or ISP's to get people shut down.We are not interested in the measures that you mention for the very reasons that we know also anyone can crack, hack, and track them and they just cause more pain to our customers.We would be interested in a real solution, which is very hard to do in our business because we're also reliant on the piece of software we make add-ons for. Now before everyone get's on the MS kick, it's not truley or soley their responsibility either, so if we're going to come up with something it has to really be good.We are not naive here, we are fully aware of the situation, ok gang? :-)In any case you ALL are just missing my point all together and I've continue to expain myself over and over again, so hear is what I'm going to do.IF ANYONE (the first person) can properly explain back to me what I am actually saying, they WILL GET A FREE COPY OF EGKA!!!!Maybe that will spark those brain cells....LOL. And no I'm not slamming anyone here just being sarcastic.Edit: Michael and Jeworin (spelling sorry) you already got it, sorry...you don't count but maybe I should just go ahead and give you guys one anyways.

oops. That should read "bug reports"...

Jeff,To be honest, I actually didn't even read the press release :-D. This has nothing to do with Aerosoft or the guy who wrote it. In 99 out of 100 cases, press releases can be abbreviated by "blah blah blah", so I save my time by only reading the caption and sometimes scanning for certain keywords ;-)I only intended to clear up what has actually changed in the protection system. It's certainly worth to "fight" against piracy but there's two things about it:a) protection measures mustn't restrict the rights of the user and should cause as little trouble for him/her as possible.:( they must work - at least to a certain extent.Honestly I don't see anything except perhaps for the proposed (and dreaded) TCPA/TPM stuff that meets b. There's also a pretty long list of FS addons that don't meet the first part of a. I won't mention any names around here though.

Roger that Hans,I fully agree with your A & B, I don't agree with their statement though, not in any manner...LOL.Have you heard the phrase "doing the right thing for the wrong reasons"? LOLThat's exactly what they're doing only this time it reflects very poorly about our industry.

Jeff,Your problem is that you don't agree with the public statement as to WHY Aerosoft changed their protection system. Most noteably these parts:>> Basically we believe that the current expertise of piracy is so>> good that the level of protection needed exceeds what honest>> customers will accept. >> There will always be pirates, people who STEAL software. We just>> do not want to spend MORE time and effort (= money) into fighting>> themThey are honest about their reasoning. You don't agree with their conclusions and you feel that they are somehow saying that this valid for the entire industry and a giving up to pirates. As far as I can see they say that their SOLLUTION to the problem is different from most major FS addon Companies. They find its "up to the customers to decide what direction is right" and that will be the most interresting that will come from this. A few months from now we will see if they are right...BTW I'm sure that I would like the flight wrapper system if only I still had a credit card. As it is (I can only use PayPal) the Flight1 wrapper releases will never be bought by me. I do think that distribution via Flight wrapper is more expensive then the Aerosoft an SimMarket methods.I didn't aswer this to get a price so if I have the solution to your little contest I suggest you give the price to the newest forum member on this board."A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?"

Holy sweet mother of god, that's close enough!Now, keep in mind that they will also turn out right in terms of their protection/purchasing scheme, but that doesn't give them the right to make blanket statements like they did.What they are doing is just more or less making their new scheme with the roughly the same measures as most of the common ones we see everyday, so they should not allude to or give the perception that it is easier for people to steal their stuff.You see what I mean now? Or should I say: you now see what I mean :-)You can still have the prize if you like. Send me an email to j.d.nielsen onlinesimulationsolutions.com or if you want I will give it to the next person who gets it without using your words...lol.We've been playing around with our spam filtering on our server which has been getting my blood pressure really boiling now, so if it bounces initially I will be manually turning on and off the SMTP/Qmail during the day until I can figure why it keeps shutting itself off. It will go through though so don't worry.