Hi Experts/Oldies

Need Advice -

If a plugin website has some Glitch and Im able to officially buy/download (for free) multiple plugins from their website

Then later install those on iLok machine

Can the company still do something later? or would be fair/wise enough to just inform them about error
(they will surely call back plugins)

PS - Its their mistake or glitch, not mine
PSS - I also already had few discounted/bought plugins from them

Thanks

 

Last edited: Dec 12, 2025

It's best to contact a lawyer before doing anything. Lawyer's advice.

 

Admin accounts have access to "pluck" or "drop" keys in/out of your account. So technically yes, they could revoke them, but it's a question of them noticing that you got something for free that you were supposed to pay for — so don't give them any reason to review your account. If they notice an influx of invoices with $0 purchase total, they will surely look into the situation.

If possible, purchase something with the "free" item so that it isn't obvious at a glance of your invoice, and place the keys onto a physical iLok USB key, which might help prevent it from being revoked.

 

Hello @MusicBoy123, just install them and see if they work. It's not your job to fix other people's mistakes.

 

Honestly, its just 1 invoice (with multi plugins) - tho I get a feeling that they will Notice it
Well, legally its their fault I dint hack anything or something LOL - its like a bug and I used it
They can still drop iLok machine licenses ? :| That's weird

 

They work absolutely fine sir
I thought of mailing them to allow me to keep plugins - But now Im thinking of just using them since they on my iLok machine

 

Yes, they absolutely can! For example, they could revoke all your licenses (even the ones you bought) with the excuse that you acted in bad faith.

That said, I’d say you have a few options:

1. If it’s a big company, email them and say that you found a serious bug in their store, then ask if they have a bounty program or something similar where you can report it.
2. If it’s a small company, you can also do the above, or just tell them everything.
3. You know...
4. Do nothing.

I was in a similar situation with a big company who should remain unnamed (but is hated by most here), and I sent them everything, thinking they’d reward me — they didn’t. In retrospect, I should’ve gone with option 1.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

 

Thanks for the relevant reply, bro!
Guess you are talking about Wawez brand? :D

In my case company is Mid size - pretty famous and expensive af plugins.
I was thinking of Mailing them - but if their promotion has implementation issue, how is that my bad faith?
But I get your point, I think re-think about it - maybe mail them but I doubt they will reward me

 

fuck iLok.

 

dont you want to share your findings?

 

For free? They could probably term your licenses. Who cares?

Pricing glitch lower than it should be? UAD didn't.

We're not talking about you noticing a glitch at your bank with a million dollars in your account and you extracting the incorrectly allocated funds and fleeing to Cuba.

They never do. If it is some little company, tell them and they will almost always hook you up with something for doing them the favor. Big companies will never do anything but fix it and say thanks.

 

Last edited: Dec 12, 2025

I used to write reports that were pages long and send them to plugin companies (big and small) directly, for free. I'll be fkd in a new hole if I ever got any reward from them, except one small company which did give me access to their catalogue and another which gave me a coupon for their overpriced plugins and another which also gave me a coupon even though they should have given me a free plugin of my choice because that case actually a legal issue in their TAC which was quite big.

I also did it with one of the hardware-by-internet companies and they gave me credits worth $10, when the issue was that I was able to infinitely use a hardware AFTER the session time had expired... That REALLY pissed me off. That bug was worth WAY MORE than $10 and they basically spat in my face, when hardware use actually costs them money. They immediately released an update which fixed it. I told them that if they would give me longer monthly access I could continue to test their system for issues (I like doing it and I proved I'm worth it) but they ignored me. After that I stopped sending any reports to any of them with the exception of companies I respect and whose products I really love, which are very few.

I generally buy my plugins. The only cracked plugins I use are iZotope (even though I own earlier versions of them) and another one here or there, but even so, I recommend against sending any of those bstds anything. They know the worth of their own efforts but not the time it takes to find a serious bug, replicate it and write a long report about it when someone else is doing it?? Fk them.

 

^ The issue with calling this a “bug bounty” is that you actually need a company running a bounty program for that to apply. Otherwise they see unsolicited reporting as someone trying to angle for compensation. It’s the digital equivalent of a squeegee guy rushing up to your car, doing something you never asked for, then implying you owe them for it.

If you just happen to stumble upon some problem, maybe they will flip you a discount code or something. If you make it out like you are just trying to buy something, they help people with that stuff all day long anyway. " We fixed it, is there anything WE can help YOU with? " ... hold on a minute there. Too late.

Buy it and see what happens. The worst case scenario is they give you your money back. Unless you are actually tampering...

Back about a year when they still had the prior version of the Sonnox website up, they had an interesting bug. When you bought something from them during one of their big sales, they had every plugin marked down already about 70% or something. But what they forgot to do was disable the function on their website which would total up how many plugins from one of their two categories and apply another discount on top of it. So if you bought 3 "Oxford" plugins, you would get 20% off on them. Every one after that added another 10% off. The same with their "Toolbox" plugins. So by the time all was said and done if you bought the entire Elite Bundle or other, but as individual plugins, you could buy the entire bundle for about 100$ instead of 1000$.

 

Last edited: Dec 12, 2025

Maybe they do see it that way but that's not how reality is. I can choose to clean my windscreen if I feel there's a need for it but if you find a serious bug (including the one you mentioned), it would have already been fixed if they knew about it. Plus rewarding such people would push them to keep reporting useful bugs, and serious bug reports that go into a lot of detail really aren't the equivalent of a squeegee guy cleaning a windscreen.

They don't have to reward every small issue obviously, nor should they, but some issues are no joke and can very well deter potential customers from buying from them again if they experience such a bug. Example: On the Clariphonic mk3 thread, someone mentioned having experienced a huge burst of volume (like really huge, he mentioned the amount but I don't remember it) and cited it as an additional reason he would never buy from Kush again.

I, myself, switched over from Pro Tools because I had a huge burst and although their tech support was very responsive, and the exchange went on for several days, they claimed they couldn't replicate it and I just couldn't tolerate that happening again (though I wasn't expecting anything from them, I was just reporting a very serious bug that almost gave me a heart attack and actually damaged my hearing). I couldn't replicate it the next version even though they didn't mention it being fixed in the release notes, but I could when I went back to the earlier version, even after a clean install of the system.

These things make a difference and wise people know that it's a give and take. It can't just be take take take. Of course, others don't, and instead of getting useful feedback in the future, they end up losing sales without realizing it. Just because they aren't legally or even ethically obliged to do anything doesn't mean it doesn't benefit them if they do. Just my opinion.

 

Complete bundle for 100'$ sounds intriguing So did they revoke it for the users who used that offer or let it be ?

 

I don't know if that's similar but there's issue with my SSL hardware but it was random. So SSL on mail agreed for replacement but the distributor denied and pushed for checking first. Since the issue was random/less frequent i dint send the device as theyd keep it for long and affect my schedule. So sometimes they play in grey area

 

It was not a "bug", it was their own website not overriding the sales percentage on top of their "create your own bundle" discount. I also did not go tell the entire internet about it like people often do. When Focusrite Group bought Sonnox they updated their website because it was very outdated anyway. And so that little discount error just went away. They probably never even noticed it.

Now that Focusrite has taken over the company, you can get the same prices on their native versions without doing anything but waiting for a sale. If you keep your eye on Sweetwater website, they often do completely unannounced sales where you can get example Inflator for like $15.00. I have no idea why.

 

Ask ChatGPT how to protect your monitors. A true peak safety limiter as the last plugin on the 2 bus helps, gain staging matters, beyond that it’s on you. Blaming an individual plugin developer is not going to change anything. But it can be fun to mention like the 2AM +40dB BEEP they had in Pro-L2 at some point. Of course they put it in the limiter... This is why I always use the Stock DAW limiter as safety limiter, but that is still not a panacea.

Anyway, the topic was website bugs, not product testing. Kali, not Avid.

 

Last edited: Dec 12, 2025

Honestly, if it were me, I would keep it quiet, wouldn't mention to the manufacturer... activate the plugins.. use them just a little bit here and there to play around, but not commit them to your 'real' projects just yet. Give it a month or two, and if nothing, then consider it yours. I think most manufacturers wouldn't notice that you acquired them via a bug in their website.. and if they do, well sure they can pull them from you (which is why I suggest a 'trial' period, so to speak, before committing to them in projects)... but I think you have a big enough case to just play stupid and not lose anything else. I see it kinda like with other stuff.. better to beg for forgiveness than ask permission.

That's just my 2 cents.

I guess it also depends on what you did.. if it was an exploit.. yah, maybe don't do it.... if it was a website glitch of some sort that allowed you to do things, then I dont really see how it's your 'fault' and that you should lose other stuff over it. Honest mistake ;)

I also think that the larger the company / more popular the product, the more likely it will fly under the radar.. but that's just a guess, I just don't really think many companies spend any time auditing this sort of thing... but even if they do, I don't think they're going to blow up your account because of what sounds like their own mistake (All bets are off if it was Xfer products).

 

Last edited: Dec 12, 2025