Is there an easy way to transfer iLok software to another account and/or user? I have so many elite plugs collecting dust in that dongle.

 

see: https://help.ilok.com/faq_licenses.html

 

Up to $50 per? Yikes! I think I need to find a work-around. ;-)

 

its $25 per or $50 total so if its 20 licenses I guess it'd only be $2.5 per

 

yeah those guys have a great shakedown thing going on.....

 

Maybe it is to discourage transfers. It's a little bit of a money grab, but they might not want to handle tons of transactions. They've made their money by the time you buy the plugin. It also would not be much a surprise if the developers had input on it, because they would definitely rather sell another copy at full price.

 

I'm more then sure it's to discourage transfers, I don't remember the price being that high in the past, but I don't know, I don't sell my licenses when I buy them... but I have in the past, and I don't remember that.. (granted long time ago).

And yeah, maybe lol, they can't handle tons of transactions seeing as if their website and authorization process has failed more then twice in the last few weeks.... but that's on them. If they are charging companies a fair premium for their service, they should be able to provide their customers on both ends with reliability, something they have been inconsistent on of late.

What I'd like to know is if the dev's of said transferred product are getting a part of that $$.

As if not, I do think that is a shakedown grift.

And even if they do... well good for the devs if they are getting a piece, as I'm always gonna side on the side of the 'talent', as lord knows as artists we don't see anything when someone "resells" our music... but hey, I guess our record contracts didn't include the almighty iLok to protect us, and sure, some of that is on 'us', and the bad paper, and the bad legislation, and our horrible completely impotent music rights unions and publishers etc...

 

iLok is BS

 

Solid point. In my experience, their relationship is usually made out to be indistinct and vague, with any complaints that anyone has, or problems that arise around iLOK quickly being scooted into the that's-a-PACE-issue category by devs. This is why the often seen argument "You can't blame PACE for bad customer service because you're not their customer, the developers are," is such a pile of crap (and really sinks when they force their $50-100 dongle on you.) It's a convenient system where they get to perpetually pass the buck on why your experience is a shittier one after having to use iLOK.

 

The developers probably think most customers will fully research a product before buying it; and if they don't like something about it, they will buy something different. We're talking about plugins and not insulin. There are no "magic irreplaceable plugins". Vote with your wallet, and support developers who use protection methods that you do not find intrusive. Obviously the developers think that the lost sales due to their using iLok are a lesser number than those who would use their product without paying for it. Not very difficult math.

 

Despite everyone and their mother thinking they have their finger on every manufacturers sales numbers, you don't. But THEY do, and obviously there isn't a problem with sales or everyone would have ditched it 10 years ago. Remember they have whole departments that are paid to watch over and track those things, nobody here has the faintest idea what UAD or Eventide or anyone's sales numbers look like..

 

You do not even need their sales figures to know they continue to use iLok protection. They obviously see they lose less sales because of them using iLok, than they would to piracy/extended demos. I've never had a single problem with any of the stuff I use which are iLok'd, but all my stuff is Mac and Cloud, not dongle'd.

There is no need for these elaborate theories of why it sucks. Use something else. I'm of the production era of "boxed software". There have always been products with transfer fees or rules, but people just ignored them. Most people assumed that "All software sales are final" and kept whatever they bought. You knew what you were getting into, just like you do now if you buy an iLok'd product. Some developers' implementation of iLok might be annoying enough to buy something else. None of the ilok'd plugins I own are a nuisance; they are almost entirely transparent. Maybe they do impact system performance, but I have never noticed it.