...or are things totally different these days?

Please NOTE: this is not my opinion or an implication (but from guys that can code a sw emu!)
So it could be useful info for future buyers

Came across this oldie:

Special note : H2O does it again.........!!! Although everybody thought that Syncrosoft and Steinberg had found the ultimate protection, we prove otherwise. We admit that it's getting harder and harder to do and this one may possibly be the last one we do.......
Note to protection coders : Unbelievable way you transform an application. We estimate that between 30% & 40% of the application are wrapped in the script protection. Protection is one thing but this surely effects an application performance. You probably could get a performance gain of 50% without the protection!! Think about this : Once broken, the protection is , what ????

.....and so on

Thanx for any tech opinion

 

It totally depends on implementation. And yes, it can be very crippled,like several protection calls in a second.
BUT there is something else : when you have money to waste on hardware protection...you have money to buy a more powerful computer ;)

The "crippled" argument never clicked with me. To me, main downside of hardware protection is you pay for it in the final price.