About the current license management Issue - Request about multiple device registering on one licence

[ini]

I found that many animator around me, was using licence at company and rehosting their licence to use it at their home to work with, almost everyday.

But because of the current issue,
(We can't connet with the license management page, I think it's been two days now, and still it's not running)
We can not use our licence at other device or at home without the connection on license management page.

At least, If there was a way to registering two device with one licence, with not allowing them to using tvp at the same time, there was not inconvienience on using it at home and their company.

At first, I used WIBU licence at company and at home, like the others.
but soon, I realised it's unstable factor to using tvp, so I have two license,
but........It is not a cheap software to buy multiple licence....

I was planning to go japan next year with one WIBU license to use it home and other place,
with my the other licence left to my country, just for the remote rendering.
But now, with current license management issue, I'm considering take all of the licence to JP....

I think this can never be tolerated that our licence depend on situation of others.
We need the way to use tvp with trust....

I heard another story, during the conversation about the current issue.
One of my friend sometimes forgot the returning the licence on the company,
so he using other software when it happens, finally he got used to using that other software.

At first time I heard about the dongle-less version, I was do glad to use it any place, but....
It also require tiresome behavior like a dongle version, returning and regstring, for the dongle version, possessing dongle itself.

Personally, I think tvpaint is good software, and I don't care & do not have ploblem with this issue, because I have two licence.
But It's to sad to just hearing about the complaint about it. And in many cases, Even if there is incomvinience on using it because of other ploblem, they do not speak it to forum or tvp team directly(cuz of language...? maybe...?). Just they complain and share about it in their boundary. but If the developement don't realize these complaint, I think it's not good, that's why I post this.

Regards

[D.T. Nethery]

But it's too sad to be hearing the complaints about it. And in many cases even if there is inconvenience using it because of other problem, they do not speak out about it on the forum or to the TVP team directly (cuz of language...? maybe...?). They just complain and share about it in their boundary, but If the developement team does not realize these complaints, I think it's not good, that's why I post this.

I agree. This is a crippling defect .

I believe it is time for TVPaint Co. to seriously consider another provider for the software security system. It seems WIBU/Codemeter is too often unreliable. Imagine if an animator has a deadline to deliver a project on Monday morning , but suddenly the license stops working on a Friday night or they must take work home to work on a different computer, but the license will not transfer properly (and with TVPaint Support not back in the office until Monday and responding to emails "within 24 - 48 hours during normal business hours" ) so that animator (it could be any of us) is left in a very bad situation. Deadline missed. Not acceptable for a professional. This is extremely serious.

I remember how people used to complain about the security dongle ... not me, I was fine with using the dongle. I just told everyone : "I treat the dongle with the same care that I treat my wallet or my car keys." I never lost it. I could use my TVPaint license on any computer by plugging in my dongle. Of course, I don't mind not having the dongle taking up a precious USB port on my computer, but not if WIBU is so unreliable when switching the license to a different computer (or sometimes WIBU just stops working on the same computer, for no apparent reason). To be fair, I will say that I have only had one incident in the past few years since changing to WIBU/Codemeter where my license did not load properly and at the time I wasn't in a situation where I was actively working on a project with a tight deadline , but if I had been up against a tight deadline it would have been extremely frustrating. I have read too many reports on this forum about users suddenly losing their ability to use TVPaint because WIBU/Codemeter fails. It makes me very nervous. I hope TVPaint Co. understands that this is not acceptable for a professional application and that the reports about the unreliable WIBU/Codemeter does make some potential users of TVPaint wary about purchasing the software.

[Dean]

Hello ini, regarding the possiiblity to activate the license on more than one machine at a time but limiting its use to one computer: the status of of the license would need to be verified a lot more often than currently, the main advantage of our current system compared to traditional cloud-based licenses being that they can be used offline for an extended period of time. So in the case of an "always online" DRM system, datacenter pertubations like what's happening right now could make the software unusable for all non-dongle WIBU users.

About WIBU license rehosting, we have tweaked the License Depot page to make license transfers as fast as possible and will continue to improve it. Its compatibility issues with Safari seems very difficult to resolve, though, but sadly this seems to be completely out of our control. However, from our experience, we have seens that the majority of users rather use Chrome or Firefox.

[Thierry]

I agree. This is a crippling defect .

I believe it is time for TVPaint Co. to seriously consider another provider for the software security system. It seems WIBU/Codemeter is too often unreliable. Imagine if an animator has a deadline to deliver a project on Monday morning , but suddenly the license stops working on a Friday night or they must take work home to work on a different computer, but the license will not transfer properly (and with TVPaint Support not back in the office until Monday and responding to emails "within 24 - 48 hours during normal business hours" ) so that animator (it could be any of us) is left in a very bad situation. Deadline missed. Not acceptable for a professional. This is extremely serious.

I remember how people used to complain about the security dongle ... not me, I was fine with using the dongle. I just told everyone : "I treat the dongle with the same care that I treat my wallet or my car keys." I never lost it. I could use my TVPaint license on any computer by plugging in my dongle. Of course, I don't mind not having the dongle taking up a precious USB port on my computer, but not if WIBU is so unreliable when switching the license to a different computer (or sometimes WIBU just stops working on the same computer, for no apparent reason). To be fair, I will say that I have only had one incident in the past few years since changing to WIBU/Codemeter where my license did not load properly and at the time I wasn't in a situation where I was actively working on a project with a tight deadline , but if I had been up against a tight deadline it would have been extremely frustrating. I have read too many reports on this forum about users suddenly losing their ability to use TVPaint because WIBU/Codemeter fails. It makes me very nervous. I hope TVPaint Co. understands that this is not acceptable for a professional application and that the reports about the unreliable WIBU/Codemeter does make some potential users of TVPaint wary about purchasing the software.

The current problem only affects people who don't have a license activated: if you have a license activated, you can continue to use it without any issues.
We are always available to help users when they have issues like this one, as we always had.

Also, please note I am writing in all good fatigh, but sadly a very big part of the reports about Codemeter "malfunctioning" are made by users who don't take the time read/watch the activation instructions, or just simply have overzealous anti-virus software that blocks Codemeter components (which we also had even more often with Safenet) and didn't bother to notifiy the user that something was being placed in quarantine. The times where there were legit issues were few and are generally fixed quite quickly by WIBU.
This is the sad reality of working in tech support.

Was the system too complicated in the beginning? Yes, it was, I would be a fool to deny it (and you should have seen the sad and sorry state it had been left it in before I took charge of this project).

We made countless improvements to the Licence Depot page (as Dean said), our documentation, we've released video tutorials... We are still making improvements and working with Wibu teams to make things better (especially with rehosting).
The numbers from the Support department are here, for the last few months ever since we made those improvements, over the literal hundreds of requests we are receiving, Wibu issues represent less than 5% of those requests and are always decreasing.

[D.T. Nethery]

Yes, I'm certain it is much better now after you have improved it. I'm not suggesting that the problems with WIBU are on TVPaint's side . I'm glad to hear that the number of incidents with WIBU/Codemeter are becoming less as time goes on. My perception is that there have been ongoing issues with WIBU not being reliable , but perhaps that perception is imbalanced from reports that I read here on the forum.

[ini]

I see, Thanks for replys.

And Thank you for your hard work....

The current problem only affects people who don't have a license activated: if you have a license activated, you can continue to use it without any issues.

I think It's not a only ploblem of non-license activated users......

If they can't rehost their licence from the company, they have to stay at where the licence is hosted.
or
They have to go home carring their computer, It's ridiculous.

The licence is theirs, and I think re-hosting also have to be counted as normal usage.
If normal usage is limited by other reason, I think there is also ploblem like in current situation.

In my boundary, Current one is biggest issue since I started using tvp.

[Dean]

Hello, service has been back since Saturday. We agree that the impossibility to rehost one's license was a big issue, indeed.
But as I wrote in my previous message, the licenses not requiring being always online were an advantage in this situation, since users who had already activated their license (aka the vast majority) could still work.

Of course it would have been better if everyone could access every license management tool as usual during these few days. It is expected that WIBU will take even more precautions to ensure continued stability from now on.

My perception is that there have been ongoing issues with WIBU not being reliable , but perhaps that perception is imbalanced from reports that I read here on the forum.

The forum represents only a tiny part of the TVPaint community and the issues/requests which are posted here are most of the time totally different from what the contact form brings us.
Requests via our website will be about basic technical questions in general, while the forum has more "niche" problems, such as scripting for example.

Both help us improve TVPaint, though

[ini]

Nice to hear that, Thanks for the nitice.

I have some question,

I think dongle version can usable on offline even if it's first-running on new pc,
And wibu need to activate it from the online at first activation and I think It's impossible to buy dongle version at least on my country right now, so....

On the new tvpaint 12, are you guys planning to sell only network licence version?
and if I have a tvpaint 11 of dongle version, and upgrade with it, Is it have to be changed to network licence version?
I mean, could I loose possibility of activation under the offline-status where is on the new PC or new OS?
....or Are you planning to make a way to first-activate from the new PC which is completely offline...?

[Dean]

Dongles have ceased to be the primary way we distribute licenses for a couple year now, so the bigger part of TVPaint 12 licenses will also be dongleless. New WIBU dongle models are still available for some rare cases, at an additional cost.
The only way to activate a license while staying offline would be these new dongles, otherwise it will be required to be connected to the internet to activate the license.
It is quite rare for a machine to never be connected to the internet nowadays and the vast majority of software requires online activation, coupled to the fact that the dongles might break or be lost, this was a mandatory evolution for us.
Also since users may use their phone as a router, completely losing access to the internet is a now rare occurence in a lot of countries.

[ini]

What am I concern, is not only internet itself, but also the place where the internet is connecting to.

Then, you are saying if the tv paint support or licence providers are gone,
In case of I have to change PC or main ssd or having ploblem with previous circumstance, I'll loose my right to use tvp, if I don't buy a hidden dongle version with an addional cost.

OK, Thanks you for the reply, have a nice day.

[Matthieu]

Hello Ini,

In case of I have to change PC or main ssd or having ploblem with previous circumstance, I'll loose my right to use tvp, if I don't buy a hidden dongle version with an addional cost.

In this case (if you have to change computers or SSD), you won't lose your right to use TVPaint. You may lose access to your license but we can give it back to you. And this doesn't require to buy any hidden dongle version at an additional cost.

Then, you are saying if the tv paint support or licence providers are gone,

I understand your concern. But this applies to every single thing we buy, even when they are material (what if there are no replacement parts for something you've purchased and is now malfunctionning etc.). Moreover, there is always a trade off with any licensing system (inconvenience of having to use USB ports, risk of forgetting or losing your dongle for such systems, lack of security with activation key-based systems and so on...).

Have a nice day!