Carey
Extraordinary
I have a question: I have recently lost software because the software phones home every time you use it and I don't mean poser 10..The question is do the things I bought at hivewire phone home and will I lose the use of them?
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Phone home software discussion
- Thread starter Carey
- Start date
As far as I know, nothing (content-wise) we have purchased from HW phones home. It was just Poser 10 itself.
None of my products phone home. They don't even have a phone!
3D Content alone can't "phone home". You'd have to load a program or script to do that.
My sets have some python scripting that pulls documents from my website (manuals, pdfs) and a link that can send you to my website. Theoretically, I could track that activity (but I don't).
As you said, Poser does that do that, DAZ Studio does it... most programs do. The most common use is simply looking to see if there is an update. Some check to make sure you are using licensed software.
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Carey
Extraordinary
One of the sites that has gone back to daz took some of my purchases with them when their site closed...took it right off my hard drive...
This has me wondering what site and what Software. I have never liked software that phones home for activation or to run and am equally suspicious of install managers or download managers forced by a software or companies licensing terms for these sorts of reasons. I have software I can't use because the license servers are gone, which upsets me that I paid good money for it.
I have moved this discussion out of the thread about the HW transfer to Renderosity. Please keep our policies in mind when talking about this subject so it doesn't turn into something that needs to just be deleted. No trashing, please, of
PEOPLE
COMPANIES
SOFTWARE
In other words, please keep it civil. Thanks for your cooperation!
PEOPLE
COMPANIES
SOFTWARE
In other words, please keep it civil.
Thanks for your cooperation!
Can't you just set a rule in your firewall to block that software from trying to send or receive?
Electro-harpist
Member
TinyWall is a freeware Windows Firewall. It works in reverse, compared to the normal Windows Firewall - all outbound traffic is blocked, and you need to specifically allow traffic from .exe files you want to go online. Works well, and worth a look.
It was stated above that Daz Studio phones home, but so far as I know this is only for updates. I have all that update and telemetry stuff turned off in settings, and TinyWall does not allow Daz online - and it works fine. That said, I have not bothered with the last couple of versions (because there's no rendering speed boost and some of the UI has been changed).
In the EU and UK I believe it is legal to hack software you have purchased, to keep it running after a company or the software is defunct. Not sure about the USA, and don't rely on my fuzzy memory for legal advice. In some circumstances the defunct company's devs will, as a final act, kindly release a version that does not require that. Smith Micro's developers did that with their MotionArtist software, for instance, which was very good of them - as it is the only decent motion-comics maker. Not sure about what the laws say about a former paid user going and getting a 'cracked' version of a software (rather than doing the work themselves, to keep it running) but I imagine that such things happen.
I've never heard of specific 3D content being pulled remotely. Is it possible that the circumstance was that the content vanished from the Daz production database (and thus a library that was hooked into that) - but was actually still in the user's runtime?
It was stated above that Daz Studio phones home, but so far as I know this is only for updates. I have all that update and telemetry stuff turned off in settings, and TinyWall does not allow Daz online - and it works fine. That said, I have not bothered with the last couple of versions (because there's no rendering speed boost and some of the UI has been changed).
In the EU and UK I believe it is legal to hack software you have purchased, to keep it running after a company or the software is defunct. Not sure about the USA, and don't rely on my fuzzy memory for legal advice. In some circumstances the defunct company's devs will, as a final act, kindly release a version that does not require that. Smith Micro's developers did that with their MotionArtist software, for instance, which was very good of them - as it is the only decent motion-comics maker. Not sure about what the laws say about a former paid user going and getting a 'cracked' version of a software (rather than doing the work themselves, to keep it running) but I imagine that such things happen.
I've never heard of specific 3D content being pulled remotely. Is it possible that the circumstance was that the content vanished from the Daz production database (and thus a library that was hooked into that) - but was actually still in the user's runtime?
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Carey
Extraordinary
yep runtime dna that was the one, near as I can figure thus far it was about five items...darn it
i
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That strikes me as very odd since Runtime DNA did not use executable installers and did not have code or scripting in their products that could do that. All of the products I have from Runtime DNA (and I have a substantial number) are just ZIP files. I have none of the files after they were bought by Daz3D. Even had there been code introduced by a library manager to delete files from the library in DS (I don't know don't use it myself) the original ZIPs would and should still be on your HD where downloaded.
Carey
Extraordinary
I have had these runtime files for many years...moving pc to new pc, pc to mac, mac to new mac....Just seems funny it is only rdna stuff...Can I claim that I perchance had something to do with it...Somewhere in the thousands of zips I have these files are still there, even found some of the plants...
I'm finding this odd, as all, or those products that actually moved to DAZ, are in my DAZ account. I think there might have been one or two by vendors who decided not to go to DAZ, or retired from 3D altogether, which didn't make it into my DAZ account, but I've never had any RDNA items installed on any of my computers all of sudden disappear from my Runtimes. That's really sounding weird Carey. I can't imagine what would cause that to happen.
zip files can't do that Carey , you need to run executive and install software for that.
You know what happened I lost recently all HW files and zips , only HW files , everything else was intact after the store was closed, pure coincidence or Alisa pushed the red button
Check for the gremlins on your PC
LOL, who told you about that button?????You know what happened I lost recently all HW files and zips , only HW files , everything else was intact after the store was closed, pure coincidence or Alisa pushed the red button
Carey
Extraordinary
What, Computers have GREMLINS??? Why didn't somebody tell me this...Sure I once spilled a coke on my keyboard, but I thought I got away with it...Gremlins? Don't they like eat you or something?zip files can't do that Carey , you need to run executive and install software for that.
You know what happened I lost recently all HW files and zips , only HW files , everything else was intact after the store was closed, pure coincidence or Alisa pushed the red button
Check for the gremlins on your PC
I will say the directories might have gotten lost. I had a few products from an artist that were named in German I think - well the first 2 letters of the names of the folders were Ds (Dschungel I think was the name). These worked fine in Poser 7, 8, 2010, but in Poser 9+ the directory would not appear in the internal library. The folders and files were still physically there, but Poser's internal library would not show them until I renamed them with a new starting letter - near as I could figure SM put something in the code to filter out what they felt was DS content.
If you have done a lot of copying of directories it is possible these missing files may have become damaged, corrupted, missing, or the system flagged them hidden or read only (I have had these later two happen more often than I like with Windoze 7+) which means that someone would need to go in through file explorer or a shell window, find and verify the folders and files still exist and change the file permissions. If you've done a lot in explorer or shell like this it's fairly quick and easy, unless it is in a UAC restricted folder.
If you have done a lot of copying of directories it is possible these missing files may have become damaged, corrupted, missing, or the system flagged them hidden or read only (I have had these later two happen more often than I like with Windoze 7+) which means that someone would need to go in through file explorer or a shell window, find and verify the folders and files still exist and change the file permissions. If you've done a lot in explorer or shell like this it's fairly quick and easy, unless it is in a UAC restricted folder.