‘Dongle’ is admittedly an odd-sounding word, reminiscent of what, in The Meaning of Liff, Douglas Adams might have called a Winkley: “A lost object which turns up immediately after you've gone and bought a replacement for it”.

This news was met with largely unfettered enthusiasm by both existing and would-be users, tempered only by a fear this might signal Steinberg adopting a subscription model – a view that was expressed in a litany of Tweets to Subscriptions are a topic for another occasion, but when it comes to Steinberg’s defenestration of the USB eLicenser, I’m not so sure I share in the zeal of the zeitgeist regarding this ever-popular direction.

Steinberg’s key pronouncement was that, after using dongles to safeguard most of its products released during the company’s 37-year history, the future use of copy protection in Steinberg’s software offerings would be “dongle free”. And there’s nothing worse than an inconvenience being forced upon you for the sole benefit of the developer who pretends this isn’t the case. If there wasn’t such a duplicative defence mechanism that acted like a gatekeeper, there wouldn’t be a need for an “onboarding process” or any restrictions at all. Not to mention that reading how such protection measures “shouldn’t get in your way but, support you in the onboarding process” or that “anti-piracy protection technology shouldn’t restrict you as the customer, but secure your investment” is both as irritating as it is patronising.

I don’t know about you, but announcements regarding a new “authorisation system” thrill me about as much as the prospect of having to attend a concert given by a school orchestra. With 1960 characters at its disposal, Steinberg announced (albeit with slightly awkward wording) that the company had “decided to adopt a new license management technology that everyone will benefit from to prepare for coming requirements” – be still my beating heart! Earlier this year, on 4th March 2021, Steinberg promulgated a seven-part Tweet on the company’s Twitter account.

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