MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - CorePlayer regularly phones home or will deactive itself

Bob Russell · 10-17-2006, 08:34 AM

jjesusfreak01 makes a good point... maybe it's not their preference, but something that was required in order to get the rights they needed from other license holders. If so, then we might find that the free CorePlayer that comes out soon, will really be a great piece of software, minus the additional features which require the special licensing.

But, if that's the case, you would expect that to be something clearly communicated to avoid a PR backlash.

Another concern I have is that at about $30, and tied to one device, then the strict licensing approach makes you wonder if upgrades will also be expensive to keep up with. Generally, if you look at various software on the market, the ones with excess licensing protection and extensive licensing systems are the ones that usually have an expensive upgrade program to keep up with the latest version. To see a program like this for $30 and then have to pay another $20-$30 for an upgrade would be demoralizing. (No, I don't have any info, that's a made up price range representing a worst case scenario.)

But, it's still early, and maybe this all does make sense. We've seen great things from the people that are putting this out. They offered the wonderful TCPMP for free. They have discussed their project with words that indicate they are trying to do this in a way that keeps prices down and is a great deal for the customer. And they have a free version of their software coming, that might be pretty powerful in itself.

So, despite the frustrations of what we've been hearing so far, there's still a lot of reasons to think the best of what they are doing, and to hope that we just don't have the whole picture yet. There are a lot of questions now, but there's still some hope that things may be better than they seem.

10-17-2006, 08:34 AM	#8
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	jjesusfreak01 makes a good point... maybe it's not their preference, but something that was required in order to get the rights they needed from other license holders. If so, then we might find that the free CorePlayer that comes out soon, will really be a great piece of software, minus the additional features which require the special licensing. But, if that's the case, you would expect that to be something clearly communicated to avoid a PR backlash. Another concern I have is that at about $30, and tied to one device, then the strict licensing approach makes you wonder if upgrades will also be expensive to keep up with. Generally, if you look at various software on the market, the ones with excess licensing protection and extensive licensing systems are the ones that usually have an expensive upgrade program to keep up with the latest version. To see a program like this for $30 and then have to pay another $20-$30 for an upgrade would be demoralizing. (No, I don't have any info, that's a made up price range representing a worst case scenario.) But, it's still early, and maybe this all does make sense. We've seen great things from the people that are putting this out. They offered the wonderful TCPMP for free. They have discussed their project with words that indicate they are trying to do this in a way that keeps prices down and is a great deal for the customer. And they have a free version of their software coming, that might be pretty powerful in itself. So, despite the frustrations of what we've been hearing so far, there's still a lot of reasons to think the best of what they are doing, and to hope that we just don't have the whole picture yet. There are a lot of questions now, but there's still some hope that things may be better than they seem.