SlySoft changes updates policy

Press release: SlySoft announces new update policy
For Immediate Release

Antigua, West Indies - December, 1st 2008


SlySoft announces new update policy

Since Slysoft's beginnings in 2003, all Slysoft product licenses have
been sold with free product lifetime updates included. While standards,
technologies and SlySoft's product range have changed significantly
since 2003, only now has Slysoft's free lifetime update policy been
reviewed with respect to converting to an annual subscription fee format
for new license purchases.

According to SlySoft CEO Giancarlo Bettini, this change is justified and
will ensure first class products and future development:
"Our portfolio already contains eight products, and there is another
program in the pipeline. Each product is continuously being enhanced by
first-class developers; each product gets 24/7 top-notch multilingual
support. Our premises became a bit crowded in the last couple of years,
and, to be honest, we may not have reached our limits yet. Something
needs to be done in order to not only ensure Slysoft's continued
commitment to excellence but to also promote future improvements:
namely, growth and development. With respect to current financial
challenges the current economy presents, modifying our update policy
seems to be the only fair and reasonable step in lieu of a substantial
price increase. Details are yet to be determined and will follow."

In fairness, SlySoft announces this probable step well in advance of its
implementation in order to provide all interested parties with the
opportunity to purchase SlySoft products with guaranteed lifetime free
updates. Those buyers who act quickly during this time can also save an
additional 20% with the special ongoing Christmas promotion.

So this new product in the pipeline, are they taking pre-orders under the lifetime update policy?

We dont even know what the product is, but if they introduce it before the Christmas promotion I am sure it will be fairly priced. I have no information about pre-orders for an undisclosed product.

Maybe a CloneBluRay? I cannot remember if you could post links but here is the link to the slysoft forum posting for a new app:

http://forum.slysoft.com/showthread.php?t=23294

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Last edited by ChiefNuts; 03-12-2008 at 03:56. Reason: Added Posting info

Now that would make dvdfab plat cringe though right??? I also kinda thought they might have this change in plan along the pipe as well considering the prices and subcription fees other companies have for their software yearly subscription.

I'm pretty sure it's a kind of "ClondBD", because they are looking for alpha testers with BD burners and media..

I'm a bit disappointed about the new update policy, this was the biggest reason why I recommended Slysoft tools to all my friends. (Instead of DVDFab..)

This change in policy in disappointing though not very surprising. I wonder if there is a way to monitor piracy rates of the program, before and after the change. I suspect AnyDVD is heavily pirated anyway, but after the yearly subscription model goes in I would expect those piracy rates to climb rather steeply. Any one on the cusp of buying, then finding out there is a yearly fee will be discouraged from purchasing such a program, especially since the "free" versions appear on the torrents within days of release.

AnyDVD is aimed at a rather small market anyway. They have to compete both with the pirates and the free decryption programs which work with 90-95% of the dvds released to market anyway, plus DVDFab. And AnyDVD cannot compete in price with the free version of Fab...DVDFab HD Decrypter. The real question on decryption programs is how long can DVDFab continue to release a free version that is constantly updated.

So it seems AnyDVD's real future is on the HD side of things. They have a virtual monopoly there, doom9 programmers notwithstanding. But again, this is a miniscule market at the present time. As more and more equipment becomes HDCP compliant, AnyDVD HD's usefulness as a facilitator of HD video playback becomes less and less important. And backups of commercially made Blu Ray is expensive going to BD-R or BD-RE, time consuming, and requires high end computer equipment.
This market is not mature, and may take many years to replace DVDs, if it ever does. Raising the prices on AnyDVD HD in the recent past did nothing to encourage people to invest in HD backups, and this new model of subscription payments will tend to suppress any newcomers to this process.

So what does all this mean to existing AnyDVD(HD),CloneCD,and CloneDVD2 license holders? Me

I have read this 3 or 4 times.

It may mean that there would be a yearly update fee. Oh well inflation, Maybe Obama will help Bob

Well if that's the case i won't be doing business with them any more.....i'll just write it off as stupidity.

They promised lifetime free upgrades and now this .................. yeah right. yo ho yo ho

The way I read it Bob, they are going to grandfather in all those who currently have licenses. The yearly fee looks like it will apply only to those who buy after the new policy is instated.

The pertinent sentence is here:
In fairness, SlySoft announces this probable step well in advance of its
implementation in order to provide all interested parties with the
opportunity to purchase SlySoft products with guaranteed lifetime free
updates.

Well i don't want to bash Slysoft but they should word this differently and just say if you already have our products or purchase them before a certain date then no worries.

New product? yeah sure charge what they want for it and after a certain date then charge for updates i guess. Seems to be the fad now.

Grandfather clause is in effect from what I understand as well. I think and only think these policy changes are going to take effect as of January 1, 2009.

This is clearly stated twice in the announcement.

Must not be to clear to everyone as this thread is full of questions and misunderstandings.

Thanks for the confirmation.