I recieved a letter from Marshall Johns at Peterson regarding my previous review of StroboSoft. Marshall sent me a link to the most recent version of StroboSoft that I had requested but hadn’t received. It seems he had sent it previously from his home address rather than from a Peterson address so it may have been filtered by my spam filter.

Also, In the letter, Marshall addresses some of the comments I made in my review, so I am posting that portion of the letter here:

I would also like to briefly address some of your comments in the article:

“They do allow a certain number of registrations per year because of this, but if you rebuild your machines often this could be a problem. Also, this seems like overkill for such a relatively low cost program.”

Since our program is under $100, even for the top-line full version, we would prefer to limit registrations to a certain amount per year. This would limit the occasional user who buys it and goes to install it on every computer for each member of their band. If you plan to use more than 2 licenses immediately, we ask that you purchase a second copy of the program. Even at 2 copies, we are still cheaper than most plug-ins available today. This is not intended as punishment for users who would never think of doing this but as a protection measurement against license agreement violation.

In cases where license permissions are met and a user rebuilds his/her computer frequently or has a fatal crash, we do provide additional permissions via email. You are not tracked and we do not require a reason for requesting more than the normally allotted codes during the process.

With the amount of copies we have had in the field for going on a year now, we have only had 2 cases where permissions were exceeded. Both cases were addressed and satisfied.

In order to design/create/test and distribute this program and offer it at a low cost, we need to protect it. There are so many other tuners on the web that do not have the accuracy or feature lineup as StroboSoft that are already cracked. As a result, they are abandoned by the distributors or designers and never improved. We plan for StroboSoft to be around for a long time and we both know that in the software industry, a “long time” may mean a year or two before being compromised. Thankfully, we have managed to fly under the radar so far without any serious threats.

“Another negative is that if you need to reinstall the software and you€™ve lost the original download, you have to contact them to re-download. You would think with the crazy super secure registration process, they could feel comfortable providing a means to re-download the software. “

We recommend that after downloading the software, you save it to a cdrom or USB drive.

In the event that you lose the original download, we will dispatch you a new link. This link is dynamic to prevent unauthorized users from accessing and downloading it. You can still install StroboSoft without a serial number, just not unlock it. Once it is installed, it may be susceptible to attack even without an unlocking code. With software technology today, hacking utilities are making strides in overcoming software security.

If the downloads are monitored, we can manage our integrity with more efficiency rather than have a static link on the web with our IP endangered.

In the near future, we are creating a forum room that will require authentication in order for you to access the current version or simply re-access the application without any human intervention on our side. Details are being worked out but it will definitely require your machine code and serial to enter the room.

I apologize if you feel our system is restricting but our challenge as a manufacturer is to create an affordable product that answers customer’s needs and wants while mutually protecting our investment.

Regarding the customer service comments, hopefully you can understand the mis-communication and restore your confidence in us. With over 60 years in the business, we take customer service as serious as our products.

Best,

Marshall

It was very nice of Marshall to take the time to write this response, it is good to see that they are working on addressing the issue of downloading updates. Most products I’ve used allow registered users to download updates by entering there license information, so I hope Peterson will implement this soon.

I’ve downloaded the 1.10 version of StroboSoft, but I haven’t installed it yet. When I do I will post an update about any differences/changes to the product.

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