Mackie Cracks The Digidesign Code

[TAFKAT]

Check it out Here (http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2009/07/31/mackie-cracks-the-digidesign-code/)

Now for either the floodgates or the legals to kick in..

[kdm]

Gee.... I can't see Digi having a problem with that. :icon_eek3: :pop_corn:

[LEX]

Well, not really. There has been modded version of that driver floating around for a while, but they have been very flakey.

It is Mpowered BTW, and you are still stuck with 32 tracks.

And I doubt Mackie is shipping the onyx with PT.

Now if there was a universal driver for HD, then I'd pay attention.

LEX

[RiffWraith]

"It is Mpowered BTW,"

Doesn't M-Powered mean that you need to use PT with the hw box? If so, it is no longer M-Powered, because this runs w/o the M-Box.


What Mackie have done is written a driver - the Mackie Universal Driver V1.0, which appears to circumvent the ProTools/Digidesign hardware protection that ties Digidesign or M-Audio hardware to M-Powered software.

If they did it the right way, ie - reverse engineering - then it is completely legal. If not, well, there could be some legal ramifications. Though to be honest, I am not sure how you reverse engineer sw and/or drivers. Hardware I understand; sw is a little grey to me.

Cheers.

[LEX]

"It is Mpowered BTW,"

Doesn't M-Powered mean that you need to use PT with the hw box? If so, it is no longer M-Powered, because this runs w/o the M-Box.



If they did it the right way, ie - reverse engineering - then it is completely legal. If not, well, there could be some legal ramifications. Though to be honest, I am not sure how you reverse engineer sw and/or drivers. Hardware I understand; sw is a little grey to me.

Cheers.

MPowered software is even more limited than PTLE. 32 Tracks max, no timecode, no timecode slaving, basic automation.

There are alot of editorial commands that aren't in the Mpowered either.

It is like the 99 dollar Cubase.

It is fine, but pretty worthless IMO.

LEX

[D]

If they did it the right way, ie - reverse engineering - then it is completely legal.

Every software agreement I've ever read specifically prohibits reverse engineering.

[RiffWraith]

Every software agreement I've ever read specifically prohibits reverse engineering.

Maybe so but remember: just because an EULA says something does not make it legally binding.

[TAFKAT]

MPowered software is even more limited than PTLE. 32 Tracks max, no timecode, no timecode slaving, basic automation.

Hey LEX,

M-Powered is identical to LE spec wise except the option to expand with DV Toolkit, its also $299.00

So 48 Stereo Tracks , and for anyone not working with video, is for the most part identical to LE.

No one has reverse engineered a driver in the past, the only hardware hacking available is that Apogee and Lynx converters can be hung off a HD system, and from the inside info that I received when I asked how that was done from Lynx, it was not reverse engineered - and its a long way off being able to use different hardware to run the application itself.

Either this Mackie foray is officially sanctioned, or it will get very interesting because if Mackie has done it and is allowed to get away with it, the floodgates will open..

@ Riff: M-Powered means specifically a version of the software that will run with M-Audio hardware that is of course owned by AVID as well.

[D]

Maybe so but remember: just because an EULA says something does not make it legally binding.

Legally binding or not, it is also an exceptionally difficult task. If you've never programmed in assembler or pure machine language, you won't fully understand what I'm talking about. It's easy enough to line up the numbers, but putting logic to what you've deciphered is a thousand or more times more difficult than that.

All that aside, neither one of us is a contract lawyer. An implicit agreement that you don't have any actual signatories for is possibly not enforceable, but some provisions of it most surely are. I've a sneaking suspicion, based upon what little I do know of the law, that the reverse engineering clause is enforceable, hence "legally binding".