Well it seems that a debate about node locking and the copy protection of training products and software applications has raised its ugly head once again on CGTalk. I urge you to read the comments found
HERE.
It’s clear that this is a topic that brings to the fore a lot of passionate feelings both by publishers and consumers of software. Before I go any further let me make a few things clear…
3DTutorial.com does NOT use node locking.
Speaking personally, well, I hate node locking…. well, actually I despise it and I can fully understand and appreciate why many customers hate it as well and have a very negative reaction towards it.
But wait a minute… didn’t 3DTutorial also use node locking once too and doesn’t this make you a bit of a hypocrite?
The answer to this question is YES and YES — but dear reader, please allow me to explain a bit further.
Yes, it is true that at one stage I did use a copy protection scheme that used node locking.
Now this is the important part…. I never wanted to use it, however, I was forced to use it because:
1. A key investor in our company insisted upon it
and…
2. Because we were seeing such great losses due to the piracy of our titles I felt that we simply had no other choice… something had to be done to limit the damage that was being done to our company.
Ok, so this is a VERY important point… we once used node locking because we felt that we had to do it and simply had no other option and I suspect that this is exactly the same reason why other some other publishers have decided to use node locking protection schemes as well.
Look, I’ve got to tell you something…. those of us who are independent producers are simply NOT making any kind of money worth worrying about doing this — HONESTLY.
The 3D market has radically changed and matured over the past few years and these days you simply are not going to make any significant money by producing training material.
Now I can hear you say… “Come on Joe… that’s a lot of BS…. what about those guys who wear the orange t-shirts, or what about those guys in Hollywood, or what about that woman in San Francisco? They are producing truck loads of titles… surely they are making a killing.
I understand what you are saying and this is a perfect example of my point…. the market has CHANGED. You see once upon a time an independent individual could produce training, market it and perhaps make a living doing it…. but trust me folks, those days have come to a crashing end.
Why? Well there are various factors among them…
1. Piracy / unauthorized distribution of products.
2. Increased competition from other vendors.
3. A change in attitudes regarding the value of such products by consumer.
4. The availability of other free sources of material.
You see a few years ago there was not a great many places that you could find the kind of technical information that you were looking for and as a result a small, independent publisher could exist in such a market.
These days however a significant change in the market has occurred, namely a few larger corporate entities have overtaken the market and flooded it with substandard materials of dubious quality. So now, rather than having a number of small people producing training content, you’ve got a few larger companies controlling the vast majority of the market, some of the materials are good… others, well perhaps not. So what has been the result of this… well, the result is that these big players have all but destroyed the market for the little guys and as a result the independent professional can no longer hope to compete against them.
As a consumer one really has to open their eyes and ask themselves a few simple questions?
1. Who exactly are the people who are producing this material? They claim to be experts… but what have they really done? (just because someone says they are an expert does not always make it so).
2. What is the motivation behind their efforts? Is it to just make money or is it to help people to learn something? (or are they just trying to extract hard earned money from naive noobs?)
Really, think about these questions because where you decide to invest your money IS more important for the future of our community than you may think.
So now I return to the main topic of my conversation which is why publishers decide to node lock.
In short it is an act of desperation.
The actual market for 3D training is much smaller than people think - honestly, it’s tiny. If a producer creates training material focused only one 3D application you have less than zero chance of survival. Now factor in the losses that a publisher can expect from piracy and well… friends your company is dead in the water.
This is why publishers node lock. It’s not because they wish to treat their customers like criminals or to annoy them, it’s because they simply are trying to limit the unauthorized distribution of their materials… you’ve heard the saying… desperate times call for desperate measures and this is a perfect example of that.
So then, why did I decide to drop the node locking on 3DTutorial.com’s products then?
Simple, I changed my mind on the subject.
Look, this is all a learning process and I don’t always make the right decisions. Over the years I’ve taken the time to listen to my customers and what I’ve learned is that overall node locking is a very negative experience for them and this is something that can’t be ignored.
Did node locking help? Well yes, as a matter of fact it did. However, I have to also say that any positive gains that were made by limiting unauthorized distribution may have also been lost due to lost sales by those who did not want to purchase node locked products.
Oh… and I should also mention that node locking is also a major pain in the backside for the publisher as well. It causes no end of administrative headaches and is equally as difficult (if not more so) for the publisher.
So when I stopped and took the time to look at all these matters dispassionately it became clear to me that while node locking did have some benefits it also created a huge amount of ill will amongst customers.
Above all the bottom line is that node locking simply does not work as advertised. The FACT of the matter is that is someone wants to get hold of your intellectual property without paying for it… guess what, they will. There is nothing that a publisher can do to stop this fact and trying to use schemes such as node locking with only serve to “punish” the legitimate customers who support your products.
Trust me folks this is a very complex issue and I could write an entire book on the subject but I will spare you that 
Let’s just suffice to say that in 99% of all cases people who publish software are only doing these things in order to stay in business and are not doing it with the intention of being greedy or upsetting their customers.
Let me leave you with something to think about. In most cases sales from the publication of technical tutorials are measured in units of hundreds NOT thousands as some might think. It takes a great investment of time and effort and money to produce quality training. It only takes a single individual to crack material and post it on the P2P networks for everyone to download for free.
What do you think the result of that is?
Sales of that product drop to zero because people don’t purchase what they can find for free — at least not in significant enough numbers to support a business anyway.
But look, if you doubt what I say is true then I would urge you to try and do this on your own. Please spend some time to create some good training materials and market them to the community. You will quickly come to understand just how difficult it is to make a go of it.
So next time before you decide go blow a gasket over this issue take a few moments to consider that the publishers who feel that they need to use node locking do so for a reason and it certainly has not been entered into without giving all matters both pro and con a lot of serious consideration. You might not like node locking (I certainly don’t) but please spare a moment to think about the reasons why it might be necessary given the current hostile marketplace.
Till next time…
Joe Saltzman
Founder / Director
3DTutorial.com
News - May 14 2008 - overwhelmed with work
