A recent discovery of a user of Totally Hip Software’s new LiveStage Professional 3.0 has created quite a controversy at MacInTouch and has made many angry with the software developer, Totally Hip Software.  Based in Canada, Totally Hip is a small company of less than ten employees that develops software for Mac (and very recently Windows, as well) using QuickTime-based technologies.  Their most recent release of LiveStage Professional “phones home” to Totally Hip at the start and end of each session, transferring IP address, machine type, QuickTime version, OS, and the LSP serial number.  Each transmission is done through QuickTime and HTTP and is individually stamped with the date and time.

Over at MacInTouch, people are up in arms about this little transmission:

As a user of LiveStage Professional 2.0 (soon to upgrade) and a user of various other Totally Hip products, I find this issue very interesting.  Just scanning through the e-mails on the page at MacInTouch indicates the two issues directly involved in this controversy—privacy and piracy.

Does Totally Hip have the right to do what it did?  Are they at fault here?

I’ll touch briefly on both issues.  First, privacy.  Those who are upset with Totally Hip believe that their privacy is being violated by these transmissions the application makes without asking them.  They feel that the information sent back is theirs and theirs alone.  Also, they feel that programs should only establish an Internet connection if they ask it to.  They feel that Totally Hip should have told them more directly that this communication would take place.

The fact of the matter is, Totally Hip did mention that these transmissions would take place within their license agreement for LiveStage Professional 3.0:

SINGLE COMPUTER USE OF THE SOFTWARE: You may only use this software on one computer at a time.  You can install this software on more than one computer, provided that only one copy is in use at a time.  Totally Hip Software reserves the right to electronically verify compliance.

Granted, Totally Hip should have mentioned more directly that a connection would take place, perhaps in the start-up splash screen.  The application does not create a connection.  It only sends data if there is an open connection.  Plus, this is a better and more user-friendly method than a hardware dongle.

What “private” information is Totally Hip receiving?  The only information that is different from a normal HTTP transmission is the LSP serial number, which Totally Hip has every right to verify.  Visiting the Mac Observer on a daily basis, the server can (and most likely does) log my machine type, IP address, OS, browser, etc.  Some may argue that this transmission was intentional, but what about the transmissions made by the ads?  In other words, the transmission does not send anything that is in anyway private or safe from discovery through other methods.  Plus, the information is encrypted and stored.

The second issue simply is piracy.  For a small company like Totally Hip, piracy is a big problem.  They make and sell a large, powerful application that costs a fair amount of money.  Some people buy one copy and share it, or don’t even buy a copy at all.  For a small company, this severely hurts their sales and their business.  They have every right to attack piracy through electronic verification of serial numbers.  This is the only way they can be sure that people are not abusing their license agreements.  How can Totally Hip be at fault for trying to protect their business and attack those who have no respect for software companies?

I’m interested in your thoughts.

Brad

Come on, guys and gals.  Someone’s got to have an opinion here.  I’ve never seen so many people frothing at the mouth.

Brad

This is interesting.  I am not at all keen on the idea of software constantly checking up on me. The needs of software developers to stop piracy is a real one, but I think that these automatic checks are a touch too Big Brotheresque.

It’s a thorny issue, to be sure.  Software makers definitely have the “right” to do this sort of thing, and users have the right not to use it.

I think many of forget that this is how it actually works.

I definitely don’t like it, either, but can you blame them for doing it?  What else are they to do?  In this world, barely anything is safe.  On the other side of things, though, if the user disables the internet connection, then ET can’t phone home and thus the transmissions do no good in protecting Totally Hip from piracy.

Brad