The latest Poser Drama (Patreon)

 So you may or may not be aware of this, but the Poser software that I use to create my comics was recently purchased by a company called Bondware. Poser used to be owned by SmithMicro. In my personal opinion, SmithMicro has done a terrible job of managing the software. Or maybe it's better to say that they did not do a good job of managing their customer base. They generally did not respond well to customer feedback, and they did a terrible job of letting people know what was happening with the software.

And this most recent development is a prime example of that.

On Wednesday, September 18, I discovered that Poser had been sold by SmithMicro to Bondware. I had heard murmurings about this about a week prior (one of my fans actually mentioned it), but it didn't really register with me. On Wednesday I stumbled across the official posting regarding this development. That posting basically said that the next day (Thursday) a new update to the software (version 11.2) would be available, and that you had to update or you might lose access to the software. All of this basically came out of the blue from my perspective. So another unannounced update (I mean one day notice doesn't count) that you were being forced to do or the software wouldn't work. An update that would likely break core features of the software anyway. "Typical SmithMicro!", is what I thought.

Now Bondware is the parent company that basically owns Renderosity (https://www.renderosity.com/), which is the marketplace that I use most often to obtain content for Poser: new models, skins, sets, props, and outfits. It's not the only marketplace I use, but it is my personal favorite. Why would they buy Poser and then force people to update?

So I did a little reading. Turns out Bondware didn't have much a choice about updating the software. SmithMicro (not Bondware) decided about 3 versions ago to change their licensing to a "phone home" system, where the software has to regularly contact the SmithMicro licensing servers or cease to function. This was an unpopular (and unnecessary) decision among the users.

SmithMicro (not Bondware) had decided to turn off those licensing servers on Thursday, September 19. I can only assume (I don't know for sure) that SmithMicro had decided to drop the Poser software completely. So SmithMicro, not surprisingly, basically decided to screw over their paying customer base. Because if you turn off the licensing servers, then the most recent versions of the software (all the one's that phone home) will cease to function. Please note that Poser is not free like Daz3D. You have to purchase Poser. 

So it is my very limited understanding of the situation that Bondware decided to step in and try to save the software. Although I only heard about this a few days ago, it seems they actually purchased the software roughly three months ago. They have spent the last three months madly putting together a whole team to try to basically "fix" Poser and save it. More specifically they had to do something to address the fact that the licensing servers were being turned off.

Thus the update, which they didn't really have a choice about. They had to update the software to change the core coding to have it contact the new licensing servers at Bondware. Otherwise the software would have stopped working when SmithMicro turned their servers off.

But they didn't stop there! They also went through and fixed a bunch of bugs. For instance, the 11.1 update to Poser completely broke Queue Manager which is a core component of the software that let's remote computers help render your image. That is a component that I use extensively, and I had to rollback my version of Poser to a previous version to keep using it. SmithMicro broke it in 11.1 and made no effort to fix it. Bondware has fixed it in 11.2

Bondware still didn't stop there though. They contacted a bunch of vendors and convinced them to give away a ton of high quality content. The new version of Poser includes well over 2 GBs of completely new, built-in content. Ummm... wow!

In short, Bondware is trying to save the software from dying and I feel like they have made a good start. So far I am seeing very few reports that the new update breaks anything, which was a common thing when SmithMicro was in charge. They didn't want to force their users to update, but they had no choice to update or the software would have shut off anyway.

The funny part is that almost none of this affects me, at least not yet. Other than all the drama I'm seeing over it. I mean I was pretty upset when I first heard, until I went and read what was going on.

Now the reason none of this is likely to affect me is that I made my license permanent some time ago. I actually didn't remember doing this, but found out that I had through the process of reading about the situation. Theoretically, the permanent license doesn't phone home - or at least not as often. Some are saying that it does still contact the licensing servers, just not nearly as often. So in a few weeks, or months, I may lose access to Poser if I don't update.

If you don't want to update yet and need a permanent license, or just want to make it permanent regardless, you can do that at the SmithMicro licensing portal here:

https://pgportal.smithmicro.com/

You have to log in with your SmithMicro credentials, or make new ones, and then "Add Product License" from the menu. Put in your licensing details and then submit it. Once you have your license added, you can go to "List Product Licenses". Click on your license and check mark "Show advanced options". Then you can request a permanent license at the bottom.

So there, that is what's going on. That is what I had to deal with this week. It was no biggie for me, and I am really hoping this means really great things for Poser on the horizon. We will just have to see though. Bondware has a lot of customer dissatisfaction to try and mitigate thanks to SmithMicro. I feel that they are off to a good start though.

It at least looks like they are trying...