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Yeah it's true software companies really need a hardware counterpart to really take off. It basically prevents piracy as a function. Digidesign does it by tying their software to the interface, apple does it by tying Logic to their computers (as in the infamous "no pc support" feature in logic 7), Universal Audio Does it by tying their plugs to DSP cards.
It's actually nice in a way, because generally the software works very well with its hardware counterpart, and keeps companies from going bankrupt due to piracy. A company can virtually give their software away if they are selling HD-3s, Mac Pros and UAD-2 quads like hotcakes.
Not too sure how Digidesign could thrive if they opened up LE software to third party interfaces. Unless maybe they had a dongle or something, cause Pro Tools would be cracked and available to anyone very quickly. People aren't buying digi hardware because it sounds great, they buy it cause they have to since the software needs it. Without that, a lot of people would probably just run a cracked pro tools with third party hardware and digi doesn't see a dime.
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