About me
editKoji here. I'm on the Consumer Rights Wiki because I care about pushing back against consumer exploitation. Outside of that, my interests are music production, programming, and homelabbing.
Why I'm here
editMusic production software is one of the more predatory consumer spaces I know of, and it gets away with it because the harm is invisible to anyone outside the craft.
The mechanism is simple. Most modern music software is sold as a service rather than owned outright. Project files reference specific plugins, and those plugins have to be present, authenticated where required, and version-compatible the moment a session is opened. So an artist's back catalogue — sessions they may need to reopen years later for a remix, a remaster, a sync licence, or a stem delivery — stays tied to whichever companies they were renting from at the time. A lapsed subscription doesn't just block new work; it can lock you out of old work the next time the OS, DAW, or hardware moves on. The Waves Update Plan is one documented example.
The industry knows this. The leverage is the product.
Documenting it is the least I can do as someone on the receiving end.
Articles I've contributed to
edit- Waves Update Plan — annual paid maintenance plan whose lapse freezes plugins at their last installed version, leaving future OS, DAW, and CPU compatibility gated behind renewal; also covers the 2023 Creative Access subscription-only attempt and reversal.
- Splice — cloud sample marketplace and rent-to-own plugin platform; covers credit forfeiture on cancellation, internet-dependent DRM on rented plugins, the 2023 Studio shutdown, and the 2024 DMCA strike against a terms-of-service review.
Interests on this wiki
edit- Software — particularly music production tools, plugins, and sample marketplaces
- Digital rights management and authentication systems that gate access to already-purchased work
- Software as a service and the shift from ownership to rental
- Software bricking and Software-gating
- Lifetime licence removal