DRM
Why it pays to be a world-famous author with a widely read blog when deadlines loom and buggy DRM goes awry:
At 3:01 am Neil Gaiman writes:
Bloody Final Draft
You know, if I was ever going to write a screenwriting program, I would make sure that the bloody thing didn't hiccup, randomly "lose authorisation," and stop working when an author was on deadline. And if it did suddenly decide it wasn't authorised, I'd at least have some way to fix it if it happened late at night, when the nice support people are home in bed and authors are on deadline.
Sorry. Just wanted to grumble. Final Draft isn't cheap. I really think it ought to work.
At 11:32 am Neil Gaiman writes:
Not quite so bloody really
The phone just rang and it was Brendan from Final Draft, who reactivated my authorisation and was baffled at why or how it happened ("There are lots of reasons for losing authorisation. Yours just doesn't fit any of them.") So I can open the script again, and am reminded of why I stick with them. Lots of people wrote in suggesting different screenwriting programs, and I'm grateful, but for now I'm more or less happy.
I wonder how many e-mails and phone calls from fans Final Draft got today? I wonder if all their customers receive as prompt attention? I'm actually quite sympathetic to the difficulty of their position. Pacific Tech originally used no DRM and suffered from that decision. Graphing Calculator now uses a fairly complicated registration system, and that creates difficulties too.
Feel free to complain about Pacific Tech's DRM in the comments.