Sorry, Bill, but I think you STILL fail to see the point.

The only hardware is the UAD-1 card, which is a proprietary card with audio DSP on it. The SOFTWARES are the continually upgraded OS versions, with fully functional versions of ALL the plugins on it.

No-one has ever cracked the software copy protection, because each card has a unique identifier on it, which the authorization ONLY works for.

Take another look at what you wrote... "hardware is NOT the hardest nut to crack, for the simple reason that it doesn’t change, whereas software can continually move the goal posts".

This does NOT happen in the real world. The software only programs are cracked as soon as they come out (and have to be constantly changed for them to have any effectiveness), and yet the hardware KEYED software for the UAD-1 has NEVER been cracked. It is a VERY popular product, with one of the highest reputations for quality sound in the business. And the software to run on it costs THOUSANDS if you buy ALL the plug-ins. A high value target for the crackers, if you will. No-one has succeeded. EVER... Can you explain this in light of your quote?

Remember, computer software is designed to run on a generic device. The UAD-1 software (and anything keyed to a unique identifier in an arranger as well) will only run on that system. AFAIK, only Yamaha have a style format that is identical (except for the extension) to a MIDI file. All the rest are proprietary. Why can't the motherboard of the arranger have the same kind of hardware keying that each and every UAD-1 has..?

Answer this simple question... OAS is quite an expensive upgrade, isn't it? It's keyed to the hardware in a Wersi, isn't it? Has it been cracked, yet? Can you get it for free?

Why wouldn't a similar system work for any arranger?