Quote:
Originally Posted by JETmn
Unfortunately I may go down this route too. I really wish the OTS maps were unlocked. I would love to just buy the E30 OTS map and make a few tweaks for my car. I am running a PS1 so I can run a little more boost than a stock turbo car. It is never a bad thing to learn to tune your own car. I used an AEM EMS on my last car.
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Yea, not sure I totally agree with the way MHD is attacking this whole licensing bit. It seems they want to only make the software and then outsource the OTS tunes. They charge for the base software and then separately for the tune (which presumably they get some $$ for the OTS tune and so does the tuner). With that model they have to treat the OTS tune IP as protected... because otherwise if they allowed you to see the tune you could just send a copy to your buddy and he could flash it for free bypassing the middle man.
The issue with the model as-is is that those of us who purchased the OTS tune aren't allowed to then modify it. AND on top of it all there is a conflict of interest. Why should MHD help the community of DIY tuners (although we have purchased their product which clearly states I can DIY tune)? If they help me and I come up with a tune that is roughly equivalent to their OTS offering, then you are back to the point where you just buy MHD and use the community provided OTS tune for free bypassing their OTS offering and costing them money.
If you ask me this is all backwards and I suspect why all tuning packages I have ever worked with instead just make you pay for the platform in its entirety (tune, and all base maps) first. Then you can use it as you please. Going that route there are no worries about someone circumventing the IP, because there is no reason to protect it in the first place. Essentially you just bundle all of the map packs they offer now into the price of the tool. If they outsource the tuning work to a 3rd party, then just pay the 3rd party a flat rate upfront or a small royalty for every sale of the tool (just as they do now). You might say "but that would cost the customer more; everything is bundled". My answer is "not on the bottom line". Most people today have to purchase the tool and then purchase the map pack anyways, since they can't tune their car on their own so the bottom line price is the same. For the few of us that do tune it ourselves, I'm guessing we would have no problem paying a little extra to have a nice base map to start from (hell I purchased the map pack, just because). Not to mention you no longer need to pay the R&D to protect the map IP, and there is more economy of scale as well since everyone is inherently buying all of the maps. Seems like a win-win relative to where we are today... but I will freely admit my background is not in marketing.