Autodesk to stop activating older software
According to a post in AutoCAD’s online documentation, it appears that from August this year Autodesk will no longer supply activation codes for 2010 versions of its software or earlier.
Perhaps of more concern for users, the post also mentions that from March 2021, it will no longer provide activation codes for software not covered by its lifecycle policy, even for perpetual licenses. According to the FAQ regarding perpetual licenses: “Product activation for versions 2011 and later is available until March 2021, when product activation aligns with the Lifecycle policy.”. The number of supported versions in the lifecycle policy can vary but is typically 3 major releases back from the current version.
Despite being in the AutoCAD documentation, the wording of the document suggests the policy applies to all Autodesk software, including that in the Media and Entertainment space. Read the FAQ in full on the AutoCAD knowledge network.
I thought we were overdue another snide move.
So if I come off subscription in a couple of years and my PC breaks, I can’t get another licence?
Only if you are using 2010 and older (as of now). I’m not sure who could use 2010 and be productive though. That slow, crash happy beast. The oldest version I have installed is 2012, and that’s just so I can convert random Brazil 2 scenes about twice a year. The oldest I could get away with and feel productive would be 2016. The ribbon always caused crashes for me in 2014.
At one point we got off the maintenance, and then a year or two later back on. I wanted to install a version from the old maintenance plan on a new workstation, and had to call in because the serial wasn’t working. The guy said he wasn’t supposed to give me a license, but since we were back on maintenance, he would allow it. Not sure if he was full of BS or what, but keep that in mind if you are still on maintenance (not subscription), and want to install on a new workstation after you quite maintenance.
Edit: But if you are on subscription only, you lose all licenses for Max versions that were for subscription only, you don’t own that license? Maintenance, if you are grandfathered in, I don’t know what will really happen if you quit.
not accurate if you look into it….
max 2008 and max 2009 and BEFORE were users activated via moving to a new pc..no need for autodesk being involved they changed that to online activation for newer products
2009 required an online activation code to run for more than the initial 30 days after every installation. At least for maintenance plan it does. I just tried installing it from disk. After installation, you get the warning that you have 30 days to activate it. I enter in the serial # and I get the Processing Errors of:
*The product version you are trying to activate is not available under the license for your upgraded product.
*Your subscription has expired.
*You are not using the most up-to-date serial number.
I would always get a similar error if I tried to install a product from our previous maintenance plan.
I’m talking about the older versions where you go to a pc you want max on///say a new pc…generate a file for it… go back toyour old pc and export the licence to that new ‘pc’ destyination….then install on the new pc and import that file to unlock it….
this is the older versions of 3ds max like max 2008
Oh, forgive me, Portable License Utility (2009 and older), and the License Transfer Utility (2010 and newer) Completely forgot about those. Don’t think I’ve ever used them because I was usually installing on a new workstation after a hardware failure on another. If you don’t have a functional workstation with that license on it, you will still be out of luck.
Looks like the License Transfer Utility may stop working at some point though if they are stopping those older services “An Internet connection is required to use the LTU because the process exports and then imports activation information from Autodesk servers.” 2012 and older are pretty much useless though, can’t open the material editor without a hard crash (coded for limited thread count) unless you have a render engine that supports it. I use VRay 2.4 on 2012 to open old files from Brazil2 or Scanline.
Are you on “perpetual license” subscription or in rental license?
If you have a perpetual one for, let’s say 2016, in 2022 you won’t be able to activate it, you have your “perpetual” license, but you won’t be able to activate it at all.
i guess they can argue if you stay on same hardware it will work….
Talking about a perpetual licence – I have 2 a 2013 and a 2016 with current maintenance sub.
I donated the 2013 to a friend to learn as I only bought the second when perpetuals were axed.
So now if he was using 2013, or I end my sub and there’s a hardware failure – I would no longer be able to activate my paid for licence in a couple of years going by this policy.
If you are on maintenance in theory you are allowed to use three versions back as maximum, so you are in fact using illegal licenses, if you are not in subs and you stopped with max 2013 in some and max 2016 in others, you won´t be able to activate them after 2021.
Also they never said “perpetual licenses as long as you use a perpetual hardware” 🙂
No, I have 2 seats. I bought Max way back when it was new, and it was maintained up until 2013 when I ditched subscriptions.
When they announced the end of perpetual sales I bought a separate copy of 2016 with a new maintenance subscription which is still current.
So I can only use three back on my current one (which is dumb enough – it should go back to 2016 really), but the 2013 one is a separate thing entirely.
Then you won’t be able to activate your 2013 licenses after 2021, if you have the 2016 unders subs you must update it up to version 2019 or you are out of your license, no matter if you have your subs going on, you can only go up to 3 versions back (I think it’s 2019 or 2018, I’m not sure if it includes the current version or not)
Yeah, that’s pretty much what I thought.
I would be interested to see if that’s legally enforceable.
No idea… but you know how they work 😛
For them you are using piracy if you keep using 2016 and don’t comply and upgrade your max version.
And for 2013… I hope some court force them to keep activating old licenses or to generate a license activation tool for old versions, it’s a complete abuse.
Everyone that want to fight for their legal right, here is the started topic in the right moment with a autodesk employe.Please join and support with logic as this is for everyone.Dont leave things for tomorrow.
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/previous-version-support/can-i-obtain-offline-activation-in-the-future/m-p/8937271#M75
Another impressive move by Autodesk. Can they do this legally?
Maybe in the US, not sure about the EU.
I think they have a big list of ways they can drive people to other software.
I’ve already bought C4D because clients are asking for it – to refuse to activate products you’ve already bought is a shitty move, even by their low standards.
I really hope someone will take this to court in the EU.
we all should. Just like in the past EU reject AD claims that you cannot sell the AD software you bought.
Everyone that want to fight for their legal right, here is the started topic in the right moment with a autodesk employe.Please join and support with logic as this is for everyone.Dont leave things for tomorrow.
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/previous-version-support/can-i-obtain-offline-activation-in-the-future/m-p/8937271#M75
This is illegal, but hey, greed is good.
Eon did the same. I wanted to buy a license from a guy who owned Vue 2015, and resigned since the guy wasn’t able to even run the software on his own computer.
Autodesk never stops being amazing!
Like with the survey they are doing amongst Blender users LOL!!!
hmmm u are doing some Juang3d-ism again! >_<
hahaha just kidding bro, i laughed loud before in other random 3dsmax news, when some guy complained about you without you having even written a word about the news.
By the way, i still following your videos about blender. thank you for your work and sorry for the past. hehe
hi man,
you are getting some snark on this site due to your blender zealotry. its become a meme of sorts it seems.
well i have recently and spontaneously switched to blender and had to think of you on couple of occasions.
i hated the 2.7x ui, just couldn’t figure it out. 2.8 is an absolute breeze though.
i jumped in and am having a blast. e-cycles actually competes with octane really well, even outperforms it on many instances.
the shaders, modular ui, feature set. its all very impressive and i can understand now why you have been so vocal about it.
being able to create shaders with instant feedback from eevee, compose hots and animations, then simply render with cycles. its just so gratifying. i am having alot of fun again in 3d.
autorigging and skinning characters in less then an hour? no problem.
you want an ocean with foam? easy.
clouds and fluid sim? why the hell not.
hair? dont even trip.
i can sketch out terrains in sculpt mode that dynamically creates polygons where i need them, use triplanar to shade and displace it, go back and iterate. it feels so clever and streamlined i was actually shocked.
blendermarket is filled with dime a dozen goodies too.
as a former blender “sceptic”, i thank you and for anyone not trying out blender: well you are truly missing out. you keep doing the gods work and all the best to you.
Thanks for posting this! I am still not sure how to switch with all the assets we have and use regularly, but one thing is for sure: Blender will definitely kill Max at some point and for some strange reason… I am OK with that. I’ve been following Blender official and communities’ channels for a while and it amazes me more and more almost on a daily basis.
Meanwhile, the gap between Max (Maya, too, I suppose) and Blender/Houdini grows constantly, and seeing Autodesk rip apart the last bit of customer relations makes the decision to switch much, much easier.
The only thing I feel a bit sad about is the slow passing of the awesome Max community, then again most of us are too old to take s**t, so it’s probably a good thing it comes to an end some day.
hi marcin,
not sure which assets you are using but nearly everything can be ported to blender via fbx or alembic. in fact, blender is the only software that loaded up objs and fbx with properly assigned texture maps. i actually thought that messy fbx/objs are a fact of life but nope. blender got it sorted and i was shocked. ofcourse some tweaking will be needed, which is actually so much fun with instant feedback from cycles.
one think that isnt working is openvdb. however, octane has its own vdb loader and are reworking the plugin for 2.8 if vdb is a must.
honestly, at this point anyone still getting shafted by autodesk has noone to blame but themselves. they showed their cards. adsk is the abusive spouse- pack you bags people it will only get worse.
what i am massively p!ssed off though is the fact that they still want to strongarm people into their racket. its absolutely disgusting.
fwiw blender beta is more stable than any iterations of max i have used in a decade.
I just can say that thanks for saying this publicly.
I’m glad Blender works for you and you both are liking it.
@Icelander, forget the past, past is past and as I said many times we are passionate artists, for me all stays here, I trust in what I do and many others told me great things and opinions about it privately, so I have to massively thank you both for doing it public.
Regarding the videos, I’m glad you like them, I wish I could have more time to do more english spoken videos, but I have very little time, but they will keep coming.
@Technomancer I’m glad you loved 2.8 UI 🙂 it’s been a massive improvmenent, in reality if you were able to dig into the 2.79 UI you would have discovered the same in a slightly different flavour but it was different in many basic things that it was harder to begin with for users coming from other packages, I really expect 2.8 solved the problem for many others as it has been solved for you 🙂
Again, thanks to both of you 🙂
What survey are you referring to?
You did not hear about this? 🙂 ->
https://blenderartists.org/t/autodesk-research-team-needs-user-information-from-blender-users/1164957/112
Ha, I didn’t know this existed.
‘Do you also want to be interviewed on this topic? Talk with a User Researcher
and receive a gift card for your time.’
Receive a gift card while we screw our existing customers… it’s sort of super obvious that a big part of Autodesk doesn’t know what they sell or how it’s used, and just wants to generate numbers for their excel sheets in metrics that don’t have any relation to how they act in any actual real-world use scenario.
All driven by shareholder value… Autodesk is the equivalent Boeing of the 3d software industry.
christ almighty. talk about wolf amongst the sheep. these overtures make me very uncofortable as a new blender user but most of all it just heightens my disgust.
its like inviting someones wife for a date: so what do you like about your husband eh?. so shamelesse, tasteless, its incredible.
see, adobe pulled it off by leveraging photoshop monopoly and a stable of industry standard software, all bundled in for a very low price.
autodesk, in their greed and ignorance, thought they could do the same.
only, y´know with unrealistic prices and mob style price increases as penalties.
and poor development. and buggy software. lols.
most importantly they didnt take agressive competition into consideration and that is why this survey is happening. why you need a survey to gauge the situation is beyond me though.
i am pretty sure the former CEO had to go because of his reluctance to go all in on the rental and the activist shareholders dont know diddly squat about the software landscape. its just about the shares prices. hence the bubble and the inevitable pop.
fun story:
after i opted out of maintenance i got a call to let them know why. one of the reasons on my end was the obvious fact that max was being pushed into the archviz/industrial design niche more and more and i am interested in vfx. the girl told me “oh, well we have maya for that, you could buy that.” that produced quite a laugh from me. yeah, no i´d rather sit on a cactus, thanks.
point is, she didnt deny it. they actually did/do have this strategy and maybe still do.
as time goes on they will become more and more aggressive, like a cornered animal.
just watch for it.
Entirely predictable. They should do the decent thing and find a technical solution that disables the need for activation for those with perpetual licenses – a USB dongle perhaps? I’m trying to remember what Adobe did for customers of older versions of CS – it was messy but at least they provided a solution so that their customers could continue to use the software they had a *perpetual* license for. I can see this developing into a class action of some kind – I’m sure European law won’t accommodate Autodesk severing their customer commitments.
Didn’t Adobe say that people who still use old version will be sued?
On what grounds?
No they didn’t (not for CS) if I recall correctly they said it wasn’t legal for just anybody to use the software/serials they made public. You needed a license to be legit – same as always. Edit – ah yeah I forgot about the more recent issue with 3rd party IP in older versions of CC. What I was referring to happened a few years ago.. 2015 ish?
No, they said those that use older than 2 versions back of the CC software specifically “could” get sued. CS6 and older, you own the software and the licenses to use it.
this was only pertaining to rental software 2-3 versions bakc due to a dolby patent licensing it seems.
cs6 can be used without worries from what i read.
They made special setups with different serials (or maybe same serial for the product at all), for the users who can’t activate older CS-es.
They provided CS2 online to download for users who own it (yet anyone could access the link). They have removed it recently though after the lawsuit, no links found. Looks like you have to now contact them to get a download link for older software.
So my computer crashes or I simply change for a new one and I can’t reinstall my license ?
Is this legal ?
Autodesk… They really want us all out.
Thinking about it, I wonder if this is also an attempt to discourage plug-in support for older versions. I’m sure it pains Autodesk execs to see some of the major plugins like Vray still supporting 2014. So gradually perpetual licenses will wither on the vine.. (but I can see how its convenient for developers to feel they only need to support the past 3 versions).
To be fair, in a “ideal” situation you wouldn’t use a stone age version of max anyways. But there are still very good reasons to use 2014 – for example to do modelling in it.. with a snappy and fast UI, especially in terms of the control panel. I don’t have data for it but I think that max is probably the only DCC where people are still using such old versions and prefer it over a new one. Don’t see any Houdini 12 users around.
Also, plugin developers will usually support the DCC versions that are used by a majority of their clients, so if there are for example still 15% of clients using it, it’s worth supporting 2014.
I think everybody would prefer it if there were just the 2 most recent good and stable versions for a DCC (and the other ones basically not used by anyone), saves development costs, enables faster iterations and so on… but that’s not gonna happen with max.
I agree totally, in an ideal world I would have the option to buy an upgrade – but lets not go there. 😉 I’m really comfortable with my stone age workhorse – with a few choice plugins its a great tool for the work I do and its really stable. Oh well. I guess I’ll buy a new workstation in a couple of years and try to squeeze a few more years of life out of it. Who knows, maybe I’ll cave in at some point and start renting, or more likely just retire.
Well MassFX at least worked in v2014, in v2016 got more bugs in v2018 is pretty much unworkable, i don’t know in Max 2019-20 because i did not even bothered to test them.
F Autodesk. Can I get a witness?
While they can kiss butt with this move, there is a easy fast solution to this problem guys. Just download the crack version, no hard feelings you paid for it, its not your fault if Autodesk got greedy and unfair. The crack just bypasses any activation. If you are a company I doubt they will come for you unless you are making millions and if you are making millions then you would most likely afford latest software version anyway. Win win.
This just isn’t true though, ethical arguments aside they do come after the little guys for license violations. I still have bad memories of wasting my time handling a request for a software audit – and any whiff of a cracked activation would have been a real headache. edit – I get what you’re saying but why should we surrender the high ground that we paid good money for.
Surrender may be a big word lets just say not bother with the high ground of this sort only. Because Autodesk would rather go to hell and back than listen to anyone telling them what to do with their money other than the shareholders. We may get a nudge or two when it comes with enough nagging on features but never with their business models.
So any effort put here is a good effort for complaining and I believe it must be done by all means, but one must seek alternative solutions in the real world immediately if they are running older software and my proposition works for it. I know a lot of people already do this even AFTER paying for a software gone bust. Ethically they are fine because they paid for it and a few malware here and there nothing kaspersky can’t handle.
I wouldn’t recommend the average Joe visit a cracked site to download software. Or even P2P. Malware landmines. You might get lucky and get a clean copy, but even the links, which are disguised to look like the download links are an easy way to get some crap on your computer that is hard to get rid of. Call up your techie friend who knows how to maneuver those sites if you’ve never stepped foot in that realm.
just use different 3d software, autopoop are idiots..they just drive people away to C4d, houdini, modo and blender.
just incredible.
i am on 2017, not that i use it much but still fire it up for fume fx or phoenix fd.
autodesk is just pure evil.
remember when people were told to stock up on permanent licenses when the transition was announced?
that would be the 2017 which wont be able to be activated in 2021. this has to be illegal, and not that i needed it, cemented my “never ever autodesk again”
i will look into it most likely but in EU this should be absolutely illegal and autodesk is showing its bare faced greed and desperation.
miserable sods.
Everyone that want to fight for their legal right, here is the started topic in the right moment with a autodesk employe.Please join and support with logic as this is for everyone.Dont leave things for tomorrow.
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/previous-version-support/can-i-obtain-offline-activation-in-the-future/m-p/8937271#M75
I mean if you
re asking me to send you CAD drawings in version 2010, I already think youre an idiot dinosaur…..And what about people working with 3dsmax 2016 in 2021? (a year and a half from now on…)
And specially… what about having paid for a “perpetual licenses” that suddenly became into a “long term rental license”?
It’s not about sending a file in Autocad 2010 it’s about Autodesk doing whatever they want in the manner they want as they want without taking into consideration their customers no matter how old they were.
BTW I know architects working in Autocad 2010 because they don’t need more, and they paid for their 2010 licenses, why should they pay a penny more if they don’t need more from that Autocad? just because Autodesk says so? because Autodesk is loosing customers at such fast pace that they want to force the ones with perpetual licenses into rental?
Why do they have to be “idiots” just because they don’t care about using the latest available software since the software they have is enough for them?
For things like AutoCAD/Revit, it makes sense to do this. No one should be working in Revit 2016 or earlier under any circumstances.
For things like 3ds Max/Maya, I understand it`s a d1ck move from Autodesk since these software are not collaborative in nature.
here is an idea:
how about you read the entire post instead of just the first paragraph?
or just jump in the comments after reading the first sentence and call people idiots after misunderstanding the main point of the article, that works too.
Why? Not every architect or engineer makes big projects.
Exactly, and there are architects that design museum expos and different things that may not need anything from the newest versions of AutoCAD
If you’re working in archicture in AutoCAD, I’m judging you.
I really don’t know what to answer here…
I could say “who are you to judge anyone?”
And I could also say “why do you judge anyone? do you now everybody’s work and projects?”
Or I could also say “you were unable to work as an architect with Autocad 2010? or 2016?”
But in the end, to a persons that says “I’m judging you” the only possible real answer that come to my mind is “who cares?” LOL
ADSK should provide an offline product activation tool for versions they consider end of lifecycle.
But knowing ADSK, they want to accelerate their rental sales at all cost.
Exactly, that is the right thing to do, but they won’t do it.
Agreed – creating such a tool can’t be more than a few days work for a couple of software engineers. But there’s no indication they have planned to do this and given Autodesk’s history of intransigence I can’t see it happening unless they come to see it as legally necessary. It might be up to users of older versions to press the case for a perpetual solution..
I moved away from AD products years ago and this still shocks me somehow..
I mean it’s not like that license server is costing them much to run, probably a VM idling..
For the amount of licenses they’re going to get from this, it’s a really bad PR move.. If anything it will motivate customers to migrate to other software.
already did that when they announced their rental only plan….used max since 1999…bye bye…now using blender 2.8
They can’t even figure out how to transfer legacy users to the new user management. I’m still on the old one.
You have to remember, in their eyes, people who are using old perpetual licenses and not migrating to subscription, are costing them money on keeping legacy services alive, no matter how little. In a way, it’s true. But they did it to themselves with their activation methods. So they won’t lose a penny if someone using 2016 decides to move to another competitor. If they haven’t switched to subscription yet, they probably won’t ever. They’re betting on converting maintenance to subs now.
I looked up perpetual in the dictionary and it is defined as “never ending.” So is Autodesk going to write the dictionary people to change the definition so they can then legally change their perpetual licenses agreements, or are they just going to give everyone their money back?
never ending if you use the same hardware
The question is if this hardware-limitation was already part of the purchase agreements for perpetual licenses 10-15 years ago. And if not, I see it legally questionable to change this afterwards – at least if this change happens silently somewhere in the fineprint/EULA.
This change from perpetual to limited to 3 years/versions, and/or to the limitation to a specific/current hardware would be such a fundamental change that the user/buyer could not expect it, and thus it wouldn’t be legal to just change the EULA at some point (since it introduces a significant diandvange for the buyer after the purchase), at least it would be illegal when it’s done without explicitly informing the buyer and pointing at this fundamental change (i.e. before accepting any new EULA).
When the time comes for me, I’ll definitely let a lawyer check this and demand to get what I purchased, the perpetual right to use/activate the software, or the 4500,-€ back that I paid for it.
What about the assets, plugins, program that were bought to run in 3ds max environment? I do not want them to give the money back, I want to run the program I own, I bought some time ago, time I have spent to learn all this. Even if it is written between the lines I can see it can be seen as illegal clauses of a contract. I do have old permanent licence, I am not sure how many of us are there in EU to bring it to the EU court attention in case AD cuts off the licences.
The harm is waaaay bigger than just the license cost.
Absolutely – I won’t be buying any more plugins/scripts for Max (or upgrades for plugins I already own) until this situation is remedied by Autodesk. So that’s Chaos Group and Itoo that have also lost a customer. I’m going to take legal advice and write formally to Autodesk in the first instance. I suspect a letter to the European Commission will be necessary though (If you’re UK based the same rights should apply even if/when Brexit happens but whether they will have the relevant department geared up to handle your complaint any time soon is anyone’s guess!).
If this was not clearly announced, even if it was in the EULA at some point, that could be deceiving advertising and terminology designed to convince the user from one thing that was not that way.
That would be bad faith in a contract, something that can anihilate any contract under court. (A contract designed to lie and abuse the user)
Here is another word you may wish to look up’ “FRAUD”
Reminds me of the time when we were clinging on to using Brazil way past its sell date and they went poof and we couldnt activate our license server. Its a shit move for sure but are people really using max 2010 in production?
In two years you won’t be able to use Max 2019. That is the problem here.
Actually you could, at least up to late 2015 when I last made a request. They delegated the activation to an outside source, Gavin Greenwalt. Not sure if he still doing it, but worth a try if you have to open old scenes to convert them.
Thanks but that was ages ago we have moved on since then. We were also in touch with someone might have been Gavin we got it done once but then the second time we couldn’t get in touch with anyone.
It’s madness!
I bought the hardware separately and the program separately why should it be assigned for a lifetime to it? There should be a patch and license file that can be moved offline.
From here it feels like bullying. Its like Volkswagen coming along and saying ‘We changed our support policy. Because the car you bought from us and drive every day is over three years old, if you ever need your car servicing we will squirt superglue in the ignition and locks, and stamp on your keys. Its to help us serve you better’. Thinly veiled Mafia tactics.
Oh no! My blender license! wait… oh. It was just a dream that autodesk bought blender. Thank God it was only a nightmare. Back to sleep.
You realize you don’t have to put up with the Subscription model right? What choice do you have? You’re the consumer, what you demand they have to sell.
Im confused…
I have the 2016 “perpetual” 3ds max bought. I have never had any maintence or subscription or anything like that… Just pure 3ds max 2016 perpetual license bought from my resellers in my local EU country.
Does this mean that i wont be able to legally use (or it wont run at all) my max after 2021…??
Yes, that is it.I got even a email from autodesk stating the same thing.I own a perpetual and tomorow i will be presenting this to my lawyer and take things in my hands as i have invested 10-11k and dont plan on giving it to those crooks. I recommend everyone here afected to take a breath of calm and do the same without losing time.
Please let us know your findings. I am yet to get this letter too.
I am doing my best right now with a lawyer but Autodesk just keeps saying a stubborn NO without any background.I will most probably screw my holidays from now on until this is solved.
I highly recommend, people that are in the same situation(and I know there are thousands of you) to take some action.We need to collaborate, exchange emails if we have to with our findings or just start a forum topic.
I my self will not back out as its my money, and others should be brave enough too.Simply because we haven’t done anything wrong and that is our strength in the situation.
Update:Got a message from the autodesk corporate council
”Our policy has been consistent with the terms of our license agreements, although we have only loosely upheld the product activation policy in the past. What’s new is our intent to align our practices with our stated policies and Terms and consistently uphold them. Autodesk is not restricting users from perpetual rights of the use of our software, and at the same time, we are no longer agreeing to continue to offer product activation for legacy versions when the environment in which the software had been used has changed by events outside of our control.”
The last sentence is just funny as it contradicts it self.They are not restricting us but if the time ends, turns out you are restricted..
I will be waiting to engage in direct conversation with the corporate council, hopefully tomorrow.
Thank you for keeping us updated. And I’m with you, it would be a good and beneficial thing if we, who are affected, could team up, or at least set up a place to exchange related information.
On the topic, Autodesk is actually trying to “dictate” obsolescence.
Fact: if we update some day to quantum-computers and the legacy software does technically not run on it – then it’s our/users problem, and Autodesk would not be obligated to provide us updates/versions that work on this new hardware.
BUT: they are going to refuse activating a software on hardware that WOULD technically run the software, so the decisionof Autodesk’s refusal is not based on hardware incompatibility. The software sends a standard (http?) question to Autodesk “please activate me”, and if you have a perpeptual license, Autodesk’s servers have to reply “Yes, of course, sir”. Period.
What they currently state, about “old technology, outdated, difficult to maintain”, this is their attempt to silence us before/outside of courts.
Fact is: if Autodesk provides software with an utterly complicated activation system, then it’s up to them to maintain it – FOREVER (and if AUtodesk goes bancrupt one day, they still have to ensure this licensing software doesn’t limit the users rights of using the software). The activcation-part of the software is a separate system Autodesk decided to instal, additionally to the software we purchased licenses for. Adn they can pretent that it’s “difficult to maintain” as they want, that’s their self-created problem. In doubt, they have to simplify their activcation system or remove it.
But also a fact, as long as the discussion happens outide of courts, Autodesk will continue to tell us stories about wounded unicorns. They are trying this scam. Continuing to activcate old software would cost them ‘peanuts’, some servers, minor maintenance, neglectable for a multi-billion-dollar company ‘Autodesk’ – but they try block user’s right to use old sofwtare because they would make a fortune if users of perpeptual licenses have to start ‘renting’ the software after 3 years.
But again, until this goes to courts, Autodesk might stick on this illegal practice (at least im my country it is illegal, 99,99% chance to win this case, according to my lawyer…the 00,01% chance of loosing is a drunken judge, said the lawyer and laughed.).
I’m looking forward to the day they refuse to activate my license. Then Autodesk gets one notification from me, announcing legal steps, and then they I’ll sue them twice: to activate my license (even if the software itself would not run on future hardware !), and secondary they’ll be sued to compensate evey loss my business makes, for each and every day I can’t use the software.
I wish you good luck and that laws and judges in your country rule for justice – perpeptual is what it is, it’s not an artificial 3-year-limit, introduced by a company known for agressive business strategies.
Thank you for the info.I posted a few things below if you want to read.But i actually recommend we all do this know and not wait till 2021.Simply because, without using a teen foil hat, autodesk has long fingers.Who knows how things can evolve in their favor in 1.5-2 years.
I will be making my statement now as in the future we might loose.If for example you have a maintenance like me.What would happen if they decide to say that with the next pay of your maintenance you accept the NEW therms?…
I hope they dont see this, but I think we shoud act now.In fact I am afraid to pay my maintenance for net year and get maya 2020 just for that single thought and i will probably stick to 2019.
I’m on maintenance too (but have planned to end it in the coming 1-2 years). And you’re right, we should not discuss specifics of legel strategies against this (guess I’ve already said more than I should – but not everything^^).
Regarding the EULA – you don’t accept it with the payment, you accept it by/during the installation. And regarding the EULA…I don’t want to go into specifics for obvious reasons, but the first question would be: which EULA matters ? The one we agreed many years ago when we purchased a perpeptual license, or the current one that might be more restrictive ? And is it legal that during the maintenance/updates the EULA becomes more and more restrictive, so that we suddenly, without clear warning, now own time-limited software instead perpeptual ? Because that’s what it is: time-limited. Because sooner or later every computer dies by a technical defect and would need repair/replacement – which would terminate our licenses.
No idea how to do a multi chain response, but Me and Kantakerous have started a discord in order to exchange legal info and do something about it.(providing info from lawyers, ideas and whatever comes to mind.)
Everyone that has participated here, send me a email confirmation to me samurai48@abv.bg with your discord name and number so that we can friend add you and start a private topic away from curious eyes.The reason i recommend sending this to me is to try and minimize autodesk bots joining the conversation.Inform also people that you know are affected by this problem.Let us join as much people as possible in the next days and start.
Thanks for those updates –
I haven’t had time to organise my response yet, but its coming. I want to talk to a contact I have. We should definitely start a thread somewhere – preferably a forum where it’s possible to PM each other – maybe CG Society?
Autodesk’s own forum might have an advantage in that people with CAD/BIM software would also see it and could contribute, but that would come with the big negative that Autodesk would (presumably) have access to all communications ;-). Discord is another possibility and reasonably secure.. but would need setting up and I guess some ongoing admin.
Well, this is taking place only on their forum for now:
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/moving-to-subscription/keep-perpetual-maintenance-licensing/m-p/8918459
If you want to join there is good.On the other hand, I have been making quite some noise and i suspect their guys are now monitoring the topics in search for loop holes in our defense.
Maybe it loud be best to start a discord and everyone should join and give weekly info on their findings and exchange info between our lawyers.
Here is something new.Autodesk is attempting a planed crime with a starting date 31 next month.With the info i got right now(i will need a little more) i think I can get the court to create a document in my favor that protects the way I use the software without autodesk having anything to say about it.
The faster, one of us manages to win, the case court number can be used as evidence in others countries courts for a quick procedure.
But I repeat, lets find the time and meet online and exchange ideas and findings.My lawyer inst that good with english and asked me to find other similar cases and I think this can be used for when Adobe decided to give photoshop cc users a offline activation tool just because it was enforcing its now know subscription model.
Agreed, Discord is probably the way to go. In the meantime we should probably keep public discussion on the legal side to a minimum
Thank you. I am seeking legal advice at ECC-Net and I am guessing quite a few people in Poland will that too. AD will discard single voices, it has to go higher and bigger if make any impact.
No idea how to do a multi chain response, but Me and Kantakerous have started a discord in order to exchange legal info and do something about it.(providing info from lawyers, ideas and whatever comes to mind.)
Everyone that has participated here, send me a email confirmation to me samurai48@abv.bg with your discord name and number so that we can friend add you and start a private topic away from curious eyes.The reason i recommend sending this to me is to try and minimize autodesk bots joining the conversation.Inform also people that you know are affected by this problem.Let us join as much people as possible in the next days and start.
No idea how to do a multi chain response, but Me and Kantakerous have started a discord in order to exchange legal info and do something about it.(providing info from lawyers, ideas and whatever comes to mind.)
Everyone that has participated here, send me a email confirmation to me samurai48@abv.bg with your discord name and number so that we can friend add you and start a private topic away from curious eyes.The reason i recommend sending this to me is to try and minimize autodesk bots joining the conversation.Inform also people that you know are affected by this problem.Let us join as much people as possible in the next days and start.
Everyone that want to fight for their legal right, here is the started topic in the right moment with a autodesk employe.Please join and support with logic as this is for everyone.Dont leave things for tomorrow.
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/previous-version-support/can-i-obtain-offline-activation-in-the-future/m-p/8937271#M75