software licensing
A software company refuses to active my perpetual ownership software because they no longer want to maintain the activation server. Is that not theft?
<p>I purchased perpetual license to this software (NitroPDF) and the version I have continues to suit all my needs.  I began to have problems when I updated to Win10 as the installation would no longer work. They refused to help at that time. I got around this problem by updating to Win7 first, installing the SW and then migrating to Win10.  Now I am moving to another computer and when re-installing the SW it goes fine (maybe Win10 improved compatibility), except the required server activation is now no longer maintained by the SW company and there is no way to activate my legally purchased SW.  Their position is you buy a new copy for a much higher price than it was when I purchased my existing copy.</p>
<p>They have effectively stolen from me the ability to use SW I had a perpetual license to use.  How is this legal?</p>
<p>From their web site:
&quot;If you're on Nitro Pro 12 or an older version such as Nitro Pro 11, Nitro Pro 10, or Nitro Pro 9, you might run into an instance where you're not able to re-activate your software (Error message &quot;There was a connection issue.&quot;). This is because our activation servers no longer support older versions of Nitro Pro so your software needs to be upgraded to either the latest build of Nitro Pro 12, or to Nitro Pro 13.&quot;</p>
<p>This would be fine if they don't want to maintain the license server and they offered reasonable terms for existing users to update, but they do not.</p>

<p>You purchased a perpetual license to the software. They gave you one. You are allowed, under that license, to run the software without any expiration date. Had you keot the computer on whch the software was already installed, you could have continued to use it.</p>
<p>Now the rest of this will depend on exactly what your license from and any other agreements with the vendor say, and I have not read them. So I am making assumptions about throe documents here.</p>
<p>Unless the vendor (V) specifically promised otherwise, V has no obligation to keep its activation servers  up and running. Nor is it obliged to provide you with a new service, nor with a new version of the application that allow it to be installed now on a new computer for free or at a low cost, unless they clearly promised to do that, and I very much doubt that they did.</p>
<p>Whether you own a copy of the software or not is not very reelvant, you don't own the servers, and you don't own the iht to modify the software to bypas the call to the servers, even if yu knew how, whuch they are unlikely to tell you.</p>
<p>All this seems to be legal, if my assumptions about yourmagreemwnts with V are correct. One might argue the ethics, but not the legality.</p>
<p>I suppose you could sue, claiming that they are obliges to keep your instance of the software working, or upgrade it for free, perhaps on a warrantee theory. But I doubt that you would  win such a suit.</p>

<p>The license allows re-installing and on a second computer.  There is no term stating they have the right to render my license useless.  The license self deactivates if you re-install windows, which is what it has done.  And now they have deprecated the ability to re-activate the license.  There is a long discussion here about this very thing with respect to game software, and it seems the law and international copyright treaties do not allow this to be legal.
<a href="https://linustechtips.com/topic/953835-you-own-the-software-that-you-purchase-and-any-claims-otherwise-are-urban-myth-or-corporate-propaganda/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://linustechtips.com/topic/953835-you-own-the-software-that-you-purchase-and-any-claims-otherwise-are-urban-myth-or-corporate-propaganda/</a>      Read the linustechtips link above.  It's long but goes in to great detail why software is considered the same as durable property.</p>
