New eagle licensing -> goodbye Eagle

On 18/07/14 22:01, Simon Gornall wrote:

So, I've used Eagle now for over 10 years. In all that time I've always

upgraded to the latest version, but that's just stopped.

 

I have multiple computers, and I use multiple locations. I've always

only ever used one instance of Eagle at a time, and I've never given the

license details to anyone else. Unfortunately, the latest way in which

Eagle is licensed is way too restrictive for me to work with the product

as I have done for over a decade now.

I absolutely agree. Part of the reason I picked EAGLE was because of the

relatively liberal licensing policy. "Install on as many PCs as you

like, as long as they all belong to you personally and only one PC is

running EAGLE at a time". Great!

The reason I switched to EAGLE in the first place was a competitor

product which employed node-locked licensing. My PC failed, and they

demanded I buy the product again to get a new license key. I declined.

Some months later, they went out of business...

What is the EAGLE hostID generated from? The motherboard? The hard

drive? The partition serial numbers? The network card MAC address?

If my network card, motherboard or whatever the HostID is based on

fails, do I need to buy a new license? These type of license policies

are very clearly profit-oriented and anti-consumer, and tells your

customers that you don't trust them.

The problem is two-fold:

• You are only allowed to install on 2 (which is pitiful!) computers if

you have a single user license.

• You cannot use a flexlm-based license for a single-user license.

 

• If your PC (or in the case of some license managers, your network

card) fails, you can't use the software and have to buy a new license,

or at least wait for a new license key.

• If your PC is stolen (very common for laptops), you lose one of your

two licenses...

• Some of us have more than one PC. I have a desktop in my office, an

SFF desktop in the lab, a netbook and a full-size laptop. So I'd have to

buy two separate EAGLE licenses (or a five-machine site license) just to

have enough "single user" seats to use EAGLE on all these machines, even

though I only use one at a time!

The combination of those two things means I can't duplicate the setup I

currently have, so this is the classic example of how proprietary

software owners can screw you over without you having any recompense or

workaround, despite you being a paying and loyal customer for an

extended period of time. I don't consider cracking the software to be an

adequate workaround.

 

So, if I'm going to have to spend $$$ in the thousands, I'll take a good

look at the competition first, and even at the freebies like kikad.

Kicad is starting to look really good - CERN have been putting a lot of

work in. I just don't like the lack of continuous forward/back

annotation (one of EAGLE's killer features).

A primary rule for any software "upgrade" is "don't break the existing

workflows". Eagle v7 is completely useless to me, not because of its

feature-set, not because of any price issues, but because the management

is being pants-on-head moronic about how it goes about licensing.

Licensing, of all things.

Agreed. Hierarchical design was one of the features I really wanted to

try (especially if I can reuse hierarchical design units), and I'd

gladly have paid the upgrade fee for it.

But with these licensing changes, I will not be upgrading, and I'll be

looking at competing products (of which there are many).

For corporate customers this probably won't be an issue (most of them

probably buy enough 'seats' to get a server-based floating license

anyway). But for hobbyists? This is going to be a deal breaker.

Thanks,

--

Phil.

philpem@philpem.me.uk

http://www.philpem.me.uk/

I'm not (and never have been) an Eagle user but this licensing horror is so familiar. I have at least 6 serious bits of licensed software and only one of them supports a dongle (one of the others does if you pay extra). All the others use these silly machine locked licenses with issues arising at every upgrade and if a computer should die etc etc.

At least the dongle can be moved about easily.

I sometimes feel I should give up on paying and just use a pirate copy with less hassle.

I thought it was generally agreed that it was silly restrictions on legal music downloads that gave piracy such a foothold - why do software companies insist on repeating the same mistake ?

Currently I use EasyPC from Number One Systems, cheaper than Eagle (much) and pretty good - never had any licensing issues.

MK

Hi Leon,

We reverted to our old more flexible licensing system, so at the very

least that nightmare is gone.

hth,

Jorge Garcia

FYI they reverted the new licensing model, 7 is exactly like 6 now (e.g. once you've got the install code you don't need CadSoft's blessing to change machines). I also believe all the old installers are freely available... I'm not sure if there is a link but you can figure it out from the download URL easily enough. It's useful if you need to support someone using another version.

Jorge, CadSoft may have revered back to the old licensing, however it doesn't make a bit of difference when a) the license file for v6 no longer works for v7, and b) repeated e-mails to sales@cadsoft are not being replied to. So what's it going to take to get SOMEONE to reply to those e-mails requesting a license update/upgrade?

If I am not mistaken, v6 to v7 is a paid upgrade, so the v6 license naturally will not work with v7. I checked on the upgrade price for my installation, and it was $550. I'm debating whether the new features in v7 are worth that to me, and sticking with v6 for the time being.

Well, that would explain the license file not working. However, regardless, I have received ZERO communications from Sales regarding an upgrade, despite repeated e-mails. So yeah, at this rate they won't be getting my money.

On 8/13/2014 2:48 PM, kirash4 wrote:

Jorge, CadSoft may have revered back to the old licensing, however it

doesn't make a bit of difference when a) the license file for v6 no

longer works for v7, and b) repeated e-mails to sales@cadsoft are not

being replied to. So what's it going to take to get SOMEONE to reply to

those e-mails requesting a license update/upgrade?

Hi kirash,

I think you're sending the e-mails to the wrong place. You should be

contacting sales@cadsoftusa.com, not sales@cadsoft.com. Through some

twist there are two completely independent companies that have Cadsoft

in there name on this earth.

I haven't seen any e-mails from you personally, if you wish you can

contact me jorge@cadsoftusa.com.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Jorge Garcia

Nope, I just verified and I have been sending them to the correct e-mail address at cadsoftusa.com. It would be coming from kirash4 at gmail ...

On 8/14/2014 4:10 PM, kirash4 wrote:

Nope, I just verified and I have been sending them to the correct e-mail

address at cadsoftusa.com. It would be coming from kirash4 at gmail ...

 

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Hi Kirash,

Ok then, try sending the e-mail directly to me and I'll pass it on to sales.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Best Regards,

Jorge Garcia

Hi,

I also sent a message to 'sales@cadsoftusa.com' to ask them to convert my V7.0 license into a 7.1, but I get not answer yet. I check the address too, and the date of my mail (Thu, 14 Aug 2014 14:37:30 +0200). I don't not if it's just too soon to have an answer, or if the mail get lost, like Kirash one's.

What should I do ? :

- wait a little more,

- send again the mail,

- by an update on cadsoft web site, even if the price is 0$ ?!?

Guillaume Barrey

Hi Guillaume,

E-mail me directly, I think I can take care of that personally since you

already have a V7 license its easy enough for me to do it. Let me know

if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Jorge Garcia

Hi Guillaume,

E-mail me directly, I think I can take care of that personally since you

already have a V7 license its easy enough for me to do it. Let me know

if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Jorge Garcia