Altium PCB design software - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Graphline
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 20, 2016, 12:08:50 pm
content: A WARNING TO ALL ALTIUM LICENCE HOLDERS, AND POTENTIAL ALTIUM PURCHASERS.You may think that spending thousands of dollars on your PCB design software is going to be an investment and an asset to you and/or your company. Well it will, but only if you maintain Altiums exorbitant annual “Subscription Package”. If you don’t do this, you will not be able to sell your licence as Altium will refuse to endorse the licence transfer to a new owner, so effectively your investment will be worthless.I have been a Protel/Altium user for decades but made the decision not to renew my Subscription after AD14 as I decided it was not good value. Now as I am intending to retire I want to sell my licence to a colleague, but I was bluntly informed by Altium that I would have to back pay over A$5,000 in subscriptions before they would transfer it, not including the $500 “Transfer Fee”!

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 20, 2016, 12:17:12 pm
content: Welcome to the forum.Many like you have had a gutsful too and that's why there's so many cracked versions on the net.

author: AntiProtonBoy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 20, 2016, 12:36:12 pm
content: Quote from: Graphline on May 20, 2016, 12:08:50 pmdoes any software vendor endorse something like this?

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2016, 12:24:01 am
content: What is preventing you from transferring the license to him, is it locked to your PC?The version I used to use had no problems installing on multiple PCs, however it was quite old (<12).If he wants to keep up to date, then yeah, you will have to pay the lapsed 5k in subscriptions, that's reasonable (may be cheaper to get a new license at that point).

author: XOIIO
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2016, 12:27:01 am
content: Quote from: thm_w on May 21, 2016, 12:24:01 amYeah, it seems weird that there isn't a way to transfer it, we need a bit more info.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2016, 12:29:32 am
content: Quote from: Graphline on May 20, 2016, 12:08:50 pmYes i think so and in my case it has paid for itself in just two months and keeps generating revenue. I suppose you did not design anything sellable with it?

author: Wilksey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2016, 12:44:06 am
content: I don't think that was the OP's point...

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2016, 02:59:19 am
content: I had the same issue with SolidWorks ($7500) and Camworks ($12,000).The license will always and forever be in my name according to them. Not sure if that is legal, but I dont have the time or money to figure it out. Crazy.Sent from my horrible mobile....

author: suicidaleggroll
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2016, 12:46:51 pm
content: I can't think of a single modern piece of licensed software that wouldn't have the same "problem". In my experience almost all of them bind to your MAC and require an active maintenance agreement to transfer it.That's why I try to install licensed software on VMs whenever possible. Who cares if it's bound to that specific "machine" when you can transfer and run that "machine" whenever, wherever you want? This might not work so well for Altium due to performance issues, but it works great for compilers and the like.Speaking of which, itmaybe possible to set up a VM with the same MAC as your host system and move your license into it without complaint. Not sure if that would violate their TOS though.

author: AntiProtonBoy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 21, 2016, 03:38:47 pm
content: You can spoof the MAC address on some devices:http://www.wikihow.com/Change-a-Computer's-Mac-Address-in-Windows

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2016, 11:14:18 am
content: The sad thing about Altium subscriptions is you are basically paying for bug fixes. That is probably illegal, at least in Australia. It is certainly immoral.When someone hands over $10,000 for a software product, he should expect the software to not have serious bugs, like the ubiquitous"memory violation error" and the odd crash. Bug fixes should be free, but for some reason Altium wants protection money. Altium has every right to charge for new features in new releases, but they should be giving bug fixes to everyone who owns earlier copies of Altium for FREE.Bill Gates the turd, er... the third, tried this money grabbing trick by charging people for bug fixes for his shoddy operating systems, by disguising them as upgrades.