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Household same license


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It'd be nice to just have a simple statement from Serif regarding MAS Family Sharing vs having to read through an EULA. 🙄

The help page you linked has a substantially different licensing terms than the FAQ.

Help page @ https://store.serif.com/en-gb/help/

Quote

As a private individual, you can download, install, use and run for personal use, one copy of the Serif Software directly on each computer running either (depending on your purchased license) Microsoft Windows (“Windows Computer”) or macOS (“Mac Computer”) that you personally own or control.

Website FAQ @ https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/affinity-2-faq/

Quote

As a private individual you can install Affinity apps on as many devices as you own which run the operating system you have purchased a licence for (of course in the case of a Universal Licence that means you can install on any iPads, Macs or Windows PCs you own). Other people (for example, members of your household) are also allowed to use the apps on those devices. However, only you are allowed to use the apps for commercial use—if any members of your household need to make commercial use of the apps as well they will need to purchase their own licence.

The latter also seems to indicate that MAS Family Sharing isn't allowed, but the help page licensing options doesn't include the restriction that other people can't use the applications on a computer you personally own or control for commercial use. So which one is correct?

It seems that Serif doesn't even know what their licensing terms are at this point.

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The V1 apps can be accessed by any account on the same computer.
Not sure how it works on Mac, but the new apps are shipped as .MSIX package for Windows and there is some confusion about the location and accessibility of the executable (.exe) - the 0KB exe files are in the specific user folder C:\Users\(Username)\ (as opposed to C:\Users\Default , which is for all users) .

I am wondering if it can be used by the second user (non admin) on the same computer - could anyone please clarify?

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22 minutes ago, erutan said:

It'd be nice to just have a simple statement from Serif regarding MAS Family Sharing vs having to read through an EULA. 🙄

The help page you linked has a substantially different licensing terms than the FAQ.

Help page @ https://store.serif.com/en-gb/help/

Website FAQ @ https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/affinity-2-faq/

The latter also seems to indicate that MAS Family Sharing isn't allowed, but the help page licensing options doesn't include the restriction that other people can't use the applications on a computer you personally own or control for commercial use. So which one is correct?

It seems that Serif doesn't even know what their licensing terms are at this point.

100% agree. Family sharing should be allowed as long as it's the same household.

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I understand that Family Sharing has been turned on for the in app purchases on the Mac App Store and iPad Store. I am not 100% sure how this will work with Affinity ID login and license registration, but you can certainly try it and report back, as this is new for us to use in app purchases.

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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1 minute ago, dronecrasher said:

are you sure that in app purchases are supported by family sharing? because one of the reasons in app purchases have been pushed by developers were for the reason that every member would have to purchase their license individually.

Not 100% sorry, but the developers in the room today told me it was turned on (which surprised me) so it is unfortunately an untested scenario

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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18 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

I understand that Family Sharing has been turned on for the in app purchases on the Mac App Store and iPad Store. I am not 100% sure how this will work with Affinity ID login and license registration, but you can certainly try it and report back, as this is new for us to use in app purchases.

 

5 minutes ago, Patrick Connor said:

Not 100% sorry, but the developers in the room today told me it was turned on (which surprised me) so it is unfortunately an untested scenario

Can you confirm with someone that it's intentional and family sharing will be supported in the future? It would be in direct violation of the licenses for Affinity 2 (which I would honestly understand). I know you're slammed with support issues (and people moaning about having to upgrade in general, or how the MAS doesn't allow upgrades so they're mad everyone gets a upgrade price now) but it'd be nice to have some confirmation on this.  Even if it works now, I would imagine it being removed later unless Serif is actively going to support violations to the licensing terms they created. I guess it could be an under the radar wink wink type thing?

The Individual license on the help page is different from the individual license as described on the FAQ page.

Taking the FAQ version and extending it to non-commercial use for use on other machines via MAS Family Sharing (and non-commercial use in your household for the direct version?) seems like the best way to work it in with the intent of the licenses as they stand.

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2 minutes ago, erutan said:

Can you confirm with someone that it's intentional and family sharing will be supported in the future?

Well it might not work in 2.0.0 but I have been told that once it it turned on for an entitlement it cannot be turned off, so I think we have to try and make it work. Sorry I cannot say for 100% sure right now but we think it should be made to work if we can (it may be impossible I cannot say right now) Our Affinity ID approach was the only way to get a universal license to work across all platforms but the behind the scenes code is complex and tries to avoid piracy, which family sharing might "look like" I just am not sure yet, as this "Family sharing is ON" is news to me (sorry)

4 minutes ago, erutan said:

The Individual license on the help page is different from the individual license as described on the FAQ page

That sounds wrong, I will look into that.

...and yes we are stacked up. 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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2 hours ago, Patrick Connor said:

Well it might not work in 2.0.0 but I have been told that once it it turned on for an entitlement it cannot be turned off, so I think we have to try and make it work. Sorry I cannot say for 100% sure right now but we think it should be made to work if we can (it may be impossible I cannot say right now) Our Affinity ID approach was the only way to get a universal license to work across all platforms but the behind the scenes code is complex and tries to avoid piracy, which family sharing might "look like" I just am not sure yet, as this "Family sharing is ON" is news to me (sorry)

That sounds wrong, I will look into that.

...and yes we are stacked up. 

I'd be wanting to install Affinity 2 on two laptops (different Apple IDs connected via Family Sharing) and an iPad Pro - three machines shouldn't hit a large enough threshold to be flagged but I'd rather not be surprised later. :)

Understood on things being a bit foggy at the moment and appreciate you looking into this. 

I quoted in full and described the differences in how the individual license is described a few posts up at the linked post below if that's helpful.

 

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IAP have been shareable via family sharing since iOS14, assuming the developer opts in.

From what Patrick said, it seems IAP family sharing is turned on...  which is good.

The individual app IAPs work like V1.  They don't even need the affinity account to register the app.  

My concern is specifically about the Universal License IAP since it needs an affinity account to tie the license to since you only buy the IAP in a specific app (say Mac version of Photos)...  the iOS version of Photos doesn't know you have the IAP for Mac Photos...

Theoretically if the universal IAP can be shared, each family member could create their own affinity account and register the family shared IAP for the universal license to their own affinity account, but I am not sure if thats the intent (or if Affinity will registers a shared IAP like that).

Alternatively I could just log into my affinity account on their copies of the app, but it would be a pain to have to do that after every update if the account doesn't stay logged in after update, so a shareable IAP is easier...

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Just now, buddyrich33 said:

My concern is specifically about the Universal License IAP since it needs an affinity account to tie the license to since you only buy the IAP in a specific app (say Mac version of Photos)...  the iOS version of Photos doesn't know you have the IAP for Mac Photos...

Quite, this is what we will need to investigate 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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TrevirML

It took a lot of negotiations to get Apple and Microsoft to accept the universal license approach. It's the equivalent of what you're asking for and we won't be changing anything else this release cycle, but thanks for the suggestion 

Patrick Connor
Serif Europe Ltd

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility lies in being superior to your previous self."  W. L. Sheldon

 

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If you're worried about the store versions, I had no issue buying the Universal thing on Serif's store page, then download the Microsoft Store version and activate that by logging in to my existing Affinity account.

I think you can also buy the store versions, associate them with your affinity account, then use that account elsewhere to activate a trial, but I couldn't find the Universal bundle on the MS Store, so went this way just in case, while also keeping the auto-updates active.

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3 hours ago, Smaxx said:

If you're worried about the store versions, I had no issue buying the Universal thing on Serif's store page, then download the Microsoft Store version and activate that by logging in to my existing Affinity account.

I think you can also buy the store versions, associate them with your affinity account, then use that account elsewhere to activate a trial, but I couldn't find the Universal bundle on the MS Store, so went this way just in case, while also keeping the auto-updates active.

MS STORE show me the universal license only if i have instaled de trial version, and when open the app show me the windows with options of purchase, so show the app separate option and universal license.

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6 hours ago, Patrick Connor said:

TrevirML

It took a lot of negotiations to get Apple and Microsoft to accept the universal license approach. It's the equivalent of what you're asking for and we won't be changing anything else this release cycle, but thanks for the suggestion 

I wondered about that. Apple’s not usually vary happy about being able to buy something from the AppStore out side of the Appstore

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I'll probably buy it on the MAS as things stand. I can install it on my M1 Pro and iPad Pro, and can use Family Sharing for my partners M1 Air. The 12" iPad Pro is a shared resource attached to my Apple ID.

If you're only concerned about Family Sharing on one platform (iPad or macOS) it seems like there shouldn't be any issues if I understand things correctly as long as you purchase it on that platform.

The Windows license is just icing on the cake for me if I ever need to use it for whatever reason. :)

I'd prefer to just buy it here directly as Serif gets a larger cut, I'll wait for a while until this situation gets clarified.

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Hello there,

I bought the universal license directly from Serif (thought this would maximize Serif's profit in contrast to the App Store) and I'm still in need for some clarification concerning the activation process in family households:

1. On Windows: No matter if I install the Windows Store version or the direct download from Serif I can activate the software with my login data using my Windows Account. That works fine. As soon as I switch to my wife's user account, I have to install the app again (from store or direct download) and then it asks me again for my login data to activate: Is that correct? Shouldn't there be a way for the app to realize that it is already activated for another user of the same PC? Will I get into trouble if Serif's server sees two activations with different Windows user accounts or does it create a Hardware-Hash to notice that it is actually the same machine again and then it's fine?

2. On iPadOS: It states that family sharing is enabled. If I activate the software on my iPad that works fine with the login data. How do I install and activate V2 on my son's iPad? Do I have to login on his iPad with my own user data? Will I get into trouble with the activation server there as the AppleID is definitely different than mine?

Thanks in advance for your help and sorry if some questions might have been answered already!

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2 hours ago, stormblade83 said:

1. On Windows: [...] Is that correct? Shouldn't there be a way for the app to realize that it is already activated for another user of the same PC?

That's fine and intentional as far as I know. For the app itself, you're a different user with a different account. The data is isolated (imagine this being a school or work PC, you don't necessarily want to have the same data/licenses on all accounts).

Quote

2. [...] How do I install and activate V2 on my son's iPad? Do I have to login on his iPad with my own user data?

While I don't have an iPad, I'd assume this is fine. Licensing terms state that others in your household may use the program on your devices (as long as they're not using them commercially). That doesn't stop people from having their own AppleID. Ideally, couldn't you just login with your own AppleID, download/activate the programs, then switch accounts again? I'm assuming it supports multiple users?

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1 hour ago, Smaxx said:

While I don't have an iPad, I'd assume this is fine. Licensing terms state that others in your household may use the program on your devices (as long as they're not using them commercially). That doesn't stop people from having their own AppleID. Ideally, couldn't you just login with your own AppleID, download/activate the programs, then switch accounts again? I'm assuming it supports multiple users?

Hi, thanks for your reply.

About the Windows situation: I asked because the non app version V1 worked exactly like I mentioned: Install it using one user, and it works for every other user of that machine. I know that the new app installer seems to work differently, but still, it is a bit inconvenient to do the activation all over again for each user of the PC and I was a bit worried it might trigger an activation lock. Possibly, you could have differentiated here between private licenses and school/commercial licenses.

On an iPad, sadly, there is no multi-user mode, no. It is a managed device via Screen Time (so I can control what my son can do on it etc. via my own iPad) but it is using his AppleID and I can't simply swap that out and change back (well you can change it, but your software activation won't stick, because it is linked to your AppleID).

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For Windows: That's most likely fine. They'll at least see there are like 5 activations within a day or two all from the same internet connection. This won't require rocket science to determine it's most likely one household.

I'd expect the same for Mac, but no idea how this would work store wise etc. If you want a definite answer, probably write their support a mail about this. Random reply in a thread might be missed by employees looking for unanswered questions first.

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  • 4 months later...

I own 3 windows computers. My family members in my household have own accounts on these computers. Is it legal to activate affinity V2 product for personal use on their windows account with my affinity account?

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