Licensing Unclear?

[ipdouglas]

Firstly apologies for placing question in here but it appears to be impossible to ask a question or start a new topic not about the IPAD.

 

This question concerns the full commercially released Affinity Photo and IS NOT ANSWERED BY FAQS

 

Can two individuals in the same household use a single licence of Affinity Photo.  Each individual (my wife and I) own and use a desktop PC and a laptop PC and have our own photograph collections.  We are not professionals or commercial.  This scenario must be very common.

 

Can any Affinity/Serif Professional answer this or forward on to a responsible person?  Thanks. 

[Gnobelix]

Maybe this link will help answer your question.

[Alfred]

2 hours ago, Gnobelix said:

Maybe this link will help answer your question.

 

The linked thread is a very old one which mentions a two-computer limit for commercial use and a five-computer limit in a home environment. There are no such limits.

 

If you are the only person using the software for commercial purposes, you may install it on any computer that you own or control. Anyone else in your workplace or household can make personal use of the software, but they will need a separate licence for commercial use.

 

Affinity License Agreement

[Gnobelix]

Hi Alfred,
thanks for the rectification
learning never stops

[Mark Ingram]

From the license:

 

Quote

The License granted to you is limited, non-transferable and non-exclusive. Except to the extent any rights cannot be excluded by law, you are permitted:

1. if you are a private individual, to download, install, use and run for personal use, one (1) copy of the Serif Software directly on each computer running Microsoft Windows (“Windows Computer”) that you personally own or control. Commercial use is permitted but only use by you and not by any other users of any Windows Computers that you own or control. For example, other members of your household that use your Windows Computers may make personal use of the Serif Software whereas, if anyone other than yourself needs to make commercial use of the Serif Software, the other user will need to make a separate purchase.

 

[ipdouglas]

Thanks to all that have replied and it is clear (if you excuse the pun) that this is still not clear to all?

 

So may two members (non commercial) of the same household use Affinity on the single licence at the same time?

 

Are their photographs merged by Affinity or can they live on discrete (different)  PCs?

 

I think clarification of this is holding up the purchase and uptake of Affinity for some that might change from ADOBE products.

 

Perhaps Mark as SERIF staff can give the definitive answers.  Quasi-legal gobbledegook in Licencing terms is never clear. 

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, ipdouglas said:

So may two members (non commercial) of the same household use Affinity on the single licence at the same time?

Yes. This has been explained in many different topics. The presumption is that one of the household members either owns or controls the PC or PC's where the app is installed. The limit that seems to be confusing you only applies if one of the family members is using the app for commercial purposes.

1 hour ago, ipdouglas said:

Are their photographs merged by Affinity or can they live on discrete (different)  PCs?

No, they are not merged, or otherwise restricted to a 'library' or any other particular kind of file structure. Each .afphoto file (or .afdesign file since they use exactly the same format & can be opened without conversion by either app) can be saved anywhere a user has the necessary file permissions to save them. They are also usable by both Windows & Mac users (because the file format is the same); however, Mac & PC application licenses are sold separately so in a household where both Macs & PC's are used, a license for each platform would be required.

[Mark Ingram]

15 hours ago, ipdouglas said:

Thanks to all that have replied and it is clear (if you excuse the pun) that this is still not clear to all?

 

So may two members (non commercial) of the same household use Affinity on the single licence at the same time?

 

Are their photographs merged by Affinity or can they live on discrete (different)  PCs?

 

I think clarification of this is holding up the purchase and uptake of Affinity for some that might change from ADOBE products.

 

Perhaps Mark as SERIF staff can give the definitive answers.  Quasi-legal gobbledegook in Licencing terms is never clear. 

 

Hi, I'm a developer, not a lawyer, so the license is the definitive answer.

[ipdouglas]

Well Mark, I taught Developers for over 25 years so know well that they are likely to not be Legal Experts as well.  However 'washing your hands' of the matter when you represent Serif on this Forum is appalling Customer Service (you should have found someone that does know and pasted their response in).

Better luck next time with Customer Service, we all live and learn (and work).  Few work roles nowadays do not include Customer Service elements and certainly not those on public forums!

 

On a more positive note ... nice Profile picture ... fine dog.

[toltec]

20 minutes ago, ipdouglas said:

Well Mark, I taught Developers for over 25 years so know well that they are likely to not be Legal Experts as well.  However 'washing your hands' of the matter when you represent Serif on this Forum is appalling Customer Service

 

Well, Mark did find the license terms and post them (post no 5 above). They seem perfectly clear to me so what else would you expect? They would have been written by a lawyer, so are definitive.

 

I think a developer finding the license terms and answering is pretty good customer service. Have you tried getting a Microsoft or Adobe developer to do that ?

[R C-R]

@ipdouglas, if you take into consideration that IP laws differ around the world, & that courts sometimes interpret them differently, then you might better understand why Mark can't give you a more definitive answer.

 

It is unrealistic to expect any customer support agent anywhere to be familiar with the nuances of IP law in their own country, much less internationally. It would be extremely irresponsible for them to even hint that they could offer that kind of legal advice. If that is what you want, hire a lawyer.

[ipdouglas]

Yawn

[Hokusai]

On 2/24/2018 at 4:48 AM, ipdouglas said:

Better luck next time with Customer Service, we all live and learn (and work).  Few work roles nowadays do not include Customer Service elements and certainly not those on public forums!

ipoddouglas,

Mark provided excellent customer service, he answered your question very clearly.  Just because the answer wasn't what you wanted to hear doesn't make it bad customer service.