Read The Fine Print.

[beegee]

This article is important reading.


But you will need to subscribe to Fairfax Digital to read it.

Extract>

The real eye-opener is the clause that stipulates users allow Autodesk access physically, or electronically, to their systems and premises. This is to allow Autodesk to conduct an audit of customers' systems. Under the same clause, Autodesk indicates its intent to recover (unspecified) costs for the audit.

[aaronrumple]

...basic corporate communism.

[trombe]

I got that article sent to my vendor for comment.
Thanks BeeGee.
F#!&%*** outrageous.

trombe

[GuyR]

I like the bit at the end...

Autodesk is considering a response.

Pretty scary stuff. What choice do you have? Agree or don't use the software... Would be interesting to see what the Commerce Commision would say about the licence.

Guy

[Joef]

It is very odd but I would wager the people who dislike Autodesk the most are their own customers. But who cares!! Profits are up!!

[Kroke]

This is why so many of us were/are so p!ssed off of Adesk getting ahold of Revit.

[Chad Smith]

Wow, there it is in the EULA, Point 9.5 - Audits. While I don't read the EULA every release, I do make it a habit to read it every 2-3 releases. Looks like this one slipped through.

This is fairly outrageous stuff. I just don't see how this could be considered a lawful activity. I think I will be forwarding this topic on to our legal department and management.

[Chad Smith]

One other thing. How is this new clause supposed to help reduce unauthorised copies?

Consider this,
If a company has just one license, then that allows Autodesk the 'right' to audit.

But... if that same company has say 2 more licenses which are unauthorised, then all the company has to do is cancel their current authorised license, which will void the audit clause.

This now means that:
A. Autodesk has just increased the number of unauthorised copies.
B. Autodesk has just lost revenue from the upgrades of an authorised license.

Sounds like shooting yourself in the foot to me. But I guess the key to this was that you weren't supposed to realise the addition.

[Scott Hopkins]

I don't have anything to hide, but I can assure you that if Autodesk's brown-shirted thugs showed up at my office door, the only way they would get in is over my dead body! With the advent of Revit I was just starting to warm up to Autodesk, now I have gone back to hating them.

[hand471037]

This is nothing new. Simply read some horror stories about the Business Software Alliance...

Now do you see why I talk so much about Open Source software?