Autodesk Clarifies Licensing with New Products

[Brian Myers]

Posted by my dealer:

Autodesk Clarifies Licensing with New Products

We have had many questions about the clarification of the license agreement for current Autodesk products. Autodesk has added an additional installation policy and as an end user / company to whom the license is registered, you should know how policy clarification affects you. The change specifically affects the additional installation provision of the license agreement with regard to installing the software on a PC at home. Here is the change:

“Autodesk would like to take this opportunity to clarify its policy with regard to the “Additional Installation” provision in the Autodesk Software License Agreement. This provision is intended to allow an additional installation of the software on computers that are owned or controlled by the licenses,for use by employees while away from the usual work location. Employers often provide a laptop computer for employee usage while traveling for work after hours at home, and so long as the single license is not used concurrently by a different user, Autodesk supports this requirement by licensees. Please be advised, however, that the Software License Agreement does not permit an employee of our licensee to install the Product on the home computer owned by such employee. Our licensee is responsible for compliance with the Software license Agreement, and there can be no reasonable expectation that the licensee can monitor such usage on an employee’s home computer. Autodesk appreciates your help in ensuring compliance wit the Software License Agreement. “

Note that only company owned computers may now have the software installed and still be in compliance with the license agreement.

In short: The software can not be legally installed on your personal PC unless you own that copy of AutoCAD.

[Wanderer]

People might not be thrilled with that, but, at least it's a clarification that's easily spelled out.

Thanks for sharing, man.

Posted by my dealer:

Autodesk Clarifies Licensing with New Products

We have had many questions about the clarification of the license agreement for current Autodesk products. Autodesk has added an additional installation policy and as an end user / company to whom the license is registered, you should know how policy clarification affects you. The change specifically affects the additional installation provision of the license agreement with regard to installing the software on a PC at home. Here is the change:

“Autodesk would like to take this opportunity to clarify its policy with regard to the “Additional Installation” provision in the Autodesk Software License Agreement. This provision is intended to allow an additional installation of the software on computers that are owned or controlled by the licenses,for use by employees while away from the usual work location. Employers often provide a laptop computer for employee usage while traveling for work after hours at home, and so long as the single license is not used concurrently by a different user, Autodesk supports this requirement by licensees. Please be advised, however, that the Software License Agreement does not permit an employee of our licensee to install the Product on the home computer owned by such employee. Our licensee is responsible for compliance with the Software license Agreement, and there can be no reasonable expectation that the licensee can monitor such usage on an employee’s home computer. Autodesk appreciates your help in ensuring compliance wit the Software License Agreement. “

Note that only company owned computers may now have the software installed and still be in compliance with the license agreement.

In short: The software can not be legally installed on your personal PC unless you own that copy of AutoCAD.

[michael.12445]

Personally, this doesn't affect me too much, as I use my home computer mostly for photos, text, and Internet use (and AFAIK, AutoCAD won't even run under the Linux I use). I could see how it might affect others in my office who do want to do some work at home, but I suppose they could just execute some sort of agreement that transfers ownership of their home computer to the company, if need be.

Michael Evans

[Brian Myers]

People might not be thrilled with that, but, at least it's a clarification that's easily spelled out.

Thanks for sharing, man.

Well it's one of the more frequently asked questions...

This really could effect the way many employees..even firms think of doing business.

[arcadia_x27]

Lovely, Half my staff has it installed so they can work at home if its a snowday or similar situation. There is an agreement in place that if they leave the company they are to uninstall the software but looks like that is a moot point now. Maybe like mentioned earlier the company will have "buy" the users computer for duration of employment and then return it they ever leave.

[Brian Myers]

Maybe like mentioned earlier the company will have "buy" the users computer for duration of employment and then return it they ever leave.

That gets to be a tricky situation as well, if the company "buys" a home computer then you would need to give some protection to the employee that the company can't do anything with their home machine...

Something along the lines of contract that states "..the employee grants ownership to the company "XYZ Computer" once AutoCAD is installed and receives ownership back once AutoCAD is uninstalled from "XYZ Computer" and the license is transfered back to the company..." This way the company can't take their home machine, all they have to do is un-install AutoCAD and present the license to revert the machine back to their own possession.

Ick, legal problems.... perhaps insurance and other liability problems as well with this as the company can't control what happens on or with "their machine" in another person's home.

[glee.94356]

I think you just opened up a can of worms. AEC firms need to tread very carefully here.
If supposing the employees home computer is "bought" or owned by the employer, you now have a bunch of liability problems.
The employer has no control over what is viewed or done on the home computer and no way of tracking which web sites the employee visits. It is technically the employers computer. So if the employee gets busted for illegal transactions using that particular computer, it could mean that the firm is now liable. (These are examples, not a generalization that employeees are about to perpetrate criminal acts on their home computers)
I don't believe there is a way for a contract to state that the employees computer only becomes the property of the employer while using such and such software only during the undertaking of work on behalf of the employer. How would you define the time periods? How could you control what happens if an employee working from home takes a break but leaves the software open while surfing or doing their own personal business on the computer?
It means a general rethink of how most AEC firms do business. Probably a good idea for a firm to discuss such issues with their IT staff, lawyer and insurance broker in tow. : )
I'm sure there are more problems that can be pointed out.

Now supposing this issue of an employees home computer cannot be worked out. Hopefully there is a viable solution. (I wish Autodesk would have solutions to issues they know their clarifications are going to cause.)
If not, what would be a firms approach to this? It is in their interest that employees can work from home. Less sick days, snow days, mass transit strikes (BART for example), natural disasters (a firm could function across a virtual WAN using the internet with employees wide spread but all able to access a single point withVPN and so on.
Do they buy these additional seats? Do they subsidize their employees in purchasing the seats? Can they afford having two sets of licenses for the same employee?

Oh, does anyone know if Autodesk is doing anything for Hurricane Katrina? Like donating software to the firms that have been devastated? I know many architectural firms and MEPs are donating computers etc.

[aaronrumple]

Network license is the answer.... The sofware never leaves control of the office.

[Mike.Perry]

Oh, does anyone know if Autodesk is doing anything for Hurricane Katrina? Like donating software to the firms that have been devastated? I know many architectural firms and MEPs are donating computers etc.

Hi

Search and one shall find...

Katrina - 3 results from the Autodesk web site.

Have a good one, Mike

[Brian Myers]

Network license is the answer.... The sofware never leaves control of the office.

But doesn't a network license "ping" the server? If so, that would make it impossible to take any distance away from most offices unless it can be configured over the internet (via IP) with an internet server hosting the application within the office, which I've never heard of....

Technically "remote access" similar to PC Anywhere or in Windows XP would work, but that would be a scary proposition for a variety of reasons (performance, cost, feasibility, etc, etc)