Definition of a perpetual licence

[saggu]

What does perpetual licence means? Can this licence be cancelled by the company purchased? What rights the buyers have?

 

Will appriciate if anyone can give some explanation.

 

Thanks in anticipation.

[Steve21]

Generally it’s just mean a one-time purchase, but yes they can cancel it and you’d have no rights (as you normally agree to it in the Eula)

 

Generally though it’s unlikely they’d cancel it unless you’re abusing it, it’s more frequent for things like old activation servers to go offline which means you couldn’t reinstall it in future etc

 

Steve

[saggu]

Generally it’s just mean a one-time purchase, but yes they can cancel it and you’d have no rights (as you normally agree to it in the Eula)

 

Generally though it’s unlikely they’d cancel it unless you’re abusing it, it’s more frequent for things like old activation servers to go offline which means you couldn’t reinstall it in future etc

 

Steve

can they cancle the licence and force to pay for upgradation?

[jmak]

Normally what happens is that they stop supplying security updates, which means you're forced to buy an update if you want to be compliant with say, Cyber Essentials. I don't actually think it's unreasonable - how long can you expect a company to find development on a product that's not generating any revenue.

 

I'm currently having to explain to people that the perpetual licence they have for Adobe Acrobat Pro 2017 is a perpetual licence - but that just means that Adobe will let you use it forever, not that they'll support it forever. They offer 5 years support and the ended in June. Now they need to cough up for a new version.

[saggu]

Normally what happens is that they stop supplying security updates, which means you're forced to buy an update if you want to be compliant with say, Cyber Essentials. I don't actually think it's unreasonable - how long can you expect a company to find development on a product that's not generating any revenue.

 

I'm currently having to explain to people that the perpetual licence they have for Adobe Acrobat Pro 2017 is a perpetual licence - but that just means that Adobe will let you use it forever, not that they'll support it forever. They offer 5 years support and the ended in June. Now they need to cough up for a new version.

 

This means that the licence doesn't get cancelled and user can use Adobe Acrobat Pro 2017 perpetual licence for ever but will not get any support or update. Correct?

[Roberto]

What does perpetual licence means? Can this licence be cancelled by the company purchased? What rights the buyers have?

 

Literally all the answers to all these questions will depend on the precise T&Cs of the specific licence, so I doubt anyone here can give you a definitive answer.

 

Having said that, I would broadly expect such a licence to last for the lifetime of the product, e.g. a ‘perpetual’ licence to use Office 2016 will allow me to use office 2016 for as long as I can get Office 2016 to run, and for it to be supported throughout its published support lifecycle (though support may cost extra). I wouldn’t necessarily expect this licence to use Office 2016 to transfer to other, newer versions of office.

Edited September 4, 2022 by Roberto

[saggu]

Literally all the answers to all these questions will depend on the precise T&Cs of the specific licence, so I doubt anyone here can give you a definitive answer.

 

Having said that, I would broadly expect such a licence to last for the lifetime of the product, e.g. a ‘perpetual’ licence to use Office 2016 will allow me to use office 2016 for as long as I can get Office 2016 to run, and for it to be supported throughout its published support lifecycle (though support may cost extra). I wouldn’t necessarily expect this licence to use Office 2016 to transfer to other, newer versions of office.

 

Thanks for the clarification with example.

[jmak]

This means that the licence doesn't get cancelled and user can use Adobe Acrobat Pro 2017 perpetual licence for ever but will not get any support or update. Correct?

That's the situation for the Adobe 2017 licence. As @Roberto says, the terms and conditions for each licence will vary, but it will be specified.

 

There's sometimes a difference between quality updates and security updates.

 

If you have cyber security insurance or you're going for Cyber Essentials accreditation, you'll need to make sure all software you run is still receiving security updates.