License Management Overview

Keeping track of your software licenses and license numbers can be a hassle, whether you have thousands of licenses or just a few. Each week we hear from customers who have misplaced their license numbers, or lost track of how many licenses they have purchased.

To help with these problems, we have implemented an online license management system. This self-service system allows you to:

• Review a list of the licenses you have purchased.
• Request license numbers/electronic license certificates for those licenses.
• Track the license numbers/electronic license certificates that have been issued.
• Transfer licenses between computers.
• Transfer licenses between accounts.
• Merge accounts for easier management.

How it Works

When you purchase software from us you do not immediately receive a license number or electronic license certificate. Instead we credit your license account with the appropriate number of licenses.

Using this online system, you then request the license numbers or electronic license certificates that you need, which are e-mailed to you (or to the designated recipient).

If you have purchased more licenses than you currently need, you can leave the extras in your account, and request the license numbers only when you need them.

The system tracks your issued licenses, so you can always see how many licenses you have purchased and how many are in use.

Account Management

The system allows you to split and merge license accounts and to transfer licenses between accounts to suit your needs.

For example, if you purchased licenses on several different orders and those licenses are in different accounts, you can merge the licenses into a single account for easier administration.

Or you might want to split the account: resellers who have purchased blocks of licenses can split those licenses into a separate account for each of their end-users.

License Numbers, Certificates, Files, and Keys

Depending on the product you have purchased and the installation medium you are using (e.g., CD versus downloaded installation package), the license you need for the software may take one of several forms:

• A license number, entered during the installation.
• An electronic license certificate (license file), applied after installation.
• A license key to be embedded in your application.

When you request a license for one of your products, you will receive the license information in all of the formats that may be required for that product.

Host-Locked Licenses

Licenses for some of our software are host locked, meaning that they are tied to a specific computer. When you request a license from your account for a product that uses host-locked licensing, you will be required to provide information about each computer for which you are requesting a license. This information is used to generate a license file that will work only for the specified computer.

To transfer one of these licenses to another computer you must return the old license and request a new license for the new computer.

You can always install the software temporarily on unlicensed computers if you need to, for example in the case of a server failure where you need to move the software to another computer for a while. The software will work for 30 days without a license; after that you can always request a temporary license by logging in to your license account (temporary license requests are processed automatically, 24 hours a day, so you can easily get a temporary license in an emergency).

Questions or concerns about this licensing system? Contact us; we don't want this to be an excessive burden for you.