We have discontinued this forum and moved support tickets to the GitHub issue tracker. More info

Could someone explain the lisencing of Uninstall Tool???

Ask, answer questions, and express your opinion about Uninstall Tool. Discussion of found bugs and problems, feature requests

Moderator: Steven

Locked
CPU_DEV
Posts: 1
Joined: 09 Jan 2010, 14:29

Could someone explain the lisencing of Uninstall Tool???

Post by CPU_DEV »

I have been a pleased customer for quite some time of Crystal Idea's Uninstall Tool. I have a perplexing question for you. When we purchased Uninstall Tool V2.x, it was licensed under a home license for one machine and it had no mention of an expiration time, date, version or what in particular that "One machine" actually was; simply like most licenses for the complex software we use daily, only one copy installed and functioning on one machine at any one time. These sort of licenses make a lot of sense, for CrystalIdea can have no idea when a user or company re-installs their OS, buys a new machine; etc. etc...

Well, being a person wearing many hats, one including being a developer (Yes, so sadly I am all too experienced with reading End User License Agreements like say for Windows driver validation that's so huge it only comes as a DVD .iso image!!!) I have been doing this for 30+ years now which dates back to DOS v1.x on an OSI machine, so I have seen and heard plenty over that amount of time. What I cannot understand about my lisence is that I believe the company must have black-listed me in their system so I cannot register my copy of Uninstall Tool, or you have changed the terms of the lisence agreement, for which the ones we agreed to here in 2007 I have been over and over and I see nothing that either gives the company the right to change my terms of service in my agreement and really says very little to be honest other than what I mentioned above.

Now I have not remotely (or locally) debugged or inspected for Internet "phone homes" by the software, so I need some clarification as to why we are no longer able to install a copy of the software on a machine anymore. Since my line of work also calls for me to be the occasional code warrior and develop proprietary and other types of software, we are always 1) reinstalling OS's. 2) Any machine we might ever install the application on always has multiple OS installs on it and I cannot see that installing and registering a copy on one machine is in any way in violation of the lisence agreement, nor would I think with two separate OS's that cannot be used at the same time or by more than one individual violates our copy of the lisence agreement either.

Anyway, I got to wondering about one of the many spare "retired" hot-swaps we have here that I figured had an activated installation of the software in question on it when it was pulled due to it's S.M.A.R.T. error rate and status. SO, just for kicks, I slid it in and indeed the Uninstall Tool is still/already activated and I believe we were even able to update it! (Of course I shut down and pulled that hot-swap back out and placed it back in the "questionable pile" with its copy of the error reports and such attached for emergency temporary RAID re-building and such...) Now, I could in about three minutes of my time and minimal thought, solve this issue permanently and never pay your company again. Additionally, we all know as well that this same software is available in illegal forms all over the Internet that would allow a user to not pay a dime to Crystal Idea, but I have always lived by one very hard and fast rule and it has been very helpful to me in the long run in all of my endeavors. The best example of which I could use would be software and code released under GNU or other Open source licenses. I make it a STANDARD PRACTICE to either immediately donate to those that provide such things for their time or efforts, or in the case of individuals and companies that will not take monetary compensation, I offer my time and input on the development of said project. So, needless to say I won't be hacking the Uninstall Tool any time soon as that goes against all I believe in; not to mention it's a real conflict with every type of work I do which ALWAYS involves being the custodian of intellectual property whether it be my own or that of others. (We used to put disclaimers on CDs' J-Cards and silkscreens that read, "Piracy is not only illegal, but it makes you feel sad too..." It's unclear how many that influenced; sadly, likely none...) On 10/04/2007 I tried the demo of the Uninstall Tool by Crystal Idea and immediately purchased it, for it is a good and useful tool, while I have many suggestions that would enhance it that ARE NOT listed in your poll, I am still pleased with it for what it was then and is today; now a little over two years, four plus OS's and countless installs later...

Anyway, my apologies for the dreadfully long post (hey, your SQL database's tables for phpBB needed a little population anyway; they must be feeling lonely... It's been a while since I ran phpBB and anything I have out at the moment is myBB, but if I recall our email should be readily available via the admin. portal's CP, so please drop us a line regarding where we take this from here. If the company's stance is that we need a VL or a new home lisence, its highly unlikely we would continue to use, lisence, or recommend the product to clients due to today's current financial situation mandating that every penny must go toward making many more; and usually only ending up making an attempt to feed myself and hoping they do not come and cart me off to the poor house!

Please drop us a line as soon as it becomes convenient for you.

Warm regards,
CPU_DEV
User avatar
Steven
CrystalIDEA Developer
Posts: 2294
Joined: 21 Dec 2009, 11:48
Location: CrystalIDEA headquarters
Contact:

Re: Could someone explain the lisencing of Uninstall Tool???

Post by Steven »

CPU_DEV,

Thank you for the question!
The purchase page says that
Every license type guarantees the customer life-time usage and free updates.
It means that when a customer reinstalls the OS/upgrades OS it's OK to use the same CrystalIDEA license, but when purchasing another (one more) machine for your home it's necessary to purchase an additional license.

And one more thing, Uninstall Tool scans from time to time (smart) for license violation.
User avatar
Steven
CrystalIDEA Developer
Posts: 2294
Joined: 21 Dec 2009, 11:48
Location: CrystalIDEA headquarters
Contact:

Re: Could someone explain the lisencing of Uninstall Tool???

Post by Steven »

CPU_DEV, we can't be find you in the customers database (your e-mail on the forum is invalid). Please contact support via the e-mail with specifying the valid e-mail used during the registration in order to resolve the issue with reinstalling the OS and current activation.
Locked