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Software Companies and Lost Serial Numbers?
Frustrated by "Customer Support" asks: "My company purchased a retail boxed piece of software from a small company about 8 months ago, before I worked here. My predecessor was not organized at all, and he misplaced the serial numbers. Now it's time for that software to get reinstalled, but we're unable to due to the missing numbers. I contacted support for the company, and they indicated that they were unable to provide replacement keys, even after I faxed them my proof of purchase. The company claims it's the customer's responsibility to keep track of the keys, and that they're unable to supply replacements as the key could still be used to run there software. I find this totally ludicrous, as we've paid for a license to use the software. So Slashdot, does a missing serial number or software key invalidate your license to a piece of software that you purchased? Does one have any recourse to get a replacement serial from a company that won't supply them? Does one purchase software or do you purchase serial numbers?"
Further, is it actually illegal to grab some keys off the net for products you have purchased? They say they can't replace them. In the event of them coming down on you, how would they verify that you had "illegitimate" keys?
:wq
It's obvious to most people that people buy the right to use a piece of software, not a magic number. Check out Ambrosia's Lost registration code policy as an example of a company who understands this.
Random and weird software I've written.
Or have your lawyer send a nice little letter... Depending on the cost of the software, some legalese might be in order. I've sent bills to former sales reps in my company for damaged and lost equipment. If they didn't pay, I sent it on to our legal council and we got our money sooner or later. Granted I'm talking about $2,000 laptops and $400 printer/faxes and $300 cell phones. If this is a $50 piece of software, it's hardly worth it.
"The object of war is not to die for your country, but to make the other bastard die for his." - Patton
Hear, hear!
I'm keen to know who would honestly behave like this as well; if they're a big company, they wouldn't normally be this uptight about it (even Microsoft will replace missing/damaged product keys), and if they're small, they wouldn't want to risk losing business like that.
Odd, then, that this company is behaving like this.
Read my stuff.
The problem? We've had to re-install this crap software about a half-dozen times now, and every time I've had to call them and get a new license code. Since the challenge-hash is different every time, none of the old codes work. I can really see a time in the future when these dorks are out of business and we're left with no way to re-install the software, thus rendering their hardware useless.
They don't seem to understand the concepts of "key escrow" or "open source" or "escape clauses". They just seem to understand "$$$". They also give me a smarmy attitude when I call for a new key. I'm sure they know I'm just re-installing to the same machine over and over from the hash, but they always make it look like they're doing me a favor and not charging me another few thousand for a license.
I don't have any solution for this, but I bet a lot of you reading this have the same problem.
You would be well within your rights to contact a locksmith. Does the same apply to software?
So they generate new ones. It isn't hard. We use a scheme much like that at work (I'm posting anonymously so you can't guess who we are), and several people have access to the key-gen program. It is trivial to generate a new key. We might ask for a statement that you won't use the old keys to keep on file.
Frankly, we would be disappointed in any slashdot reader who could not break our license scheme. We use it for two reasons. First, it keeps the honest people honest - you don't accidentally add one more machine than you have a license for. Second, if we do catch someone being dishonest we can destroy in court any argument that it was an honest mistake - there is no way to make an honest mistake.
Truth is stranger than fiction. The Treasury Department will replace damaged or destroyed currency if you can supply satisfactory proof to them.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
I doubt the license prevents you from writing the key on the CD. If the CD was legally purchased, I can't see a problem with this.
When you buy software, and it doesn't come with a key when new. I've got 22 new Dells without the little Microsoft stickers on them. We ended-up buying 22 new copies of Windows just to keep from getting screwed by the SPA. We paid for the computers with a cashiers check, so of course, Dell screwed us. Next time I'm pooling the credit cards together so Dell can't screw us like that again.
Even more annoying to me personally is the copy of Battlefield Vietnam I've got on my desk that I can't play. It didn't come with a serial number, and the crooks at EA don't give-out new numbers.
Of course, software keys are much better than hardware keys. We have two $36k large format scanners that won't work because the HASP hardware key driver (aksparlnx.o) doesn't work. We were screwed out of over $72k because of the idiots at Aladdin (www.aks.com).
> stopped supporting the app in July 2003
I know that feeling. Red Hat screwed-over all of the people that bought their credit card processing software. We bought almost $12,000 worth of licenses to CCVS, and we need to change our merchant account #. That requires changing the software key. Red Hat made an intentional decision to no longer provide the keys. They even removed the damn documentation from their web site. Our accounting system and online store ties-into the system via both the C and PHP libraries. Changing the interface to the credit card system is going to cost us a lot of time and money. I'm the only full-time IT person now (down from 21 at peak four years ago), so changing everything means I'm looking at 80 hour weeks for probably the next three or four months.
I will never buy anything else from Red Hat. My boss also sold his more than 20,000 shares of Red Hat after they screwed us. I've had a bad experience with Microsoft, but they're always indifferently incompetent. Red Hat screwed the CCVS customers over on purpose.
I met several of the Red Hat guys at the Linux Expo in 1997 at the NC Biotech Center. They talked to me about a job offer, but I didn't follow-up on it. Jeff Uphoff from NRAO made several negative comments about them, and thankfully I followed my gut feeling. I'm very glad I didn't take a job with a dishonest group like that.
So you contact Autodesk and demand the promised support or a full refund of the purchase price. They took on Lightscape's financial and contractual obligations when they purchased them.
Of course, it'll probably take you more in time/lawyer fees to own up to it.
If you lost the keys to your car, and the dealer wouldn't give you a new key, would you have a problem getting the locks changed?
Get on the net and find a serial number. There is nothing wrong with this. I've done this many times, legally, including with Fortune 50 companies. Paperwork gets misplaced.
As for this company, why don't you tell us who they are, so we don't buy anything from them?
Fuck, Ask Slashdot has gotten stupid.
I work for a company which licenses its software via FlexLM. Even though we don't have to, we permit our customers to rehost the (periodically renewed) license keys simply because it builds a good rapport (and few people would have the chutzpah to ask for a rehost when they're stealing the software).
I'd recommend calling them back and ask them for this courtesy. If that doesn't work, make up a sob story about how if the system isn't up and running by the end of the week, your boss will probably blow his lid and fire you. Most people, believe it or not, want to help out others in a perceived need.
Threaten (to drop them as a vendor, to go to a competitor, etc.) only as a last resort; that usually gets a person's hackles up.
If the software company is a member of the Business Software Alliance you may be in luck.
Having suffered through the begginings of a BSA audit, one thing they made clear to us was that having the disks/serial numbers wasn't relivant, it was proof of purchase that gave us a legal copy of the software.
So, since you do have that proof, according to the BSA you have a legal right to the software.
Your lawyer should be able to have lots of fun with this.