Most of our licenses are not accounted ‘per-user’. Our licenses are accounted for ‘per-configuration’.
In other words: activations of our software are linked to one single computer and, for plug-ins, also to one single copy of InDesign.
You can re-use the same activation file to reinstall on the exact same computer (e.g. after a crash), but you cannot re-use an activation file to activate our software on a new computer, or when upgrading InDesign.
We recommend you buy one of our multi-install Activation Codes – if you purchase one of these, you simply use it with the new computer and get a brand new activation file e-mailed.
You can keep costs down by purchasing a single activation, but the disadvantage is that when you buy a new computer, or upgrade your copy of InDesign, you’ll also need to purchase a new activation.
For large accounts (> 100 seats) using Soxy we have an alternate licensing system, with customized site-licenses which allow for easy deployment to a large number of workstations – e-mail sales@rorohiko.com for more info.
Our approach is a compromise which allows us to charge only a small nominal fee for each individual activation file, despite the fact that we’re selling into a small market.
Because individual activations are cheap, installing one of our tools should pay back for itself quickly, as every one of our tools increase user efficiency substantially.
We looked at the following factors:
• We are a small company, selling into a small market. Our potential market is measured in the thousands, unlike other markets, for example, the iPhone/iPad market, where the potential market is measured in the millions.
Development and administration costs for our products have a substantial influence on what we have to charge our end-users.
As a consequence, we found we could not warrant setting up a complex activation/deactivation scheme like Adobe has, unless we’d increase the prices of our products substantially.
Development and ongoing support of such a system would cost us more than the development of our products themselves – it would be like spending $10,000 on a steel vault to safeguard a $100 dollar bill.
The cost of the development of more advanced activation/deactivation server software would then force us to increase the per-install price of products like Soxy to $99 or $149 instead of $19, simply to try and recover the cost of the development of the activation/deactivation software.
This, in turn, would make the product much less attractive, reducing sales…
• We assume our customers’ time is fairly valuable, and the cost of a single activation for one of our products is very low when compared to the cost of our customer’s time.
Installing any of our plug-ins or tools saves time and money – and they pay back for themselves in hours or days. For example, if someone was costing their employer $50 an hour (wages, I.T. infrastructure, office space, taxes…), a single Soxy activation is equivalent to about 20 minutes of employee-time.
• Administrative tasks cost us money. If we would allow for the administration of tracking upgrades, sidegrades… it would add substantially to our running costs – which again would push up the price of our products.
In light of those factors, we decided to try a much simpler approach, with as little administrative overhead as possible.
That’s why our scheme is different – the way we go about it is that we charge a nominal fee per activation, and we don’t do reduced-price upgrades.
A few examples.
If a single person has 10 computers on on all of which they want to install, say, Soxy, they need to purchase 10 activations – even if they only use one computer at a time.
If there are multiple operating systems installed on one computer (e.g. Mac + Windows, or different versions of Windows in a multi-boot setup, or a number of virtual machines), these are all considered separate installations, and each need their own individual activation.
Similarly, when a single user has three copies of InDesign installed on a single computer (e.g. CS3, CS4, CS5) and they want to use one of our InDesign plug-ins with all of them, they need to install the plug-in three times, and they will also need three activations for the plug-in, not just one.
Or if they upgrade from CS4 to CS5, they need to purchase a new activation.
And if they purchase a new computer, they simply need to buy a new activation.
But if their computer crashes and needs reinstalling, they will be able to re-use their existing activation file.
Thanks for your understanding!