FAQs: License renewals, lifetime facts, upgrades, etc.

[Frank]

The purpose of this thread is to help with understanding the latest licensing announcements with scenarios and questions directly from Support tickets.

First to "Renewals".

In 2010 all 1 Year licenses expired. We did not implement the expiration detection and license renewal function until late in 2010.

This means many licenses went past their expiration dates. Effective 22 November 2010 we implemented the "renewal" function and all affected license holders were notified by email.

The new "Renewal" link on the Purchase page http://www.slysoft.com/en/purchase.html is actually covering two licensing options:

1. Renewal of a license on an update. Customers are prompted that it's time to renew when an update attempt is made.
Customers are offered the option to either renew or not.

Not renewing means:
- the product remains "fixed" at that version
- no more support
- some newer DVDs may not process correctly

2. An in-line change from a "time-limited" to a "lifetime" subscription. Functionally this is a form of "renewal".

As for the the "Lifetime" license announcement:


1. In 2010 there was an announcement about withdrawing lifetime subscriptions. Does that mean the lifetime license I have is no longer valid?

No, existing licenses with lifetime update subscription were not affected. This included all grandfathered licenses for all products.

All products, renewals and upgrades with lifetime update subscription purchased before December 31, 2010, were not affected.

2. I want to renew the currently limited update subscription of my license. How do I do this?

You must use the "renewal" function on the purchase page https://secure.slysoft.com/renewal.php

You select your product, enter its serial number and your purchasing e-mail address and press [Next]. For AnyDVD, make sure you choose the right product block (with or without "HD") for your serial/email. NOTE: To process AnyDVDHD renewals/upgrades enter the number WITHOUT the "HD" at the end!

IMPORTANT FOR ANYDVD time-limited subscription renewal: you should first consider if you want an upgrade to AnyDVD HD instead. You have all the greater-or-equal update subscription options available, and upgrading to AnyDVD HD with lifetime update subscription is the cheapest option if you want to upgrade sooner or later anyway. In any event, please upgrade first if applicable.

3. My licenses are all from 2008 or earlier or are "lifetime". Is there anything for me to do?

NO! Lifetime is Lifetime is forever and stays that way forever.

4. What is the cost for the upgrade to AnyDVD HD of my AnyDVD license?

The easiest way to find out is to select the "upgrade" link on the purchase page https://secure.slysoft.com/upgrade.php and then fill in the data. The price shown will include the very latest bank exchange rate to the Euro and the equivalent US Dollar amount.

To see the price list, please visit http://www.slysoft.com/img/pricelist.pdf

If you are not sure about the currency conversion, please visit: http://www.xe.com/ucc/

And: A LIFETIME AnyDVD will of course upgrade to a LIFETIME AnyDVDHD license.

5. I don't want to miss out on changing my product licenses to lifetime. How do I locate my serial numbers?

The serial/license numbers are visible as follows:

• AnyDVD/AnyDVDHD: Left click the AnyDVD tray icon and open "information".
• CloneDVD2 and CloneDVD mobile: Start the product and click "About" at the lower left of the first panel
• CloneCD: Start the product, click "Help" and then "Info"

6. I tried to upgrade my AnyDVD license, but get a message that it's "not a valid AnyDVD license". I am a legal license holder so what does that mean?

That scenario occurs if you have upgraded in the past and either forgot about it or are using the old license or if you already have HD and confuse the word "update" with "upgrade". The system of course won't allow an upgrade to AnyDVD HD if the license is already "HD". Contact SlySoft Support to clarify this. Some customers confuse the word "upgrade" with "update" and instead of simply downloading the setup and rebooting insist the update is an upgrade and keep trying to use the HD upgrade function.

7. How do I know if my products have limited or lifetime subscription?

After entering the product serial numbers and e-mail addresses in our renewal form and clicking [Next], the shopping cart will show the original purchase date and current valid time of the licenses -- or not accept them because they are already "lifetime".

For a quick check of your personal license/product status you can use this link https://secure.slysoft.com/renewal.php


8. I entered my serial number and e-mail address on the renewal page and the system tells me my product is already lifetime. Is there anything else I need to do?

No, nothing. Lifetime now is lifetime tomorrow and forever. You can take that at face value. If the licensing system tells you it's lifetime then believe it, it IS lifetime.

This license is already valid for lifetime updates.

9. AnyDVD is the only product that shows me the subscription length. How do I know if my Clone products are "timed" or "lifetime" subscriptions?

- If you purchased BEFORE 18 January 2009 your products have "lifetime" update access.
- If you purchased AFTER 18 January 2009 you'll need to locate your invoice to determine your license status.
- If you can not locate your invoice then select the renewal function on the purchase page or:

https://secure.slysoft.com/renewal.php

and enter the serial number for the product and your email. Click "Next" and the system will show you immediately if the license is already "lifetime" or not.

10. I just upgraded to HD and "renewed" AnyDVD. Since I already have a license key, do I need to download a second one for my new lifetime description?

Yes, you must use the new license key on the new license email sent to you after completing the renewal and/or upgrade operation.

11. I did the renewal but my renewed license is showing "expired" or less time than the renewal I selected. Why??

This is simply because the renewal times are concurrent times to the original license, not starting over again when you renew. Example: A 1-year license from June 2009 expired in June 2010. If this gets renewed for 1 year in 2011 the renewal is already expired since the time between June 2010 and June 2011 must be contiguous. Same if this license gets renewed for TWO YEARS in June 2011. The expiry date is June 2012, not 2013 since the year from June 2010 to June 2011 must be covered.

12.I upgraded my timed license instead of renewing and the license time is less than the selected HD upgrade time. Why???

The upgrade is actually a product change and the policy is to reflect that back over the entire time of the original license. The time you select for the HD upgrade does not start on the renewal date but overlaps the complete license run-time and then into the future. The best value in such a case is to upgrade to "lifetime" and never have to worry about renewals again.
.... more to come .....