Changes to Capture One licensing policy in v21 and later

[Malcolm Payne]

It appears that C1 are downgrading the number of seats available in all perpetual, subscription and brand versions of their software for new purchasers of v21 onwards, e.g. from 3 activations to 2 for the perpetual version. This also applies to anyone buying v20 from 17 Nov. onwards with the promised free upgrade to v21, as they will receive the v21 license key with the reduced number of seats.

Existing users upgrading from a previous full license of v20 and below will apparently retain their original number of seats, i.e. 3 activations for the perpetual version.

https://support.captureone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002734558-How-many-computers-can-I-install-Capture-One-on-

This all seems a bit mean and underhand, especially as the licensing makes it clear that the single user license may only be used on one computer at a time and only by the same individual provided irrespective of the number of available activation seats. I wonder too how long it might be before pre-existing users might also lose their additional seat with future versions?

It won't particularly affect me as I have a v20 license already, but the freedom of having three seats available (one in the main editing suite, one on the laptop and a third on a back-up machine in the print studio) was a useful bonus when it was originally introduced (in v10 or 11?), and I seem to remember it was also touted as one of the reasons for the then significantly higher purchase/upgrade price of that version.

I have been a happy user of Capture One since about v3/4, but they seem to be going out of their way to upset their loyal users of late, with petty changes such as this and the recent deterioration in their technical support, and I can see a lot of users/potential new users getting very irritated by this change of policy. It doesn't bode well for the future.

[Paul2660]

Hello Malcolm

Just want to make sure I understand.

If you are upgrading from a Capture 20 license to 21, you keep the 3 activations?  If you are purchasing new you only get 2 activations?.  Sad to see the loss of the 3rd activation.  I do not want to move to the subscription model as the Adobe model is enough for me.

I agree it's a pain, as IMO most of what has happened to Capture One over the past 1 year.  Their software is still great, but the activation issues I have had in 2020 have been exceptional.  Just yesterday a fully installed Capture One 20 license that I have used since Jan 19 2020 came up with an error, (can't reach the activation server).  I had to de activate and re activate the license again. 

I am still not sure what happens with a Capture 21 license as I have upgraded one of my Capture One 20 licenses, and received a new code.  I still want to keep Capture One 20 installed as it works.  I guess since 21 should be seen as new product, not an update, on both win and Mac 21 should install without effecting a current install of 20?

Paul C

[Malcolm Payne]

Hi Paul,

As I understand it, that is correct.

I have been participating in the beta programme and decided that there was enough there to make it worthwhile for me to upgrade to v21, so I paid the discounted advance order price. That got me a new v21 license code, which automatically deactivated my existing v20 code on all three machines so that I then had to reactivate them with the new code. I've just checked my licence which now shows one 'free' upgrade (paid in advance for v21 when it's finally released), and two machines activated with one further free activation remaining, which should be the one for the backup machine that I haven't yet reactivated. So it does appear that I still have my three activations from v20.

Also as I understand it, the v21 license will also activate v20 simultaneously, so that it is possible to have both versions installed and activated on the same machine and use whichever one is preferred at the time. I've certainly done that with earlier version(s) in the past when I wanted to keep the older one available in case of any major issues with the upgrade. I'm not certain whether the licence will allow older versions than the penultimate one, or if having both versions activated on one machine uses up an additional allocation, but I believe the answer to both of those is 'no' (i.e. last version only and no 'wasted' activation).

Fortunately I haven't experienced any activation issues with C1 (Windows 10), apart from the need to reactivate with the v21 license, but their customer technical support does appear to have fallen into a black hole of late. As I noted, the loss of the extra seat under the new licensing policy won't affect me personally, at least for the next year, but it is indicative of a 'bean counting' attitude that I find both distasteful and concerning for the future. And, for what it's worth, my other reason for upgrading was that I can't help feeling that C1 may be edging imperceptibly but steadily towards the Adobe subscription-only model, and if they go down that route they have lost me as a customer as far as future upgrades go.

Cheers,

Malcolm

[Mexecutioner]

There’s not such a thing. I have v21 authorized on 3 machines. You must have done something wrong while mixing v20 and 21

[IanSeward]

It appears that C1 are downgrading the number of seats available in all perpetual, subscription and brand versions of their software for new purchasers of v21 onwards, e.g. from 3 activations to 2 for the perpetual version. This also applies to anyone buying v20 from 17 Nov. onwards with the promised free upgrade to v21, as they will receive the v21 license key with the reduced number of seats.

Existing users upgrading from a previous full license of v20 and below will apparently retain their original number of seats, i.e. 3 activations for the perpetual version.

https://support.captureone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360002734558-How-many-computers-can-I-install-Capture-One-on-

This all seems a bit mean and underhand, especially as the licensing makes it clear that the single user license may only be used on one computer at a time and only by the same individual provided irrespective of the number of available activation seats. I wonder too how long it might be before pre-existing users might also lose their additional seat with future versions?

It won't particularly affect me as I have a v20 license already, but the freedom of having three seats available (one in the main editing suite, one on the laptop and a third on a back-up machine in the print studio) was a useful bonus when it was originally introduced (in v10 or 11?), and I seem to remember it was also touted as one of the reasons for the then significantly higher purchase/upgrade price of that version.

I have been a happy user of Capture One since about v3/4, but they seem to be going out of their way to upset their loyal users of late, with petty changes such as this and the recent deterioration in their technical support, and I can see a lot of users/potential new users getting very irritated by this change of policy. It doesn't bode well for the future.

If you are upgrading from a previous version with 3 seats you retain 3 seats. New users get 2.

Go to your account and rest all activations then activate on each computer. You can't have 3 V21 activations and 1 V20 for example.