More flexible license activation for Unity Editor

I've just created this entry to feedback.unity3d.com:

I have a Mac Pro and a MacBook Pro - now I want to install Windows via Bootcamp on my Mac Pro and do part of my Unity development on that platform. Unfortunately, with only 2 activations per license, that won't work. My feeling is that "2 activations per license" was okay when Unity was Mac only - but with Unity for Windows I would assume that I'm not the only one running into this situation.

So, I'd either like to have 3 activations instead of two (which *should* be sufficient in most scenarios) or, what I'd find even better: Give us a way to move activations around more easily (e.g. via a Web interface that could be used to activate / deactivate installations).

http://feedback.unity3d.com/forums/...-flexible-license-activation-for-unity-editor

If you like it, vote it up ;-)

 

already two machines should be sufficient.

Your workstation and your notebook. Thats already more machines than you can use in parallel.


I doubt you will ever get a "disable as you like" mechanism, cause the idea is user machine lock, not "per user licensing" with freely moving it around. if you want to move the license around install it on a notebook and take that with you ... (thats why you actually have 2 machines you can activate, not only 1)

 

I agree jashan. I am sick to death of these anemic licensing agreements. Node locks should be a minimum of 3 and there should always be a floating licensing options of single users with many computer - me!

"already two machines should be sufficient."

Well it isn't, and what business is it of yours anyway?

 

And you would really be willing to pay 2-3 times as much for a floating one? (or be required to be perma internet connected)

 

I pay an extra $200 for a Modo site license. I can run the program on all 6 of my computers as long it is only running on one computer at a time. Zbrush allows for 3. Storyboard pro, Motion capture editing, vray use a dongle, but as long it is running somewhere in a local network you can run.

I have many 10ks worth of software and I am tiring of this inflexible licensing crap. Why should be more limited to use a software I pay for than those who pirate it.

 

I agree %100 with this idea.

 

Because the world unhappily is full of idiots that try to missuse the system.
They would buy 1 license and use it for the whole team through switching the floating from system to system.

As long as floating != perma internet connection or at very least internet connection on startup and after X minutes of usage, its a greencard for morrons to mess it


On software, unlike on games with draconian EA - Ubisoft alike DRM, also the pirate comparision fails as long as the usability isn't touched, at least for me.
In case of Unity there is no downtime or unusable phase due to the licensing system so nothing is wrong about it.
The system is comparable to what you find with many professional technologies like the whole Adobe - Discreet offers, just that Unitys solution is commonly far less troublesome

The whole story likely would be all different if the initial fee would be in the range of what Unity Pro is worth and if unity indie / free never existed but they do so hoping for solutions that would be a topic if the fees were in the 3k++ range / user won't get us anywhere.

A dongle is likely the only form of floating license thats workable and even there I'm not sure if it is secure, leaving the repeating online check the single granted to be secure solution


For pirates the world always seems to be blue but pirates just toy with it, cause obviously they have no commercial usage interest or they wouldn't use something that you can blindly identify from 1000km distance if you have the game on your system.

 

I'm running on a MacBook Pro lappy, and a home MacPro desktop. Both run Bootcamped Win7.


Since some Plugins work only in one OS or the other (e.g. UnityCapture, XInput.NET, HtmlTexture), it would be preferable if I didn't have to sacrifice either my workhorse desktop or my portable laptop in order to test multiple plug-ins on one machine.

Due to the different requirements of plug-ins, I would assume that installing Unity on OSX on my laptop and Windows on my desktop is basically required in order to reach full potential of plugins without losing too much of the multiple activation benefits.
However, in this case, if I want to work on and test the same project that requires an OS-specific plugin it is then basically locked to a single computer. The same logic follows suit for anything else that may be OS-specific. Unity is a per-user license not per-title, so the use case of needing to work specifically with multiple OSes exists.

I suppose the counter-argument is to Build and transfer products to a test machine, but since Unity's workflow is high-speed low-drag, even a trivial bump like this feels like a significant drawback. Also, I'm not sure if this provides a solution for all cases.

-Ungenious
More Elaboration:
MATLAB from Mathworks is multi-platform and allows 4 activations (recently reduced from unlimited) and an easy deactivation process. This allows for 2 computers running 2 OSes... though MATLAB runs so slowly on OSX compared to Windows, it might not matter for most people.

3 may be a good trade-off number for Unity as it is a collaborative tool (though Pro doesn't come with Asset Server in itself ), and teams of 2 or 3 may scamper off sharing a single activation, but would probably use the free version instead of paying 1.5k each anyways. Also, they'd lose the benefit of running on their desktop/laptop/otherOS. I'd personally vote for 4 activations, but 3 would be minimum for me!

 

I've got the exact same situation Jashan, except I need a 3rd license to test a networked app I'm developing. Unfortunately with Unity's current licensing scheme I'm screwed. I'd vote for this but I used up all my votes long ago.

 

Yeah, same here ... whenever I go to the Feedback site, I get a little frustrated because there are a few things that I'd like to vote up - but I've already distributed the votes as much as I possibly could.

I think 3 or 4 activations would really rock, 4 certainly would be ideal and as we've had 2 activations with Unity only being available on Mac, I think 4 activations now that it's available on Mac and Windows is just logical. IMHO, they just missed this when they went from Mac only to Mac and Windows.

Maybe I should try using the bug reporter 8)

 

Agreed, 4 licenses (2 Mac + 2 Win) makes sense, especially for those of us who PAID for Pro and continue to PAY for updates. Kinda frustrating to pay for a product but only get the same support (through forums), same number of licenses, and everything else as those who are getting the product for free. Good idea, I'm gonna submit a bug report also.

 

Same here: MacPro and MacBook Pro, both Bootcamped, and the 2 activations limit is the only thing that worries me and is holding from purchase.

It was fair when Unity was Mac only, but now it's cross-platform, it should be updated.

A question: does the same machine running on Mac or Windows, still taking 2 activations ?

I think a fair solution to this issue would be if the activation of the SAME computer running both Mac and Windows, would only count as 1.

 

Yes.

 

I also agree with this idea. The licensing system is a bit too restrictive, and I often had to contact the tech support to finally have the software activated.

The perfect solution would be an administration panel on Unity's website where each user can manage by himself his licenses activations.

 

Fantastic idea. It would should, in theory, solve the problem really quickly.

 

This does sound like an excellent solution. The current licensing system was probably fine when things were Mac only but with the new unified editor, the current system is going to be stretched to breaking point.

 

A panel would be nice but I can forsee that this only reasonable would work if user induced system switches were restricted to 1 or 2 per quarter otherwise it would be granted to be missused.

 

What would happened to the activation if my hard drive crashs? If I reinstall my OS on the same machine with a different hard drive, will my activation still work?

 

Assuming you've only used your first installation, then you would be able to register your second installation without contacting Unity tech. But if you've used both your installations, then you'd need to contact Unity support to get a new activation.

 

If I install Unity 3 beta, am I going to decrease one activation counts?

I just installed it at the same machine as the 2.6.1, but than the activation dialog popped up. I immediately stopped there like being electrocuted...

 

if you installed it on the same machine as 2.6.1 it won't make any difference as that machine is already eating one of your two activations (you upgraded your old license or preordered u3 directly, as such the machine is already bound to your license).

the activation is just required cause U3 is a distinct version and needs to register itself with the machine to get its own activation data for that machine although it was already registered.


I've activated my u3 beta on my macbook pro and on my windows, both of which previously already were activated with the still present 2.6.1 installations

 

Are there any particular things you have to watch out for when installing both 2.61 and B3 on the same machine? Either for Windows or Mac?

 

I vote for 3 activation as I use PC and MacBook at home. MacBook is solely for iPhone development.

Now I have purchased Android Pro and I plan to use it in office PC, but with 2 activation I can't.

If Unity restrict to 2 activation, I'd like to see a web page to manage my device like what Amazon did.

I can manage Kindle device/software on Amazon website.

 

I am pretty confident that if that happens you will only be able to disable / reenable licenses once per a given amount of time (measured in months, not days or hours, as it kills the purpose of two activations).

So you would end with 2 installations basically again.

Question is why you would need the android addon (its no own license, keep that in mind) in the office when you use the rest privately ...

 

2 installations is pretty fine for me, even 1 activation is also fine if I can manage the licenses. I am the only one to use Unity, whatever Unity Pro, iPhone addon or Android addon.

The point is I can't bring private computer to office. Since there are only 2 activations, so I'd like I can manage the licenses of each computer..for instance, when I am at home I deactive the license in office PC.

 

And why do you need it in the office?
Do they allow you to work on your stuff during their time?

Anyway, such a system would cast the activation system useless if you can just move it at will, at least if all remained as it is right now.
I doubt that will happen (already now you don't get deactivations just for the fun of it, you must have a reason like system broke down).

Also the requirement for it to work would be that the system wanting to do the deactivation is doing it, not some other, which means that systems dieing down could no longer move activations at all without UTs mercy (which if they would be forced into such a thing would be far less likely)

Also independent of that, systems would require internet connections every now and then to validate their license.



I personally would support the idea I brought up:

2 activations for the first payed license you buy (pro or any addon)
1 additional activation for each addon you own up to a max of 4 parallel activations.

that should definitely be more than enough for anyone not missusing one license with various location in which he is no longer able to guarantee a non-parallel usage.

 

I am a webmaster I am learning to use Unity in office, so using Unity free is fine here.

For myself I'd like to learn mobile development, that's my own investment. However I can't use my Macbook in office so I'd like to use "my" U3 Android in office.

Of course I would not use my license to publsh web content for the company. If any web publishing work of the company which using Unity Pro they are required to buy a seperate license on their own account.

Yeah that should be fine.

 

I've bought U3 pro + iPhone + Asset Server and having 3 licensees would solve all of my logistical issues.

 

I am so ok with that having 3 licensees can avoid problem.

This week end i have changed my iMac with a new one and had to re register the key on my new one.
Because of the only 2 licensees i cannot register my key : because i have already my macbook with one key.
So i have sent an email to UT to reset them.

Now : monday afternoon i have still no news from UT and cannot work on the project : i still cannot register my key. This is the second time i have this problem.

Me too have U3 Pro + U3 iOS Pro + Asset Server...

Managing our key online shoulde be something available for us.

Regards

 

First, Allow unlimited activation per HARDWARE setup. Detect the hardware/mac address etc. So if you had OSX with bootcamped Win7 or a bunch of test VM machines, it'll work fine.

Second, an optional network install. ESPECIALLY for educational licences (I teach and it's painful organising classes around which has unity. Autodesk are all network so it's simple)

 

i vote for two licences per Hardware too.

I have iMac and Macbook Pro both Bootcamped.

 

I have to say that we are right now getting very frustrated with the lack of a floating license option. We are a small studio and we need to be flexible. We have four people that use unity but we never more than two at a time. If I could pay 1.5x the normal price of unity pro and get a floating license then we would be very happy.

It would be cheaper for us to build a dedicated "Unity Desk" with a dedicated machine than to buy lots of copies of unity. There is something wrong with that. A floating license give you a much better solution.

I understand copy protection is important for the Unity folks to stay in business. But please, don't punish people who pay for your software.

 

4 people using unity, shouldn't that be 4 licenses ? so even 1.5 x normall price would even be very cheap. Stick to 2 registrations is what i say, works fine for me.

 

Another vote from me, for having 2 license per Hardware, not per OS:

MacPro + MacBook Pro, both Bootcamped here...

 

I fully agree, 3 licenses would be perfect.

I have a question, I just bought a Laptop for the Google developer day tomorrow (I was also asked to present Unity on Android next month at a developer meetup) and now I have the following problem.
I plan to buy a Macbook Pro as soon as I can afford one + the Unity Iphone license, when I do that, is it at the moment possible to move the license once from the PC Laptop to the Macbook pro?

Because of this thread I haven't activated my 2nd license yet, but would like to do so before I go to GDD tomorrow, if I cannot move the license even once, the Unity trial will have to do for now, which would be lame on a Google event.

 

How about an optional USB dongle? maybe one that also doubles as flash drive. This would allow you to install Unity on as many computers as you want, but the only copy that will run is the machine that currently has the dongle installed. The other copies could run in free mode until the dongle is inserted.

 

This definitely gets my votes, I hate it when I have to email support to activate my license when I upgrade my notebook or have to do some quick work on windows.

A floating license or USB dongle option would be the best. It should be easier for us that pay then for those who steal the software even at the cost of a few bucks, you already spent so much a little more for convenience wouldn't kill you.

 

Dongles are a pain. I used to have licenses for 5 apps that all used dongles and they drove me nutz. First off, there's a time lag between when you order the product and when you would receive it, could be days or it could be weeks or longer. Then there's the whole issue of import duties, etc. I recently shipped a CD to a client overseas and it was held in customs for over a month. If that had been my Unity Pro license I can only imagine how unhappy I would have been. Plus they use up a valuable USB port. Nope, dongles may sound like a good idea, but once you start researching it they are really not the answer.

In retrospect, the 2 licenses per user is working out OK for me. I've re-arranged my computers and changed my work habits a bit so everything is working out OK. It would be nice, though, if UT offered some other option for a 3rd installation. I'm managing without it OK for now but can understand why it might be necessary for some people. It would also be nice if I could manage my licenses on my own without having to contact Unity tech. But I'm guessing that wouldn't be an easy thing for them to set up.

 

I still vote for 2 installs for the desktop version + 1 per additional owned platform up to a max of 4


As for those voting for hardware: its 2 per hardware kind off.
Windows and OSX just won't show up as the same hardware due to EFI and different MAC adresses and a VM will definitely not show up as the same as it is not the same (thats the very purpose of the VM that it is independent of the physical hardware through its virtual hardware)

Only case where it fails short is dual boots with windows installations though unsure if unity detects that as 2 hardware setups

 

i would love to see this too.
a web interface to activate/deactivate the registered hardware would be the best
I'm the only one that really needs unity pro and having that possibility (also if on a single license) would be great!

 

I hope we will get a Network License soon. Like 3DSMax and Quest3D have. All problems solved.

 

I agree with arioch82. Pixologic, Adobe, and Autodesk have all seen the light. They allow the end user to manage their activated computers by allowing the customer to return a license to the company's server if you need to do a hardware upgrade, and then retrieve the license later.

Even Microsoft is less onerous than Unity. You can wipe your system hard drive, format your secondary hard drives, and swap out video cards and RAM as much as you like, and you can still activate repeatedly on the same system.

I think it is utterly ridiculous that performing normal system maintenance on your machine (like reinstalling the OS) will confuse Unity's "fingerprinting" process and use up another one of your activations. Unity is effectively putting a stranglehold on what the user is permitted to do to their own hardware. Luckily they are nice people and I'm sure customer service will just say "Contact us and we'll help you." But the activation policy is mostly a chilling effect on the end user, forcing us to carefully consider that solid state hard drive upgrade or clean OS install versus our number of activations per Unity version. Makes you wonder, at what point will they stop believing me that I need a new activation because I've tinkered with my system?

 

Yes, i also agree with these, last time when i wanted to install on my notebook it said too many activations, while i only use it on 1 windows workstation, contacting unity to resolve these takes more than 3 days , phone support is not an option for me as too expensive, a license management portal like prevx would be good enough.

 

This problem with slowdown for my own activation began to irritated me!, few minutes ago i've just installed fresh windows 7 sp1, and unity still complained about too many activation problems while i installed on the same EXACT hardware as before the windows install except i remove 2 removable portable HDD!, now this is great unless i have 1000$ to get my own premium support from unity or i wait for 3 days for this simple re-activation, i currently work on a project so yeah for this my second disappointment to unity after the gui, where is my special privilege as a pro owner? 3 days waiting for activation is big let down for me.

P.S i have uninstalled unity before began my windows re-installation, plus the no hassle free activation on the same exact hardware is pure bogus.

 

I've got to admit, Unity's licensing system is pretty archaic. I think they need to either improve their response time or, preferably, completely upgrade their licensing system. With 250,000+ users and 100+ employees, they're just too big a company and too big a user base not to. In the mean time, I keep a backup mirrored HD just in case the unexpected happens. Hard drives are pretty cheap, certainly cheaper than waiting 3+ days for support to fix something.

 

Hey good idea thanks!, mirroring a drive could be an option, but afaik ease to use and affordable software like firstdefense-isr was out of development , no official support for win 7 other than user temp workaround, i wasn't had the opportunity even to buy the software, the main good thing about that software is able to copy mirrored snapshot to other portable drive, so yeah good oldie manual imaging by norton ghost would be nice.

Surprisingly unity office seems not too busy today or just my luck, they responded in less than 2 hours, kudos to unity .

 

I own modo, Google Sketchup pro, 3DCoat, LiveCode, Logic Studio... they all share the same licensing scheme, which is by far my preferred one : "the software is licensed to you, not to your computer", as they say at Luxology. You may install it on *any* number of machines you like, as long as you use it on one at a time - which is checked by the software on a regular basis. I would love to see Unity's licensing evolve that way.

 

Would be granted to be missused as you just prevent the app from going online and dang you have unlimited numbers of free pro inhouse. it would end with unity requiring to talking home at least once per week or whatever, which is granted to cause trouble sooner or later.

Some smarty pant teams already missuse the current licensing to work on free and use a build machine running on pro and shady stuff like that to avoid the costs. Thats likely also one of the main reasons that VCS just never will become a free feature, it would tempt such crap heads to missuse it even more if they can upgrade their build boxes to continous building systems and stuff like that


I wouldn't mind having an easier machine switch myself either, but I understand why it is done with humans related to it as Unity does not seem to want to enforce online connections on startups and things like that

 

That analogy would be the same as why unity release fully functional trial installer other than separating retail installer and demo installer, i am sure unity already put this on their main concern, by doing this it's make the cracking easier for the cracker other than retail installer case which needed by the cracker to get the retail installer, i assume it's about bandwidth efficiency on unity server or other internal licensing thing.

You cann't always make an app crack proof from anything, anything human made is crack-able, if let say from the Yann idea the licensee miss-used it (like you said) then that's where the job of unity's lawyer to sue the hell of them .

Another solution is to make a definitive 'check up' once every one month connection to unity server, i am pretty sure where ever we are located even at a remote island we can get plain 5 minute connection in even 64 kbps line.

 

On the other hand, they could always stop the editor from working if it can't access the interwebs. And seriously, there are not going to be too many people developing games without internet, especially since you need it to get Unity in the first place.