License Question: Selling Final Cut Studio 2 to get Studio 3

[David Roth weiss]

You have two choices:

1) sell fcs2 and buy the full fcs3

2) upgrade to fcs3

You can’t sell your previous version and get the upgrade price, that’s double dipping.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Thomas Morter-laing]

Yeah you can- if you have FCS1, then you can sell FCS2 and upgrade from FCS1- FCS3. And upgrade is an upgrade, wether it’s from 1-3 or 2-3. Itd be like you just never has FCS2.

😀
Tom Morter-Laing
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010
Degree; TV Production

iMac 27″ intel i7 2.93GHz, 12GB RAM, ATI HD5750 [1GB GDDR5], 2TB Int. SATA with 2TB External HDD; (FW800).

[Jim Harper]

Yes – that’s what I thought. Since I still have an earlier edition of the software that I am not selling, I thought I should be able to sell the FCS2 and buy the upgrade to FCS3.

So, to clarify. I already own FCP1, which I used as the base for the FCS2 upgrade.

I want to sell the FCS2 upgrade, but not my copy of FCP1.

I want to buy the upgrade (FCS3), and upgrade from my existing copy of FCP1 (that I used for the FCS2 upgrade, but since I’m selling that, is not currently tied to an upgrade)

My confusion is in Apple’s language about not selling the items separately. Is my old copy of FCP1 now forever tied to my FCS2 license, prohibiting me from selling my FCS2 without my copy of FCP1 included? It seems like it could be from the license agreement.

[Ben Holmes]

If you are clearly selling your FCS2 software as an upgrade package, I don’t see an issue – you just have to make clear to any purchaser that they need a copy of FCS1 to use this update, with their own serial.

This assumes: 1) The price of the FCS3 upgrade is the same whether or not you upgrade from FCS1 or 2 and that 2) When FCS4 is announced (along with affordable space-flight for all) Apple don’t decide to deprecate FCS1 owners by charging tiered pricing for updates, as other vendors (Adobe) do – although I guess owning the FCS3 update should insulate you from this.

Just be grateful you don’t have to jump through online authentication like Adobe users, where updates are frequently more trouble than they’re worth….

Edit Out Ltd
—————————-
FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producer

https://www.blackmagic-design.com/casestudies/detail.asp?case=therydercup

[Paul Jay]

You can even upgrade for the same upgrade price from Final Cut Pro version 2!!!

[Jim Harper]

Yes – that’s why I was hoping to sell the Studio 2 upgrade. I’ll actually end up making money by selling Studio 2, and upgrading to Studio 3 (from my original FCP license). The only issue is that I’m still not clear what Apple is referring to when they say “Software Update” (full install).

Interestingly, Tom Wolsky (FCP superuser on Apple Forums) thinks this is NOT ok at all.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2635743&tstart=0

Wish I could get a straight answer. I’m wasting a lot of time trying to do the right thing!

[Rafael Amador]

[Jim Harper] “Yes – that’s why I was hoping to sell the Studio 2 upgrade. I’ll actually end up making money by selling Studio 2, and upgrading to Studio 3 (from my original FCP license). The only issue is that I’m still not clear what Apple is referring to when they say “Software Update” (full install).”
If you are selling your original FCS2, you have no right to use that license for any upgrade, update or whatever.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[David Roth weiss]

[Rafael Amador] “If you are selling your original FCS2, you have no right to use that license for any upgrade, update or whatever.”

Jim,

Rafael, Tom, and myself gave you the proper and legal response, which is that you’re not entitled to an upgrade if you sell your prior version. We didn’t tell you that because we think Apple should simply be entitled to your money, we told what we know to be the legal model throughout the industry.

You can choose get around it and to be a pirate if you wish, but you started this thread because it seemed you wanted to know what’s proper and what’s not.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Thomas Morter-laing]

I think there’s a loophole here actually:
There’s nothing about the being able to upgrade from FCS 1 to 3, which is perfectly legal to do, and would cost the same and require the same licensing as if you were going from FCS 2-3. It would NORMALLY break the licence if you were to upgrade from 2-3 then sell 2, but in this situation he would still have a ‘base’ from which to upgrade in his possession.
Otherwise that’s like saying you need to have EVERY version of Final Cut if all you’ve ever done is upgraded.
If he was selling FCS1 AS WELL, then no, thats not allowed, but Im pretty sure, that because its still an upgrade, it makes no difference: it’s a different licence key for an UPGRADE licence, NOT and “upgrade from 2-3 only” licence.

😀
Tom Morter-Laing
Certified Apple Product Proffessional, 2010
Degree; TV Production

iMac 27″ intel i7 2.93GHz, 12GB RAM, ATI HD5750 [1GB GDDR5], 2TB Int. SATA with 2TB External HDD; (FW800).

[Jim Harper]

Thank you David. I have no interest in pirating, or running afoul of the law or EULA.

That said, to Raphael’s point, I’d be keeping my copy of FCP version 1, which I would then use as the basis of future upgrades since it is no possible to move straight from FCP1 to FCS3. I don’t need FCS2, as it is no longer needed to upgrade to FCS3.

It would be as if I never bought FCS2, since that software is not needed for the upgrade.

Here’s a different example:

I own FCP 1
Then I upgraded to FCP3 using the license from FCP1
Then I upgraded to FCS2, using the license from FCP1 again

The license for FCP3 is no longer in use at all. Can I sell that?

Also, I did call Apple on this, and their tech guy said it was ok, but unfortunately, he could not provide legal guidance.

So confusing. Thanks for your input/patience all.