Network rendering: Vegas license implications

[John Rofrano]

If you read the END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT on the Sony site, in the very first clause it states:

1. GRANT OF LICENSE. Sony hereby grants you a limited, non-exclusive license to use the Software on one (1) computer at a time upon the terms and conditions set forth in this Agreement. In the event your Software title is also equipped with a Software application-related network renderer (with which you can render projects on additional computer(s)) (each a “Renderer”), Sony hereby grants you a limited, non-exclusive license to use such Renderer(s) on up to two (2) additional computers at a time, solely in connection with the use of Software on a single computer and subject to the terms and conditions set forth in this Agreement. Sony reserves all rights in and to the Software and the Renderer(s) not otherwise granted in this Agreement.

So the answer to your question is that you can have 2 render node licenses for each Vegas Pro licenses. That means to use render nodes on 4 machines you would need 2 licenses.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Matchett]

Thanks (again) John,

You seem to be becoming a one-stop solution to all of my problems!

Reading the product license would have been a sensible option. Most of us just tick the box and never look at it again – not surprising really, generally they’re not exactly bed-time reading.

Do you happen to know the answer to the second part of my query about moving licenses – can you de-activate and transfer them like Adobe products?

John M.

[John Rofrano]

Unfortunately, no… you cannot transfer a license yourself. What Sony does is keep track of the machine signature and each time they see a “significant” change they update a counter on their end. When you have maxed out your counter the authorization fails and you have to call them on the phone and explain that you are just moving to a new machine and they will reset your counter for you.

I have had this happen when adding memory and a new hard drive to my PC. I re-imaged the hard drive with an exiting backup so nothing changed about the hard drive contents except that it was larger in size but that, along with buying more memory, was enough for one Sony application to increase my counter over the limit. Sometimes this turns out to be a big PITA (since Sony is not open on the weekend when most of my hardware upgrades happen) and I would much rather a scheme that allows customers to move licenses between machines.

If you can’t tell, I am not a big fan of activation and feel that it only punishes paying customers while pirates use their cracked copies unimpeded. But I digress… (I’m beginning to like dongles more and more… just give me my key and stay out of my way)

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Matchett]

Couldn’t agree more John,

We have Adobe products that are a complete pain. Endlessly trying to access the web, they’ve become unstable and glitchy over the last few years. I buy all my software, but like you I’ve met plenty of people with cracked versions that are dead stable and they don’t have any problems at all.

This wouldn’t be so bad if there was an up-side, but the tech support from many of the big companies is slow and rarely very focused. It’s certainly eclipsed by quick and clear forum responses such as I’ve had from forum guys like you, since as users you clearly understand exactly what I’m on about.

Adobe has just launched it’s CS4 products and we’ve decided they can keep it in light of our treatment with CS3 – so perhaps there’s a lesson there for the software companies somewhere…

Thanks,

John M.