Thank you to everybody who has given us feedback about Dorico’s licensing scheme.
We want to give our customers the most flexible licensing solution possible based on the current capabilities of our eLicenser technology, which is used by all Steinberg products. As such, the scheme used by Dorico 1.0 will be as follows:
When you buy the boxed version of Dorico, you will receive in your package an Activation Code that allows you to activate Dorico using the Soft-eLicenser. Using this Activation Code will lock Dorico to a single computer. You will also receive a hardware USB-eLicenser key in your package, to which you can optionally move your Dorico license.
When you buy the download version of Dorico, you will receive an Activation Code that allows you to activate Dorico using the Soft-eLicenser. If you would like to transfer your copy of Dorico to a USB-eLicenser and you do not already have one, you will be able to buy one from the Steinberg online shop or your reseller, and then transfer your license to your USB-eLicenser. We plan to set the price of the download version of Dorico lower than the boxed version, so that if you choose to buy the download version but later decide to move your license to a USB-eLicenser, the intention is that, barring significant pricing differences in different territories, you should not pay more overall than if you had initially bought the boxed version.
Once you have moved your Dorico license from the Soft-eLicenser to the USB-eLicenser, Dorico will only run if the USB-eLicenser is plugged into a USB port on that computer.
If you choose to transfer your Dorico license from the Soft-eLicenser to the USB-eLicenser, at present you cannot subsequently transfer your license back to the Soft-eLicenser. However, our eLicenser team is investigating the feasibility of allowing a license to be moved from the USB-eLicenser back to a Soft-eLicenser, which would make it possible to move your Dorico license from one computer to another, and then run it on that computer without requiring the USB-eLicenser any longer. This capability may not be ready by the time of Dorico’s initial public release, so we will provide further information about this at a later date.
Steinberg is always reviewing its licensing technologies in the light of changing customer and business needs, and looking to the future we plan to introduce new capabilities to our eLicenser system that will address the needs of customers to run the software on their computers without the use of the USB-eLicenser while still protecting both their and Steinberg’s investment in our software.