Activation of 2nd hand MEP 2012 suite (invalid serial no.)

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

The company I work for has purchased a copy of Autocad MEP 2012 suite (amongst a lot of other things) from another company that went bankrupt. When I try and activate it, it tells me the serial number is not valid, altho when entering it at installation time a green tick appears next to the field.

I generated a customer service request (CaseNo:08300849) and recieved a response saying 

"This serial number registration is not appearing under the company name in your email." which is understandable.

They ask for a copy of our purchase invoice, but being bought as part of a larger lot from a liquidators we don't have a specific invoice for it, or one from autodesk.

We have all the original discs in the proper case.

I also know the name of the company it was registered to initially, and being a very large company it should be very easy to confirm they no longer exist, and that the software isn't installed/running on any other computer.

Any advice on how to proceed?

Thanks

[dgorsman]

Registering second-hand software is a very tricky business.  In some cases it is permitted, but usually only with an acquisition (ie. license transfer) not purchasing software from a bankrupt company.  Get in contact with your reseller and/or subscription contract, with the caveat you *may* be out the money you spent.  Probably a good idea to check with them first before spending the money next time, just so you know the in's, out's, and gotcha's.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for responding

Essentially the software cannot run (except for 30 day trial).
Are they honestly saying that this software cannot be used even tho it is a legitimate copy which I'm trying to properly register?

How can a license transfer be done if the company no longer exists?

Thanks

[jggerth]

You can check the EULA that the prior company agreed to when they installed the software -- IIRC it explicity addresses bankruptcy of the licensee and terminates the license agreement (and hence the authorization to run the software) in the event of bankruptcy.  (wonder how that worked out with GM and Chrysler?)

So you can't just purcahse a seat from a bankrupt company - all you can purchase is the media.  I'd say go to small claims court and try to get your money back from the trustees, but the original firm is bankrupt, so it may just be a case of 'too bad". 

Might approach the bankruptcy trustees and discuss the topic of "Fraud" with them, since they knew, or should have known, that what they were selling was not usable or valid.

[Anonymous]

Interestingly I've just NOW been handed a copy of an email that details everything we purchased.
In short it has multiple copies (2) of Revit MEP suite, with 2 different serial numbers, 7 standalone licenses in total and product keys and so on. This is from a conformation email from the autocad supplier, written to the company that went bankrupt from whom we purchased everything.

My issue now is that in order to transfer licenses I need the companies password for the subscription center to transfer the license over. The username is listed but not their password...

[jggerth]

Havig their password won't do you a lick of good.  Even if you illegally hack into the previous licensee's account, you cannot change the owner of record.  And would open you up to criminal proceedings....

I'm making the perhaps erroneous assumption that you are not located in the EU?  If you are, (and the liquidator and orignal licensee are also in EU countries, you're in luck, because the high court there has ruled that the Right of First Sale applies to software and that vendors may not interfere or hamper the resale of software licenses..  If you are that fortunate, contact your local authorized autodesk reseller, and work through them.  You may need a good lawyer to push it through though.

If you are in Canada, or that bastion of consumer protection the US, then the following EULA section probably applies:

"The Agreement and the licenses granted hereunder shall automatically terminate without further notice or action by Autodesk if You go into liquidation.  In the context of any bankruptcy proceeding, You acknowledge and agree that this Agreement is and shall be treated as an executory contract of the type described by Section 365(c)(1) of Title 11 of the United States Code and may not be assigned without Autodesk's prior written consent, which may be withheld in Autodesk's sole and absolute discretion."

You can ask nicely, and try working through a local reseller, but you almost certainly are out of luck there.  Look up "Vernor v. Autodesk"  for details and the extent to which autodesk has fought against the Right of First Sale applying in the US.  I may not like it, I may disagree with it and think it's a poor policy and bad law, but there it is.

Unless you can recover the money from the liquidator, you're stuck with unlicensed software that you cannot legally run.  IANAL -so contact competent counsel to explore your options.  Fraud on the liquidator's part may be an avenue to explore.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I didn't think it would be ok to log into another account..

I'm in Australia, and I know I said they went bankrupt, but technically they went into voluntary recievership..

Not sure if this makes a difference but sometimes small distinctions carry ALOT of weight in the legal/fincancial world

Cheers