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When can an Install of AutCAD or AutoCAD LTbe considered "Dead"?

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Message 1 of 6
MinervaRJP
407 Views, 5 Replies

When can an Install of AutCAD or AutoCAD LTbe considered "Dead"?

A client of mine has almost 1000 Installations of AutoCAD LT ranging in version from R2 up through 2010.

The majority of them (564 of 873) have not been run during the six months we have been gathering Usage data.

Is there a tiem period after which these can be considered Inactive/Non-Licensed and removed? Is there any Compliance consequence from doing so? 550 of teh Installs are AutoCAD LT 2007 and are doubtless just left on various machines due to poor cleanup from Projects Past since 400+ of them have no Usage Data.

If we subtract the "Unused" Installs from the total then they have a significant surplus of Licenses. If they do have to be counted then they have a defecit. I looked around teh AutoDesk Website, but could not find a definitive answer other than it is easier now than it was a few years ago.

Their desire is to be compliant, so if Licenses need to be purchased they will, but I want to provide the best advice possible.

Thoughts as to how to procede?

Thank you...

RJP Edited by: MinervaRJP on Mar 31, 2010 1:47 AM
5 REPLIES 5
Message 2 of 6
TravisNave
in reply to: MinervaRJP

The amount of licenses your company is technically allowed to use would depend on how many of these seats have been upgraded from previous seats and if any are on Subscription. In addition, many of the products from 2007 (including LT) and all those 2006 and prior have been retired by Autodesk.
For example, if you had 100 seats of AutoCAD LT 2007 that were upgraded to AutoCAD LT 2010, then your 2007 licenses are no longer valid and cannot be used because they are now AutoCAD LT 2010 seats. To run then 200 seats of both AutoCAD LT 2007 and 2010 would be violating your license agreement. Should your seats be under current Subscription, then you will have been autofulfilled to AutoCAD LT 2011 and be allowed to run up to three versions back. This means that any current licenses under Subscription can legally be licensed to run as LT 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. However, you cannot run concurrently more licenses than are under Subscription. So again, if you had those same 100 licenses and they were upgraded under a current Subscription plan, you could run any combination of LT 2008 thru 2011 so long as there are not more than 100 licenses total being run at the same time. This could be ten of 2008, thirty of 2009, fifty of 2010, and ten of 2011... but no more. Running four-hundred seats concurrently would be violating your license agreement because you don't have a total of four-hundred seats between all the versions.
Any single licenses that have not been upgraded and are not under Subscription can continue to be run, however any product 2007 and older does not qualify for special upgrade pricing. There are exceptions to running legacy products, however the bottom-line is that you cannot run more licenses than you currently own.
I hope that helps.


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Message 3 of 6
MinervaRJP
in reply to: MinervaRJP

Thank you Travis,

The real key questions is

******
The majority of them (564 of 873) have not been run during the six months we have been gathering Usage data.
******

This is about Installations. So if you have 500 Installs of AutoCAD LT 2007 which have not been run in six months and there were no more recent version, can they just be legally uninstalled? Or do they need to be licensed? These likely were installed years ago and are just legacy installs which have never been cleaned up.

Also... Clearly when you upgrade a license it cannot be used to cover both the old and the new version. 100 Rights purchased cannot cover more than 100 Installs of any version.

However...

******
Any single licenses that have not been upgraded and are not under Subscription can continue to be run...
....
This means that any current licenses under Subscription can legally be licensed to run as LT 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011.
******

If they have 100 seats of 2007 wich were on Subscription they would now be autu-upgraded to 2011 from a licensing perspective. Which would allow them to run 2008, 2009, 2010, or 2011. What if they never physically upgraded the 2007 which was being run? Are they now out of Compliance, but if they had not purchased the Subscription they would not be?

Thanks again ...
Message 4 of 6
TravisNave
in reply to: MinervaRJP

As for the installs that are not being used, you can safely uninstall them if you wish. If your worry is to stay within the licensing compliance, then it's probably best that you do if you have more seats installed than you actually own.
When it comes to retirement, essentially the Subscription allows for automatic upgrades as well as running products 3 versions back. Just because 2007 is retired, doesn't mean that you cannot legally run it. If it were never upgraded, it could essentially be run forever I'd imagine. The only difference in retirement is that you do not get an upgrade discount when upgrading.


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Message 5 of 6
MinervaRJP
in reply to: MinervaRJP

Travis,

Thanks again. Excellent. Is there anything "official" anywhere from AutoDesk to that effect? My Client's Legal Department is concerned about unistalling if there may have been a prior Licensing obligation. Standard SAM practice generallys says this is OK, but they are lawyers and want to be sure every i is dotted and every t is crossed to ensure there is no Audit Exposure.

Thanks again...
Message 6 of 6
TravisNave
in reply to: MinervaRJP

I don't know of anything official, but essentially if you remove the product, then you remove the license. I believe licensing only becomes a legal issue if you run more than you own concurrently. So long as you stay within your legal limitation, you should be fine.


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