single-user subscription seat

[ipi]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for a little clarification regarding how I can legally use and assign my single-user subscription seats.

• I have 5 single-user subscription licenses for AutoCAD Mechanical
• The software is installed on 10 PCs which are used by 10 different people
• Each of the 10 users has an AutoDesk account linked to my company
• Each of the 10 users has administrative access to my account
• If a user needs access to AutoCAD Mechanical, they will access their AutoDesk account and, if one is free, assign an AutoCAD Mechanical license to themselves
• If a license is not available, this user will message the other users on the team and ask if a license can be freed up
• Once a seat is free, the user in need of the now-available license will assign it to himself/herself

Am I correct in my understanding that this process is permitted under Autodesk's EULA? If not, please help me understand the purpose of having licences that can be assigned and unassigned.

Thank you,

[DarrenP]

Yeah you are not doing anything wrong as far as I can tell

But I probably wouldn’t allow each user to assign the licenses themselves I would dedicate somebody with the admin account to do this

[ipi]

Thank you, @DarrenP ,

Why do you recommend against allowing each user to assign their own seats?

[DarrenP]

1 is security 

What happens if one of those employees went rogue & decided to reset everyone's password & emails & change everyone permissions & took over the account 

[Simon_Weel]

That's indeed the way Autodesk wants it to work. Personally, I find the license-swapping actions quite tedious. So instead, I would create 5 generic Autodesk accounts and assign the software to those and let the users use one of those generic accounts. Saves you the time of constantly moving around the licenses...

[DarrenP]

@Simon_Weel you can’t actually use generic users

Read this: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/subscription-changes/generic-user/td-p/9340325

[Simon_Weel]

@DarrenP: I know. The article mentioned talks about 'generic users' which, I guess, were once defined in the EULA but not anymore. Thing is - for a company it's rather silly to tie a license to an individual. I mean, the company pays the licenses - not the individuals using those licenses. Like if my company rents a car, it's not up to the rental company to decide who gets to drive it. So I very much doubt if this user-tied license-thing will hold up in court.

[ipi]

@Simon_Weel I find it tedious as well, but I want to be sure that I am using the product as intended, hence the process I have developed. @DarrenP we initially tried using one or 2 users with admin rights to shuffle seats, but it was a beating so I went with the self-assigning method.

The reason for my initial question is that Autodesk contacted me yesterday and implied that I have too many concurrent users compared to the number of seats I have available for assignment. So I want to be sure that my assignment method is allowed under the current EULA.

There are 2 blatant flaws in their claim: 1) in their accounting of my licenses, they omitted 3 of the 5 seats that I have listed under Subscriptions and Contracts tab 2) We are, as required by the EULA, using Autodesk's Licensing Service, so concurrent usage of a seat is literally impossible

[rushabhthakkar_910]

@ipi, Can you share a screenshot of it..?? (Hide any sensitive information if there)

[ipi]

@rushabhthakkar_910 I have no idea how they are calculating overused seats (page 1). Page 2 omits 3 seats (5 total) of Inventor and 4 seats of AutoCAD Mechanical. Even allowing for their omission, their math shows 1 overuse of Inventor, which is just not possible.

There are 2 more sheets that list the user's email addresses, the names of their PCs,  and the software that is installed on them

[Simon_Weel]

 using Autodesk's Licensing Service, so concurrent usage of a seat is literally impossible

---

I don't think the license service works that way. I think it will happily let you overuse your licenses and at a certain threshold, Autodesk will send you a letter you're violating the EULA.

[ipi]

Here's how it works for me:

• I logon to manage.autodesk.com
• On the left side of the  page, select User Management and then either By User or By Product (I usually do By Product)
• Each product I have access to is listed, as well as the number of seats currently unused of the total available

• If I launch a program without assigning a seat to myself I get an error and the program closes

• AS soon as I assign myself a seat, I can launch the program and use it without issue

What am I missing? Given the checks and balances that are in place, it seems virtually impossible for there to be more users able to run a program than there are available seats

I have a video call with someone in compliance this afternoon. I'm more than a little leery of this meeting, the numbers provided that show my non-compliance and Autodesk in general. I don't have a lot of trust in the process.

Do I need a lawyer present? 

[DarrenP]

you will need to ask them for a more detailed report on what they see

they will have access to whole lot of more info then you

[pendean]

---

@ipi wrote:

I have a video call with someone in compliance this afternoon. I'm more than a little leery of this meeting, the numbers provided that show my non-compliance and Autodesk in general. I don't have a lot of trust in the process.

---

Their licensing rules, their call on how this all needs to go moving forward: you need to find out what they see and then show you are making a concerted effort to tame it all: take all of the questions you asked here and direct it to them instead.

I suspect the real problem lies with your assumption this below is perfectly done all the time (we are all humans, we all take shortcuts when we think no one is looking when we are rushed)

"... If a user needs access to AutoCAD Mechanical, they will access their AutoDesk account and, if one is free, assign an AutoCAD Mechanical license to themselves..."

Heads up: whether you like it or not, Autodesk really and truly wants you to purchase a dedicated license for each and every single user. It's today's reality in their sandbox if you want to be in there too.

Best wishes.

[ipi]

Here's a quick recap of my meeting with Autodesk's License Compliance rep:

• Autodesk is telling me that the Terms of Use does not allow me to assign, unassign and then reassign access to products that I have subscriptions to. This is contrary to Autodesk's Terms of Use description regarding account management: 

In Autodesk Account, admins can assign and unassign access to products and services as often as needed. Assignments can be made in three ways:

By product. Admins choose products and assign users to them.
By user. Admins choose users and assign products to them.
By group. Admins create groups and assign products to the entire group.

• Autodesk's CL claims that assigning, unassigning, and reassigning them to a different user is a "transfer rights" violation. I cannot find in Autodesk's Terms of Use where transfer of a license applies to the assigning of a license to users within the same company, only that I cannot transfer the use of my licenses/subscriptions/contracts to another entity
• I was told repeatedly that 1 license = 1 permanent user. I was also told that if I want to share a seat (non-concurrently) I have to first buy the subscription to the product and then a named user can pay for the use of the product for 24 hrs using Flex coins

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to circumvent the system. I truly want to understand what the rules are so I can follow them. 

[Simon_Weel]

@ipi : did this Autodesk person provide any material that let them to believe you're in error?

As you describe it, it looks like Autodesk doesn't know it's own rules?

[ipi]

@Simon_Weel no, just stated to me verbally during the call and then in a followup email. 

[ipi]

I'm sorry for being redundant, but I'm so confused. On one hand, I'm being told that I have to spend more money on Autodesk, while on the other hand, it seems like I'm doing everything by the book. Which is it?

From my most recent correspondence with the CL rep:

"...just be sure to assign the users to your token pool. When it comes time that more tokens need to be purchased, please evaluate your consumption rate. This will allow you to determine whether more Flex tokens, or additional subscriptions make the most sense. Again, we require that every individual using the software has their own subscription OR is assigned Flex tokens."

Which is contradictory to the Terms of Use:

Single-User Subscription

If Your subscription is described as “single-user,” “individual” or “named user,” then You may only assign such subscription to one (1) of Your Authorized Users.

You may administratively reassign Your single-user subscription from one individual Authorized User to another individual Authorized User if You follow and complete Autodesk’s policy and process for reassignment. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring that each individual Authorized User has a unique Autodesk ID, and that the single-user subscription is assigned to the Autodesk ID for the individual Authorized User who is actually accessing and using the subscription.

[TLinamen]

If you don't mind me asking. How did this end up for you?

[Darin.Green]

Although this post is a few months old.  The best approach is to use Flex Tokens.  It's not only the best approach, but also has a much lower price point.  Flex is perfect for occasional user.

Having all users assigned as an Admin with the ability to manage licenses is a bad idea.