Topic: License Limitations

I updated to version 6, read the license terms, and now I have some doubts...
In section 1.2, sub. (a) we read "(a) Strict personal use. Your use of Pianoteq is limited to strict personal use. You may not rent, lease or share Pianoteq with another user...".
Even though it is not relevant for me, I wonder if a teacher can use pianoteq for teaching.
And what about using it at, for instance, a church?
I also ask myself what would happen if someone built a digital piano with Pianoteq embeded (and now we have the ARM version), would she/he be able to sell that instrument legally?
Should it be sold without activation, so the end user activates it?
Would Modartt prepare a special license for such cases?
And let's asume that someone buys this instrument, could this customer resell his instrument without breaking the rules?
Would be this instrument suitable for use at a conservatory/orchestra/etc?
At sec. 1.3 license also states that only a copy of documentation can be printed. Does it mean that the manual can be printed just once? (by the way, I have never thought about printing it)
I would appreciate your thoughts, I've searching on forum but I could not find these questions.

Last edited by marcos daniel (08-09-2017 03:32)
Pianoteq Pro - Bechstein - Blüthner - Grotrian - K2 - Kremsegg 1 & 2 - Petrof - Steingraeber - Steinway B & D - YC5
Kawai CL35 & MP11

Re: License Limitations

The legalese of these licenses is always a bit ambiguous, but I think the intent behind what you quoted is that two or three unrelated people could not buy one copy of Pianoteq and each install it on their own machines, basically getting one activation each for 1/2 or 1/3 the cost of buying their own copy of Pianoteq.

Re: License Limitations

I doubt Modartt will ever sue a teacher or a Church... you're taking it way too much to the letter. 

Re: License Limitations

That part of the license is no problem.

It means you cannot distribute the software and keys to other people.  That is all.

In practice you have a few activations and you need to activate the software to unlock it.  As I understand it activation is on a per-machine basis, so you can, in practice install and use Pianoteq on three machines.  In practice Pianoteq activation is not tied to users, but machines.

Regarding the use of a hypothetical embedded Pianoteq in a commercial hardware device, that would require a completely different version of the software and I am sure Modartt would require a completely different license (with the hardware makers, not the end users) to allow that.  For such ad device they would not use the activation method at all - it would simply run.  Activation would be unworkable for such a device.  This is simply nothing to do with the license for the software we have now - they would be different things entirely.  Users of such hardware would be governed only by the license terms they have with the hardware manufacturers, and it's hard to see any sensible maker of instruments limiting users to only private use and not public performances !

I'm not sure exactly what the section regarding documentation means.  It strikes me as largely irrelevant in the modern context as who uses printed manuals these days ?  Given that the manual file comes with the demo it's pretty meaningless to try and limit printing of it.  I think it's just typical lawyers-not-being-practical stuff, divorced from reality.  You should contact support if printing the manual is an issue that bothers you.

StephenG

Re: License Limitations

There is nothing that bother me, when I bought Pianoteq first time, I knew the obvious facts about copyright, and to be honest, I read the license agreement very lightly (I was very anxious clicking next next next, I believe 90% of people do so).
Only this time I started wondering about those hypothetical cases...

Pianoteq Pro - Bechstein - Blüthner - Grotrian - K2 - Kremsegg 1 & 2 - Petrof - Steingraeber - Steinway B & D - YC5
Kawai CL35 & MP11

Re: License Limitations

I realise this thread is a few months old. But thought it worth replying anyway...

My recommendation is doing what I did: contact Modartt / Pianoteq support directly and ask. I found support staff (Niclas Fogwall in particular) very helpful and very flexible with licensing.

My partner is a full-time music teacher and I also teach on a casual basis and we both use Pianoteq under the one academic license. My partner has an inexpensive digital slab piano (Casio PX-160) that she lends out to students who haven't got an instrument yet. They are encouraged to also borrow a laptop and use it with Pianoteq instead of the lacklustre on-board sounds.

It's surprising how reluctant most people are to adopt Pianoteq because of the added complication of hooking up a laptop, amp and speakers even for a (semi-) permanent home setup. This is one reason I'd like to create a seamlessly integrated single-board computer based setup - hidden under the hood, so to speak.

Last edited by SteveLy (27-01-2018 05:09)
3/2 = 5