Staying Compliant
With the ever-changing landscape of software subscriptions, as well as different methods of accessing them, staying within the rules and terms of use of your license agreement should be something that you are actively checking and enforcing, in order to avoid any potential license compliance issues.
Autodesk’s License Compliance team exist to help inform customers of potential non-compliance and assist in the identification of incorrectly used or installed software. This may include over-use, software piracy, mis-used educational or student subscriptions and more. The license compliance team at Autodesk are there to enable any companies who are, either knowingly or unknowingly, breaking their license agreement to get back on track with their subscription agreements, ensuring that they are correctly subscribed and have access to the software that is either needed or already in use.
License compliancy can have its complexities, even with the simplification of software subscription and licensing models. It is also the sole responsibility of the subscription owner that licenses are used in conjunction with their End User License Agreement (EULA), so if you are in any doubt, have any questions relating to you own license subscriptions or would simply like some reassurance then please do not hesitate to contact us. License compliance cases can end with fines, as well as additional subscription purchases, so it is better to be safe than sorry and make sure that your usage is within the rules.
All information is/was correct at time of writing, February 2022.
You should consult the latest terms of use and legal documentation from the Autodesk website for the most up to date information at all times: Legal Notices & Trademarks | Autodesk
Common Compliance Issues
There can be many reasons why the usage of a product may be deemed as non-compliant, but the most common compliance issues are caused by easily avoided scenarios:
Over-Use or Under Subscribed
Single User Autodesk Licenses are named licenses, and therefore are to be used by a named individual and not a shared user account. If your usage is limited, you can unassign and reassign licenses as needed, but these assignments must be to individual named accounts for each user accessing the software.
Previous Version Rights
When you have an active subscription with Autodesk you are allowed to install, access and get support for certain previous versions of Autodesk software, namely five versions back for the software covered in your active entitlement at the time of writing. Previous version rights are not additional licenses, and cover usage for the named user of the active subscription.
Uninstalling and Signing Out of Old Software
If you drop your Subscription, or a legacy Maintenance Plan you need to sign out from them, and ideally completely uninstall all software that you no longer have access to. This includes both current, and old versions of software as well as any home use applications or installations across multiple machines or devices.
Mis-Used Educational Subscriptions
If you work with Students who have their own education versions of Autodesk software, this must not be used in the commercial space. Any user who needs to use the application within your organisation must have access to their own commercial subscription.
Too Many Sign Ins and Concurrent Usage
An active Autodesk Subscription allows you to actively use and be signed up on 3 devices at any one time – however only a single device can be used concurrently. Old devices that are no longer needed, in use or re-purposed should be signed out of all Autodesk software to avoid complications.
Software Piracy
Unfortunately, software piracy is still the single highest reason for non-compliance. Non-Genuine software regularly contains malware and manipulations putting you, your work and your organisation at risk. Always purchase software from an accredited Autodesk Partner and if in doubt, please ask.
Useful links
Below are some useful links relating to the above made points:
Legal Notices & Trademarks | Autodesk
Autodesk Licence Compliance | Importance of software licensing
Autodesk Account user management | Account Management | Autodesk Knowledge Network
How to perform a Clean Uninstall of Autodesk products on Windows | AutoCAD | Autodesk Knowledge Network
Previous version rights | Account Management | Autodesk Knowledge Network