Zugg Software :: View topic

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:28 pm

As a VERY long time user of zMUD (even some of the 1.x versions, though I was not a registered user until 4. or 5.x) I have no qualms with buying the new product -- in fact I am very excited about it, and anxiously anticipating it. But I have a cpl of questions...

1) I intend to purchase cmud on the day of its release... will my 2-year upgrades begin at the date of final release, or will they be run down during beta testing?

2) I have recently considered purchasing another zmud registration code for a "friend in need" -- one who is using a free version (4.68?), cannot afford to buy his own code, but really loves the program. However, if I opted to buy now, I realized that would give me access to a free upgrade to cMUD. Doing it that way, however, would effectively have the same payment running both a zmud version and a cmud version from different users. While obviously you couldn't stop this in widespread use, for myself personally I'd prefer not to defraud you ;) What is your viewpoint on these 3 "possibilities" :

a) I purchase cmud when it comes out, give my old registration code to my friend, and cease use of zMUD.
b) I purchase zMUD now, give my old registration to my friend, and use the new registration to upgrade to cmud.
c) I must repurchase twice if I wish to get my friend a full-access version of either program

While this may sound like I am looking for a way "around the rules" I honestly realized the situation after I started debating simply buying a new registration, and wanted to clarify the extent of my good-will and legal obligations... additionally, I suspect this is an issue that may come up many times, especially in regards to the use of "old" zMUD registrations, and thought it may be a good topic to bring up...

3) This question doesn't really apply to my situation currently, but seems like another good topic to bring up -- what will your stance be on people who recently purchased zMUD, use that recent purchase to upgrade to cMUD, and then wish to run both programs (I can think of numerous reasons for this) on their computer?

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2006 10:22 pm

1) This has been answered a few times in this forum. The answer is it starts the moment you buy, doesn't matter if it is beta or out of beta.

2) That's something that Zugg will have to answer.

3) zMUD and cMUD are two separate programs and have different licenses. This means that you should be able to run both of them. The upgrade is basically a tactic to buy more ZuggSoft software.

Posted: Sat Feb 11, 2006 6:27 am

According to the license agreement, zMUD (and CMUD) is licensed to *you* as a user. Giving your license to a friend is technically a violation of the license agreement. The prefered way to give zMUD or CMUD to a friend is to send them a Gift Certificate from our store and let them use that to register zMUD to their own name. Otherwise, everytime they run zMUD/CMUD, they will see your name on the registration screen instead of their own, and they won't be able to get support from us as registered users.

But there are always ways "around the system" and I've decided it's not worth my time to try and lock everything down really tightly. There are plenty of ways for people to use software for free. The license agreement and copy protection are there to encourage honest people to support quality software and pay for quality software that they use. People who don't believe in this concept aren't going to pay and will always find ways around the system no matter how strict I get. What I learned with eLicense is that the stricter I get, the more I annoy the honest paying customers.

So, for your 3 cases:

a) Since licenses are not transferrable, this is technically a violation of the agreement. And your name will show up in your friend's zMUD and if he emails us with license problems, we won't be able to help him. Also, to retrieve his license key for zMUD if he ever loses it, he will need access to your Zuggsoft Store account. And with access to your store account, he could basically overwrite all of your contact information so that *you* would no longer be recognized as a valid customer anymore. So it's not a good idea.

b) Pretty much the same situation. Although at least we got another purchase from you ;)

c) Each person who wants to run zMUD should have their own license. And even if you don't quality for the free upgrade, maybe you will qualify for the half-price upgrade. So yes, you should buy a Gift Certificate for your friend (who then gets CMUD free), and then buy CMUD for yourself at whatever upgrade price you quality based upon your original purchase.

Anyway, everyone should remember that the upgrade system is completely tired to the existing Zuggsoft Store. In order to get CMUD either free or at a discount, you will need to log into your store account. The computer will look at your zMUD purchase date and decide what upgrade option is available for you. So you can't just use "old" registration codes...you must log into the store account that owns the registration code. Once an old registration code has been used to get CMUD, it cannot be used again. If you have multiple registration codes, they are all accessed via the same store account. Most people are not going to give out their store account to their friends.

Oh, and trust me, I doubt there will be very many people who will want to use zMUD instead of CMUD if they own both. If you have a WinXP system that can run CMUD, then you will always want to use it just because of the increased speed and features. The backwards compatibility is very high, so I don't see a lot of reasons for people to continue using zMUD. The main set of people that will still use zMUD are those running older versions of Windows that are not supported by CMUD, or those who simply don't want to pay for the new product.

Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2006 5:47 am

Thanks for your answer Zugg :) If I wanted to get around the system.. well I wouldn't have posted the question ;)

Anyway, I didn't realize it was non-transferrable.. though in that light, I suppose that was the essence of my question. I will be purchasing the new version regardless, and my friend cannot afford it regardless.. I suppose I was just looking at the older registration code as a product in it's own right; in which case I would have given him the code as I would a CD for a program I no longer used; that way a product I had paid for did not fall into complete dissuse when there was someone who could have benefitted from it.

Anyway, I appreciate the answer, and I will just allow the code to fall into dissuse then.. I got my money's worth out of it anyway ;)