Licensing woes - Pixel Farm

Hi All just a heads up on a bad experience with software licenses I had recently

I recently bought a new imac - and sold the old one on.

So i did a transfer of all data to the new imac - and did a reformat and fresh install of OSX on the old hard drive

All of my licenses came over no worries - except for my PFmatchit license from Pixel Farm.

I do a lot 3d motion camera / tracking so this is an important app for me. (its not a plug in but a stand alone app)
I went into their "license manager" - (which they charged me $100us to install 3 years ago) to deathorize the software on the old machine but all options were greyed out.

I hit the email to their support - and was informed that the only option they could offer was for me to drop $1650 us on their PFMATCHIT - which has a billion more features than i need or use.

They said they couldn't and wouldnt support old software licenses due to the time involved. Their position is that I "lost" the license and why should they help out.

After several exchanges to negotiate a cross grade option , or even begging them to assist with their non functional license manager - no give on anything from their end - they are now unresponsive.

AS you can imagine this is pretty disappointing - especially since ALL my other licenses - Adobe, Motion FX., Twixtor, Coremelt were able to be brought over. Every other software vendor seems to have a willingness to work with their clients - not Pixel Farm it would seem.

I probably should have deauthorise the software on the old hard drive before transferring - i assumed the license manager would let me do this from the new machine.

- so please let this be a cautionary tale to not move machines in a hurry. It could cost you as much as half of the your new machine's price in license compliance alone.

Yep, one of the reasons I stopped using Photoshop and a couple of other apps. They had archaic licensing schemes and upgrading from an older machine to a new one caused major headaches. Pick your software carefully, and go through it all very carefully before upgrading to a new machine. Yep, been there, I feel for you.

Reflex Films wrote: …They said they couldn't and wouldnt support old software licenses due to the time involved. Their position is that I "lost" the license and why should they help out.…

… the time a company needs to do its business is nothing the customers care for…

I'm no lawyer - god beware! - but:
What exactly have you purchased?

as far as I understand - a licence key. That purchase has to be 'in the books' of this manufacturer - for quiet a while, depends on where you live, I guess here 10 years.
So, let's say, if the IRS drops by at that company, THEY have to proof their income, what was sold to whom and when.

That is no trivial topic.
When THEY can not proof this purchase, next stop is 'fiscal evasion' yadayada…

If you have a lawyer as a friend (who as a lawyer as a friend??) at hand, I would let him write a letter (paper/ink) in a quiet tone, that THEY have to have proofs that you are a paying customers.

And it's very hard to believe, they don't have older software in some archive…

Or, to phrase it in another way:
I can not imagine, that they sell a 'just once' DL of their software and your licence key …
(what if the DL is aborted for whatever reasons?)

It's not like in any silly automobile metaphor - car gets stolen, you want a new one…:
a) it's software, no 'atoms'
b) You don't ask for a free second copy. You ask for your original purchase.

…my 5¢…

Reflex Films wrote: ....PFmatchit license from Pixel Farm....They said they couldn't and wouldnt support old software licenses due to the time involved. Their position is that I "lost" the license and why should they help out....Every other software vendor seems to have a willingness to work with their clients - not Pixel Farm it would seem....I probably should have deauthorise the software on the old hard drive before transferring - i assumed the license manager would let me do this from the new machine....

This is very unfortunate. FCPX relies on an active plugin ecosystem, which in turn depends on the goodwill and support of those developers.

To an individual plugin developer, their product looms large in their view, including every little nuance of how to install, de-install, update it , check version, licensing, etc. By contrast the end user may have many dozen plugins, each with their own unique requirements for licensing, installation, de-installation, updating, etc.

There is no standardized way of doing this. From an end user standpoint, managing FCPX plugins is like Windows apps from the 1990s. This is one reason Apple standardized this for the iTunes and Mac app stores. FxFactory is like an app store for plugins but that only covers part of the market.

Ideally anyone updating to a new machine should have a complete backup, preferably a bootable clone. That way if something goes wrong you can boot back to the previous version on the clone disk. I use Carbon Copy for this.

However everyone won't do this and if transferring apps & data to a new machine you have the old machine for a backup, at least for a while. But who can remember every little app and plugin and who tests every single one after an update?

I've encountered this situation before and never had a developer not support me, even if I made a mistake and forgot to deauthorize some software before moving to a new machine. Pixel Farm is a UK company. I wonder if any UK consumer protection laws apply in this case?

There are also sorts of interesting legal issues at hand here

i am currently debating whether the time involved is worth it - as I have a busy production business

However the pinciple and the fact that Pixel Farm are a pioneer in this sort of treatment makes me feel pretty angry. Just the fact that this is how they do business / express their culture is very disappointing.

On the upside i bailed on Pixel Farm offer to spend $1650 to upgrade - I just bought and learned how to use Syntheyes - which is a $300 US 3d tracking application that solves scenes far more accurately, with much more intuitive fine tuning abilities) and with a faster workflow that Pixel Farm's product.

So Syntheyes for the WIN!

This effect is great for client branding integration into footage - especially anything shot from a drone, slider or gimbal. you only need a couple of these in a production to lift perceived production value.

vimeo.com/140881303

Here are my first 3d tracking examples - these are shot with my new Zhiyun Crane / GH5 combo - I am still working out how to get the bobbing up and down walking motion out of the shots - A ninja walking style is recommended.