Another odd licesnsing/Ethics Question
-
Apparently I'm just full of odd ones this week. I was about to upgrade one of my Adobe CS5.5 packages to CS6 (Production Premium) while it's still available. Anyway I noticed I had an extra CS6 seat on my account. It's from one I sold off in 2012.
Adobe has a rule the serial numbers have to be in your account and you verify them. So they have to be in your name to use them. When you sale them you open a case, and fill out paper work to transfer them. This process has to be completed within 1 year from the date the case was opened or it's closed.
Apparently the buyer never did this. nor have they used the software. I contacted adobe and they said they have no record of them contacting Adobe. I tried contacting the buyer (a company) the emails get rejected, phone is disconnected. At this point I'm assuming the company went under before getting to use it. So I'm considering this forfeited property and plan to just re-use it. I Should I do this? What's your thoughts? It's $400 to upgrade my older CS5.5 to the obsolete CS6 (I'm not paying for Creative Cloud as there's too much vendor locking with video production for subscription to be a good idea). I'm willing to pay if I have too but, since there's a seat on my account I hate to pay for no reason.
-
Not having much time to think about this, it seems completely legitimate that this license is yours at this point. You sold something, they never came around to "collect" it. You gave them a LOT of time, you tried contacting them, they don't exist anymore it would seem. It seems the only choices at this point are use it or lose it. Since you have possession of the license and have possession legally, I can't see any reason that the license is not yours to use.
If the party comes around asking about it, then yes, you will likely need to turn it over to them. But you have no obligation to not use the license until they do. AFAISI.
-
I would generally agree that you should feel free to use this until/if the person you sold it to contacts you back.
I would not try to sell it again unless you can confirm 100% what happened to the last purchaser. If they did go under, there may be litigation against their assets and this could be considered part of it and found through the discovery process.
