Poser License Manager

[KageRyu]

At this time, I will urge all holders of a Poser 2014 Game Development or later license from Smith Micro (not Bondware) to go to the License Manager, open the disclaimer, and grab a screenshot for future reference.

This may end up being the only surviving proof of the Promise Smith Micro made that we would have continued use of our licensed software in the event they changed management, went out of business, or discontinued development.

I already can no longer log in to my Support Desk tickets or profile or send questions regarding Poser to Smith Micro - I am unsure how many users this holds true for already.

I am concerned that what was stated in Bondware's most recent release is that anyone who does not upgrade Poser versions above 10 may be unable to use the software after September 16th due to the license manager changing.

 

[KageRyu]

Big surprise - Smith Micro blew me off and closed the ticket.

 

[LisaB]

Let's give them a chance to sort things out and make things clear. I doubt there is any intention to deny you of something you paid for. It's all part of a complicated transition. Please have patience.

 

[KageRyu]

I am not blaming Renderosity/Bondware. It was SM that promised they had contingencies in place to allow owners of Poser to keep using it should they sell it, go out of business, etc...
I am just urging those who might be affected to grab a screenshot while it is still available, in the name of prudence.

 

[Darryl]

is License Manager different than Download Manager?

 

[Hornet3d]

is License Manager different than Download Manager?

Yes it is, with the purchase of any version of Poser Game Dev and any later version of Poser you were allowed to use up to three installations of the software. At the same time there was a 'phone home feature' added which checks on the installations and must have an answer every six months or else the installation in question will not launch. If you have used all three of the installations and you get another computer you need to either buy Poser again or you need to disable one of the installations to free it up for the new computer. That deactivation is done via the license manager.

The possible sale of Poser to another developer was always an issue for this feature which was slipped in quietly with Game Dev upgrades. I agree with Lisa that we will have to wait and see but I do not see that copying a statement made by SM at time will have much impact on Renderosity, after all it is not their promise. Personally I have always had Poser Pro 2014 installed on my computer for this very instance, I would miss Superfly and a few other imp[improvements but at least 2014 does not phone home.

 

[skylab]

Not intending to create an issue here, but I'll just say that it would indeed be wise to visit CP, if any of your Poser purchases were made there, to save any of your purchase history that might be needed, as access to CP will be ending soon. This would be especially true of any past Poser 11 purchases, for proof of valid serial numbers. That's all I'll say for now. Just save yourself the regret, and have your information in order.

 

[Hornet3d]

Not intending to create an issue here, but I'll just say that it would indeed be wise to visit CP, if any of your Poser purchases were made there, to save any of your purchase history that might be needed, as access to CP will be ending soon. This would be especially true of any past Poser 11 purchases, for proof of valid serial numbers. That's all I'll say for now. Just save yourself the regret, and have your information in order.

As the future is unknown at this point, any proof of purchase might useful to have. It might also be a good time to make sure your backup of any content you purchased at CP is also valid.

 

[skylab]

I was surprised that I was able to get into CP, as log-in access was supposed to end on Sept 2, but I was able to get in and save all my information, including the upgrade from serials, if it applied.

 

[Darryl]

OK cool. I went ahead and got mine. Thanks for bringing it up.

 

[Richard60]

I own both Poser and MoHo (Anima Studio) and the activation server is the same one for both programs. MoHo 11,12 &13 have the activation system in place. Smith Micro just released MoHO 13 in July and did a service release a couple of weeks ago. Logic says that if SM use the server for their programs and 2014GD was one of their programs the code to access that server is still in the program. Therefore your Poser 2014GD should still work after the 16th or 19th or whatever date that is now floating around as it when you need to convert to Bondware.
It use to be on the old SM site you could download all the service patches for Poser 5-11 (with serial number). I have not seen that at the new PoserSoftware.com site (yet). Maybe at some point in the future we will get that back. At this time we really don't know what Bondware bought when they acquired the rights to Poser. Is it just the program to continue selling and development or the whole history.
As it stands SM has a server to provide a license key for all the programs above.. Bondware is creating a server to take over the license for Poser11. Owners of Poser 11 are going to have to update their program to point to the new server. When the switch is made IMHO it is highly unlikely that SM is going to deactivate the Poser portion of the server on that date. Most likely it will continue to run and as requests to activate are received they will compile a list of people that have not upgrade and send to Bondware to have them contact the people with the out of date version to remind them to upgrade.
As far as 2014GD I am pretty sure that there is a patch available to remove the activation requirement, much as there was in Poser 5 which had something very similar in that it required an activation code at first then a service release 3or 4 removed that requirement. Who is going to post that is the question. If it a couple of dozen then maybe SM will host an update for PP2014GD to remove that issue. Maybe if it is hundreds Bondware for will add that to their server and have to post an update for users of PP2014DG

 

[Hornet3d]

I own both Poser and MoHo (Anima Studio) and the activation server is the same one for both programs. MoHo 11,12 &13 have the activation system in place. Smith Micro just released MoHO 13 in July and did a service release a couple of weeks ago. Logic says that if SM use the server for their programs and 2014GD was one of their programs the code to access that server is still in the program. Therefore your Poser 2014GD should still work after the 16th or 19th or whatever date that is now floating around as it when you need to convert to Bondware.
It use to be on the old SM site you could download all the service patches for Poser 5-11 (with serial number). I have not seen that at the new PoserSoftware.com site (yet). Maybe at some point in the future we will get that back. At this time we really don't know what Bondware bought when they acquired the rights to Poser. Is it just the program to continue selling and development or the whole history.
As it stands SM has a server to provide a license key for all the programs above.. Bondware is creating a server to take over the license for Poser11. Owners of Poser 11 are going to have to update their program to point to the new server. When the switch is made IMHO it is highly unlikely that SM is going to deactivate the Poser portion of the server on that date. Most likely it will continue to run and as requests to activate are received they will compile a list of people that have not upgrade and send to Bondware to have them contact the people with the out of date version to remind them to upgrade.
As far as 2014GD I am pretty sure that there is a patch available to remove the activation requirement, much as there was in Poser 5 which had something very similar in that it required an activation code at first then a service release 3or 4 removed that requirement. Who is going to post that is the question. If it a couple of dozen then maybe SM will host an update for PP2014GD to remove that issue. Maybe if it is hundreds Bondware for will add that to their server and have to post an update for users of PP2014DG

Welcome to Hivewire and thank you for the information. I hope it runs smoothly whatever the logistics involved of course the real problem is going to be in the not knowing, activating is one thing but most users discovered the real kick when, six months down the line when the 'phone home' part had not been successful, the deactivation part kicked in.

 

[eclark1894]

I own Poser 2014, but never got Game Dev, so I do expect mine to keep running. But didn't Smith Micro say something about giving people a permanent activation in the event that they changed owners or went out of business?

 

[Hornet3d]

I own Poser 2014, but never got Game Dev, so I do expect mine to keep running. But didn't Smith Micro say something about giving people a permanent activation in the event that they changed owners or went out of business?

The point with Poser 2014 is there is no 'phone home' check done once the installation is installed so once activated that is it. The very reason I have a version still active on my computer. I guess the validity of the serial number is done within the program so that should also allow Poser 2014 in to installed onto any new computer.

SM did at one point set up web site where you could manage your Poser activations and it did provide the ability to request a permanent activation. This was required for anyone who had their computer isolated from the Internet and without a permanent connection each installation would fail after six months. This was in fact how the feature was discovered as someone installed Game Dev on three machines in a work environment which was isolated and all three installations failed around the same time. On contacting tech support they were informed about this new feature which at the time had not been made public, only after the public backlash did SM change their advertising and much later added the activation web site.

Now here is the 'but' to all this. I had a computer fail on me and therefore I did not have the opportunity to deactivate that installation and therefore could not reactivate on the replacement computer. SM tech support were very helpful and manage to sort it out, when I thank them their response was they were always able to help with this sort of problem as long as I did not make any of the activations permanent. When I asked why that was the case the tech guy was evasive. I do not know if the web site still exists or if it would work since the sale of Poser. I hope at some point Renderosity will be a little more open on the activation process than SM were when they introduced it. I am not pressing them as they have a lot to do at this point in time but it would be useful in due course to see if we have to be careful when reinstalling Poser.

 

[Richard60]

Graphics Portal
Here is the location of the license server. All my MoHo and Poser licenses are listed and what system they are loaded on. Same Server same activation process same ability to activation a system that is not allowed on the internet, also the option to make permanent. They do have a warning if you make permanent and the machine dies you will have to contact them to get it released to use again.

 

[KageRyu]

I own Poser 2014, but never got Game Dev, so I do expect mine to keep running. But didn't Smith Micro say something about giving people a permanent activation in the event that they changed owners or went out of business?

Yes, they said they had contingencies - but now...well, I'll just say they are being unhelpful. Renderosity has a plan though. They should be making a news post soon.

 

[Hornet3d]

Yes, they said they had contingencies - but now...well, I'll just say they are being unhelpful. Renderosity has a plan though. They should be making a news post soon.

That was always the problem with this feature, particularly after is was slipped into Game Dev under the wire as it were. SM lost a lot of trust then, and a few customers, so when they came up with the 'they had contingency' statement I was sceptical to say the least as once they had sold it the interest would soon disappear.

This is a strange situation for me in that, with the exception of the licensing, I had a lot of support for what SM did with Poser feature wise. I had reasons not to trust Rendo which are well in the past. In the past few weeks I have lost all trust in SM and I have nothing but support for what Rendo has done so far, I even trust them to come up with a reasonable licensing practice. How things change.

 

[KageRyu]

Jenn is great about getting back to persons with questions too. At least in my experience.

 

[Ghostman]

I own Poser 2014, but never got Game Dev, so I do expect mine to keep running. But didn't Smith Micro say something about giving people a permanent activation in the event that they changed owners or went out of business?

They did but nothing ever happend in that area. So now we can only wait and see what will happen.

 

[Richard60]

So it now appears that if you have PP2014GD then you are getting an upgrade to PP11 11.2. The Plus is you get the newest program. If you upgraded from PP2014 to 2014GD then you can drop back to PP2104 and get PP11.2 and have the couple of extra features in GD. The only people who are SOL would be if you only bought PP2014GD.