Does a CS license actually expire?

[mrtn]

I thought that my Circuit Studio license would be perpetual. I admit I might be mistaken but for whatever reason I didn't think the software would just stop working after a year.

Did some digging:
https://www.element14.com/community/roadTests/1620/l/win-a-12-month-licence-to-altium-circuitstudio?et=notification.mention
I won this through a contest on e14 and someone (not me) asked the explicit question:
"When I understand the licensing correct, this is a perpetual license, but one doesn't get updates after the 12 month period, right (which is about 145 EUR right now)? Or is the license valid only for 12 months and then it stops working?"

answer:

"The license is perpetual, the yearly fees are for maintenance. So you can keep on using it, but you'll miss out on updates and access to some things (e.g. on-line parts vault.)"

Back to reality: my license just quit and the Altium website won't let me login. I emailed e14 to see if they'll help. I admit I thought this might happen.

It will be pretty silly if the answer is: "oh yeah - the guy who should have known how the licensing works, he didn't actually know what he was talking about"

[H.O]

The access to updates (which there aren't that many of anyway) and to the Altium vault will stop after the 12 months but the software should continue to work. That's what they have always said and that's what it still says on Farnell/E14 Product page. License is perpetual, updates/upgrades/vault subscription on subscription.

CircuitStudio - Standalone License Plus 1st Year Subscription

This is a perpetual single seat license for CircuitStudio from Altium. It included the first year’s subscription to receive CircuitStudio product updates, upgrades and access to the Altium Vault.

CircuitStudio - Renewal of 12 Month Product Update and Vault Content Subscription
Renewal of 12 month subscription to Receive CircuitStudio product updates, upgrades and access to the Altium Vault

Upgrades to Altium Designer
If you are an CircuitStudio license holder and wish to upgrade to Altium Designer, there is an upgrade path available directly from Altium of USD $995 (or equivalent) off the list price of Altium Designer.

They even used the fact that EAGLE went subscription while they (Altium/CS) didn't as a way to tout their software so I'd be highly surprised and seriously pissed off it really does stop working after 12 months. In fact, I'll consider myself scamed since my, by far, biggest motivation for switching from EAGLE was the fact that they went subscription (after lying about not doing exactly that).

I still have a copule of months left of my first year on CS....

[trophosphere]

You will still be able to access the program and do everything except do things which require being connected to their online service such as accessing the online parts repository. I let mine expire a couple of weeks ago and can still create/view/modify projects without any problems.

I don't log into anything when I start Circuit Studio. Go to the menu and select File>System Preferences to bring up the preferences dialog box. Select System>Account Management and then select the "No, I wish to remain disconnected from Altium" radio box.

[Joel_l]

Looks like what MTN got may be more similar to an edu license. Does not look like it was a purchased perpetual license but rather a contest promo freebie. It might very well be  a 12 month only license for the software.