[@Gary]
Hi Gary,
I have been in IT Service Management (specifically IT Asset Management) for over 20 years and I believe that I can perhaps shed some light on your query regarding the software license that is accepted during the registration process.
The End User License Agreement (commonly called the EULA – pronounced youlaah) is what anyone installing any software for their use has to accept prior to the software installing with activation following thereafter. Many people just click right on it without actually reading it. But you should. It is the binding contract between the software developer /owner –of the intellectual property that you are about to install and you – and your use of the leased software that you are bound to terms to agree to in this contract. All software is set up this way – thanks to Bill Gates idea that you never own software you purchase a right to use it and those rights are defined in many different ways from all vendors at all levels (IBM alone has 200 types of licensing arrangements of their over 22,000 software titles to give you a macro perspective.)
In this specific case, what I read from the EULA, which will not take space here to re-paste it is that the install is a free video editor that you can install on a PC for one user with an additional copy for backup, not for another user. Many people interpret this also to mean, I can put it on my laptop and my desktop, which you can as long as you are the only user of both devices and you are not using both devices with a single license at the same time. Got that. Ok next.
If you want to have the PRO version, which Ashraf makes very generously available to us through SOS until today, then you get the 1 year Pro subscription of the software that is a normal S&S charge (support and service subscription) that many vendors use for license renewal. Note that also many vendors only allow new software to be purchased with support and subscription so that the support (whether multiple levels or the single level of support) is included along with the ability to stay on the current version, including release, patches, etc.
When that S&S charge expires, usually 1 year FROM THE DATE OF PURCHSE, {(not install or turn on or delivery date) – always the PURCHASE date (unless you buy a 100 pack and want a “Date Driven Key Metric” applied to initiate license renewal – mind you a major IT asset management headache so advising not to should that issue ever arise)} THEN you can get another year of JUST S&S without having to buy a new license; that this S&S I believe for the pro version of this software is $20. Should you want to stay on the current version for the software, you are free to do that but without support or subscription for new features, updates.
I believe what you really are asking is that at the 1-year mark, will the Pro features suddenly disappear leaving you with a product shell that is basically the free version without all of the pro features.
I don’t have access to the code or the developer’s mind to ask that question, however since you do have a year of PRO support, I’d recommend taking the high road by sending an email to support asking about that specific last point I have made; Whether the Pro features will remain if you do not upgrade or request support or that it will not matter in any way because after 1 year the product reverts to free version and/or locks the Pro features from being used without the additional S&S charge being paid on your existing license.
I hope that when you do find out, you could post your findings about this specific topic to this forum and have a closure point on this issue for all of us to know what the vendor has in mind for the default action that will occur in 365 days from now or whenever you downloaded and installed the product and accepted the product license terms and condition of the agreement. (Specifically in this case that is your purchase date since it was a free product needing an install by a certain date (the activation date is, therefore, the trigger for the purchase date and hence its renewal date for the length of the term agreed to in the EULA.)