Licence conditions for enhanced OCR plugin  SOLVED

Discussion for the End User use of OCR in PDF-XChange Editor and Viewer

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DIV
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Licence conditions for enhanced OCR plugin

Post by DIV »

Hello, Tracker team.

I found the licence terms for your new Enhanced OCR Plugin to be rather confusing.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/product/ocr-plugin
Existing Clients, New Users and the Enhanced OCR Plugin

Existing V7 clients with active product maintenance who upgrade to V8 get a FREE LICENSE for the Enhanced OCR Plugin that remains valid until their V7 maintenance expires. They then have the option of renewing their product license maintenance with or without the Enhanced OCR Plugin as desired, and only pay the license maintenance fee for the plugin if they elect to keep it. [...]

The license for the Enhanced OCR Plugin is perpetual, in the same manner as the licenses for all of the Tracker Software family of products. Licenses for the Enhanced OCR Plugin continue to work in any version of our products released while a user has active maintenance - this includes the free license given to users who had existing maintenance at time of the release of V8, as well as the licenses of users who upgrade to V8 or who renew their product maintenance and add the Enhanced OCR Plugin.

Existing clients with expired product maintenance have the opportunity to renew their maintenance or upgrade to V8 with or without the Enhanced OCR Plugin as desired.

New Users who purchase PDF-XChange Editor/Editor Plus, PDF-Tools or PDF-XChange Pro V8 without including the Enhanced OCR Plugin have the opportunity to test the plugin in demo mode for 30 days. When this trial period has expired they have the option to upgrade to include the Enhanced OCR Plugin or revert to the free OCR engine as desired.
[emphasis added]

As you may know, I am an existing user and had an existing maintenance licence for PDF-XChange Editor. I have both version 6 and version 7 installed (as portable versions).

From the above I found it very difficult to decipher what situation applies to me.
I found the bold text contradictory. It was unclear what product/products the "active maintenance" applied to in some statements. It was unclear whether customers who renew are still classified as "existing clients", and also unclear what action qualifies as upgrading to version 8 (viz. getting a new licence or installing the software).

Can I get a free licence (italic text) that allows me to use the current version of the plugin in perpetuity (second bold text)?
Or would I get a free licence (italic text) that allows me to use the current version of the plugin only until my pre-existing licence key (which I've been using for versions 6 and 7) expires (first bold text)?
Or would access to future versions of the plugin also be allowed?

In any case: if so, how? By installing PDF-XChange Editor version 8 and using my pre-existing licence key, at no cost (underlined text)?

As it happens, my pre-existing licence key ("PVP70-....") expires in one day, so I decided I'd better renew to avoid a higher fee. [Although it isn't really clear to me whether or not I have to pay more after my maintenance has expired!]
Is my new licence key ("PVP80-....") marked as a version-8 key, no matter whether I keep using it in my current version 7 portable 'installation'? Now that I have — today — renewed my maintenance, am I still classified as one of your "Existing V7 clients with active product maintenance"? In that case, I should get the free Enhanced OCR Plugin. But in my cart there was a fee charged for the Enhanced OCR Plugin.

When I saw the fee for the Enhanced OCR Plugin in the shopping cart, I considered removing the plugin from the shopping cart, but I then got a warning along the lines that if I removed it, then I would miss the chance to obtain the product at the 'renewal' price, and in future — if I decided to add the plugin — I'd have to pay a higher 'new purchase' price. [Although there was no information I could find about what that 'new purchase' price could be!]

So, rightly or wrongly, I've now renewed my Editor maintenance licence and added to it a maintenance licence for the plugin.
Have I unnecessarily paid for something that I would have gotten for free anyway?
What have I actually received in paying for the plugin? Can I thereby use the plugin in perpetuity, or will it only be available while my maintenance licence is current (bold text)?
What would be the difference in future if I decide to renew the Editor maintenance licence, but not the Enhanced OCR Plugin maintenance licence? Or if I decide to renew the Enhanced OCR Plugin maintenance licence, but not the Editor maintenance licence?

Thanks in advance for your clarifications on these several points,
DIV
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Tracker Supp-Stefan
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Re: Licence conditions for enhanced OCR plugin

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello Div,

Anyone with a V7 (or 6) license key with active maintenance at the time when we released the Enhanced OCR was able to use the EOCR with their existing key until their current maintenance plan expires. This is a temporary free use of the EOCR included in the maintenance plan of anyone who had such an active plan at the time.

Then when the time comes to renew your maintenance plan - you will be offered an option to purchase maintenance renewal for the EOCR (only maintenance price and not the full license cost - so the system considers it as if you have already paid the EOCR's base price).
If you take that upgrade - you then get a V8 license key WITH the EOCR purchased - so this license will continue to work for the EOCR even after the maintenance on it expires - but you will have to stay with an older build.

I see in your account that you do have a V8 license with the EOCR included in it - so this license is now permanent for you, and will continue to work even if you do not ever renew your maintenance plan on your license again.

Regards,
Stefan
DIV
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Re: Licence conditions for enhanced OCR plugin

Post by DIV »

Hello, Stefan.

Thanks for your reply.

It helped my understanding somewhat, although I still feel that the terminology at https://www.pdf-xchange.com/product/ocr-plugin could be clarified.

For example, I guess most people think of "upgrading to a new version" as installing the new version of some application. But actually in this case it really means having a recently purchased maintenance licence?
Even though I (apparently) now have a v8 licence because of my renewal today, with my previous (before this afternoon) v7 licence could I have downloaded and installed and run the v8 software?

I was wondering whether "existing" meant "existing at the time of releasing the offer for the plugin" or something like that. But it's also not very clear in the documentation on that page.

I did not understand what you meant by this sentence:
"If you take that upgrade - you then get a V8 license key WITH the EOCR purchased - so this license will continue to work for the EOCR even after the maintenance on it expires - but you will have to stay with an older build."
* "that upgrade" — what upgrade? Buying a new licence, or installing a new version/plugin? If the new licence, then did you mean paying only for the Editor licence, or paying for the Editor licence and an eOCR licence?
* "after the maintenance on it expires" — what is "it"
* "an older build" — of what?

In this sentence
"I see in your account that you do have a V8 license with the EOCR included in it - so this license is now permanent for you, and will continue to work even if you do not ever renew your maintenance plan on your license again."
will there be separate options to renew the maintenance plan / licence for Editor and the plugin (the way it seems now), or are they going to be one combined plan/licence? Or is that yet to be decided?
Does "this license is now permanent for you" mean for only the eOCR in all (future) versions, or does it mean for only the current version of both Editor and the eOCR plugin?

—DIV
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Tracker Supp-Stefan
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Re: Licence conditions for enhanced OCR plugin  SOLVED

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello Div,

I will pass your concerns to the people who wrote that page, and we will try to clarify the situation there!

As for your account and license key - you have maintenance until Jan 2022 - lets assume we release build 380 on 30 Dec 2021 - you will get both the Editor and the EOCR of build 380 for free. But if we then release build 381 on 1 Feb 2021 - your license key will not work for that build (neither the Editor itself nor the EOCR), however you will still be able to use build 380 even after 1 Feb 2022 when the maintenance plan would have already ended.

Regards,
Stefan
DIV
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Re: Licence conditions for enhanced OCR plugin

Post by DIV »

Thanks, Stefan.

Maybe most people 'got it', but for me it was confusing, so I think it's worth reviewing the web page to see if it can be tweaked.

—DIV
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Tracker Supp-Stefan
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Re: Licence conditions for enhanced OCR plugin

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello Div,

Yes, absolutely - we will do that!

Cheers,
Stefan
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Re: Licence conditions for enhanced OCR plugin

Post by Timur Born »

I also did not know how to exactly interpret the wording. As a result I compared Editor's enhanced OCR with some other alternatives and decided that it was worth the 4.88 EUR over 2 years in any case. Today my 3 years subscription ended and I activated the new license (only 2 years available unfortunately).
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Re: Licence conditions for enhanced OCR plugin

Post by Tracker Supp-Stefan »

Hello Timur,

Yes - at renewal time only 1 and 2 year extensions are available.
In fact even with the original purchase the 'extra' years of maintenance are still just 1 or 2, but because one year comes with the license itself the total can go up to 3 at purchase time.

Thanks for being with us for so long, and for contributing here in the forums!

Regards,
Stefan
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