Upgrading from full version 15 one computer to three computer question
I currently have Acronis version 15 full license for (1) one computer. Can I purchase the upgrade version 16 for (3) computers and still use my single license key to activate more than one computer?
56520: Upgrading to Acronis True Image 2016
I believe that if you upgrade from a single license to a 3 pack - you still can only legally license 3 systems, but you can retain 2015 on one of those if you don't want to move it to 2016. You should not be able to keep 2015 on one and then use 2016 for 3 additional systems (at least not per the license terms since you are choosing to upgrade one of the existing ones).
Hi Bobbo, you may be technically correct with regards to license terms, I, like most people, have never read every single word of the license terms so cannot dispute what they may say. However, I have been using upgrade versions of ATIH for the last 6 or more years and have never had an issue with using both the upgraded from version and the new version when this was necessary - my take is that I have still paid to use both and both still work without limitation.
Sorry I wasn't that clear. I want to thank everyone for their input, but this topic has gotten a lot more detailed than I ever expected. I was not planning on running four computers, my main concern was if I qualified to purchase using the upgrade path/price for the 3 license bundle when I only owned 1 license right now. I plane to upgrade my one computer to version 16, but also wanted to install full versions on two other laptops. I didn't want to purchase the upgrade path and find later I needed to hold 3 "unique" version 15 keys to make computer 2 and 3 activate. Sorry for any confusion, but I could not find an answer to this scenario in the FAQs. I also agree with Steve S. that most people don't have the time or the law degree to understand most end user license agreements. Try reading Microsoft's EUL some time. I think if most understood what they were agreeing to they would use Linux.
Steve, if it is physically working that way on systems, don't think anyone is going to stop anyone from using it that manner - at least not for home/personal use. Well, not unless the music industry is involved anyway :) Unfortunately, whether someone reads the EULA or not, they consent to the terms when they accept the installation of the application so it is a risk they need to be willing to accept if something ever did come out of it (although not very likley - but it could happen).
As I read the EULA and other licensing information on Acronis upgrdes, an upgrade is an "upgrade" of an existing license and not intended to serve as an additional installation - this is usually the case for all software upgrades I've ever dealt with (although I'm sure there are differences in the licensing terms with some applications), hence the discounted "upgrade" price. Some other software applications are just better at physically making sure that only the # of purchased licenses can ever be activated at the same time. However, there are lots of applications that have no mechanism to prevent the physical installation on more systems than they have been licensed for, but it is still against the terms of the EULA to do so and could result in negative consequences if the software developer had the desire to seek action for breaking the EULA. For simple compariison, it's really, no different than Microsoft's upgrade policy - when you upgrade to Windows 10, it doesn't give permission for you to run the old version on one machine and then use the newly upgraded license on another machine - at least not as far as the EULA goes, even though there are ways around it.
Here's an example of how an Acronis upgrade license is supposed to work per the EULA (as I read it).
Let's say someone originally purchased a single license of 2013 = 1 license. They then purcahse an upgrade to 2014 for 3 pc's = 3 licenses. As an upgrade, though, that is an upgrade from the original licnese, they are still only legally allowed to license the applicatoin on 3 pc's. If they then upgrade to 3 pc's for 2015, they are still only legally licensed for 3pc's. Now, if they wanted to, they could have one running 2013, another 2014 and another 2015, but they still only have paid for 3 actual licenses even though they could technically be running 7 instances since the software is not preventing it, if they had the old versions running on different pc's with 1 x 2013 license + 3 x 2014 upgrade licenses + 3 x 2015 upgrades. EULA-wise tough, still only 3 authorized licenses.
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Here's some more licensing FAQ info outside of the EULA itself:
56550: Acronis True Image 2016: Licensing and Upgrade FAQ
You can upgrade to Acronis True Image 2016 (3 or 5 computers) and use the product on up to 5 machines (PC and Mac).
If you have a version of Acronis True Image distributed along with external HDD, such as Acronis True Image OEM, Acronis True Image WD Edition or others, you can upgrade to Acronis True Image 2016 (1 computer) or Acronis True Image Cloud (1 computer) version. In this case you will need to install Acronis True Image 2016 on the same disk where OEM version was pre-installed.
Dennis,
For your situation, long story short, yes, you can purchase a 3 license upgrade as long as you have a valid license key and use that key for any 3 computers that you want.