Resell ArchiCAD licence

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone

Scenario: I am wanting to purchase a AC21 licence on the national buy, sell & swap site (Trademe). Central Innovation who are the local reseller here in NZ have stated that this is not possible as they will not allow me to upgrade the licence to the latest version (AC22) and change the licence into my name. Interestingly, they allowed me to do this almost a year ago without any questions asked. The reason/excuse now for not allowing this transaction is that their lawyers have stated that reselling licences breaches the ArchiCAD End User Licence Agreement.

The EULA states the following:
A: Commercial Mode
* Unless You make your own copy of the Software totally unusable, You may not sell, loan, distribute, cede,
sublicense, rent or lease or otherwise transfer or assign the right to use the Software, nor transfer or provide access to it by network for commercial use, either in whole or in part. You hereby accept that in case of any type of transfer of the Software by You, this Agreement automatically ceases to exist on the effective date of the transfer and You shall lose all rights arising from this Agreement.
* In case of a resold license, You, i.e. the purchaser of the resold Software, shall be required to re-register the Software with GRAPHISOFT's appointed local partners, pay the applicable fees and enter into the applicable Software Support Agreement in order to be entitled to any updates, upgrades, support, etc.

From what I can see it states that if the software is made unusable (I assume unusable by the seller) and that applicable fees are paid and a new agreement signed by the new owner of the licence, then this is allowable under the GS EULA and the reseller (Central Innovation) have no say in the matter? Frustratingly we cant contact Graphisoft direct as all correspondence is re-routed through the reseller.

I would be interested to know what others have encountered in these circumstances. Is our Reseller is being difficult, trying to over-ride the EULA, by not allowing the reselling of licences? More importantly, my company has treated the licences we have as 'assets' in the assurance that some day the licences could be on-sold to recoup the initial purchase costs. Does this mean the licences will need to be completely written off and treated as a 'loss'?

I have also heard that Vectorworks who is owned by Nemetschek, the parent company of Graphisoft, DOES allow the resale of VW licences without any questions asked.

Thanks

Bazza
AC22 6021
Win 10 Pro 1903
i7 9800X Octacore 4GHz
64Gb Ram
P4000 8GB Quadro

[Brett Brown]

Marton wrote:

Hi Mikas, allowed for sure, selling your perpetual Archicad license continues to be an option.

In case you would sell your license, make sure to involve your local Graphisoft partner in the process, to find out the required steps and conditions based on the license type in question.

Hi Marton, perhaps you can explain to many of us why the local Graphisoft Partner (Central Innovation in AUS & NZ) flatly refuses to transfer Teamwork Licenses from a couple of years ago?
Are they doing this against Graphisoft Partner rules?
Please let us know.

[mikas]

Marton wrote:
allowed for sure

Thank You Very Much for Your answer.
And the answer was my preferred one absolutely.

[AlexM]

Hi Brett,

I’m following this thread with interest, although I expect we won’t get an answer.

The extreme license costs for purchase and SSA here down under (CI territory) already make it difficult; combined with the outright hostile approach to licence flexibility makes me question our ‘investment’.

I know a couple of other smaller practices that have converted their license to dongles to give themselves some flexibility. Kind of crazy to have to resort to that in this day and age (and the dongles come yet at another inflated cost themselves), but it might be an option your seller could take.

Personally, if I need to expand the practice again, it’s cheaper just to change to Revit.

[Gerald Hoffman]

Brett,
I don't know the situation down under but on it's face your comment isn't logical. If you go the Autodesk route you are left with no option except upgrade every year as I understand it. At least with Archicad our licenses are still perpetual which means you can opt out of upgrading if the features of the current release that you have work for you.

Cheers from up above

[Brett Brown]

Gerald wrote:
Brett,
I don't know the situation down under but on it's face your comment isn't logical. If you go the Autodesk route you are left with no option except upgrade every year as I understand it. At least with Archicad our licenses are still perpetual which means you can opt out of upgrading if the features of the current release that you have work for you.

Cheers from up above

Actually, it's AlexM you need to be addressing.

But to your point re Revit, Revit LT ( $700NZD yearly) is all you need to do Residential construction if budget is your focus.
To AlexM, If you are on a Mac Vectorworks is a good choice and they do have Perpetual licenses which you can buy second-hand licenses at a very good discount. Which is the point of this thread, seems like everything Archicad, depends on where you live to get a good deal.

[price discussion removed by moderator]

[Gerald Hoffman]

Hey Brett,

All I can say is WOW!! That does seem to be out of line with prices in Canada and the US which are the only ones I know. I don't understand why this would be either unless the dealers in Australia have to pay more from Graphisoft. I feel your pain but I am pretty sure that if we had to pay those kind of prices in Canada there would be a lot fewer subscribers to the SSA.

I think I am going to go cry into a beer on your behalf right now. Cheers,

[AlexM]

Thanks Gerald, with Brett providing the prices you might be able to see why the idea of a perpetual licence isn't so great down here. Basically it's 3-5 years before breakeven with the Revit cost. In reality its even more as we can flex up and down with the Revit licences which is pretty cost effective (Archicad does have the 'rental licences', but as a comparison 6 months of Archicad licence here is more than a full year of the whole Autodesk suite).

I have a couple of students who come in at various times to our office. A second hand licence or 2, even if we leave them a couple of versions behind for a year, would let me train them up and have them able to be a part of a 'real' office environment. There's absolutely no way we can afford to shell out $20k+ for a couple of casual students software! This also factors into expanding the office quickly - it's a very significant cost.

[Lingwisyer]

[price discussion removed by moderator]

[Gordana Radonic]

Brett wrote:

Marton wrote:

Hi Mikas, allowed for sure, selling your perpetual Archicad license continues to be an option.

In case you would sell your license, make sure to involve your local Graphisoft partner in the process, to find out the required steps and conditions based on the license type in question.

Hi Marton, perhaps you can explain to many of us why the local Graphisoft Partner (Central Innovation in AUS & NZ) flatly refuses to transfer Teamwork Licenses from a couple of years ago?
Are they doing this against Graphisoft Partner rules?
Please let us know.

Hi Brett,

Let me try answer to your question raised to Marton.

Graphisoft works closely with reseller partners worldwide and rules of collaboration are well defined. Both Graphisoft and Partners comply with EULA rules and do our best to elevate customers. End-users shall also comply with EULA which allows end-users to sell their license (with the prior written consent of Graphisoft).
Regarding pricing, definition of the local market prices and the pricing policy is the right and responsibility of the local selling entities considering various local country specific factors, and we firmly believe that the end-user prices reflect the value offering of our products and services.
We believe that every pricing discussion is a confidential matter of the partner and end-user, as it might include client specific services, and I warmly recommend to reach out to Central Innovation to follow-up on your concerns.
Thank you for your understanding!

[Gerald Hoffman]

Regarding pricing, definition of the local market prices and the pricing policy is the right and responsibility of the local selling entities considering various local country specific factors, and we firmly believe that the end-user prices reflect the value offering of our products and services.

Hi Gordana,
I am sure you do believe that. However that doesn't necessarily make it so. I am sure as it seems to be from this thread that quite a few users would disagree with your assessment. The problem would be that if there is only one reseller in a given country setting pricing there is a actual monopoly so users have little choice.

I for one am happy I am in Canada as long as the resellers here continue with a fair pricing policy. Of course I would always wish to pay less but do realize everyone has to make a living.

Cheers,