Autodesk has now gone live with a product activation website.
http://www.autodesk.com/activation.
Some who have heard the announcement that like the customers outside of North America for years that AutoCAD 2005 will include the product activation in North America as well. The activation is not the old Cdilla technology and is very transparent and well received during beta testing and other products. You can also still install per the license agreement at home and work for your standalone installation.
Unfortunately, some with ulterior motives have tried to stir the pot with incorrect information or unsubstantiated rumors before the product has even been released. Product activation has been used in discreet 3ds studio Max, Revit, and all trial and student versions of AutoCAD for a few years. The technology has been improved and made as transparant as possible to not inconvenience our customers. Many other companies use the same technology like the latest released products from Adobe, Macromedia, and Symantec and many many more. Many other CAD software packages use similar product locking including Bentley, Solidworks, PTC, and many others. While the reason for implementing this into North America is not that others do it, we do understand concerns and have attempted to provide a wealth of product activation information to alleviate any concerns.
There is a link to submit feedback and questions on the activation web site (http://www.autodesk.com/activation).
Sincerely,
Shaan Hurley
What will happen when AutoCAD 2005 is retired but the user still wants to use it on her new hardware?
Or if God forbid Autodesk goes out of business?
You will still be able to get authorizations just like you can still get AutoCAD R14 authorizations today and for the foreseeable future. It is a valid question and concern not just for Autodesk but for most software today. I will make sure top bring this up with the team. Also you can email the link listed on http://www.autodesk.com/activation.
Thank you for the feedback.
Sincerely,
Shaan Hurley
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