I'm working with a customer that has interest in purchasing his own copy of P99SE. I'm hoping some of you can help answer some questions we have.
1. I thought I saw a PEDA post that indicated that Protel no longer offers upgrade discounts from P99SE to Protel 2004. Is this still true?
It looks like they no longer offer "upgrades" at all. Rather, they offer "legacy 99SE customers" an unstated (on the web site) discount on the purchase of 2004. I haven't had an opportunity to call them since I noticed this, so I don't know what the discount it.
I might think that an upgrade price and a discounted price were the same thing; but if I assume that they are different, I can only imagine: Protel has long considered that an original license was subsumed into an upgrade license. So, for example, once a license was used for upgrade, it was no longer an independent license and could not be sold unless the newer license were sold with it. Actually, they claimed that if the old license were sold, they would consider that the new license was also sold, they would not transfer them independently.
However, a "discount" in the purchase of a new license, which is how they stated it on the web site, would imply that the new license is independent of the old license.
This might, under some circumstances, actually increase the market value of an older license, because some buyers might indeed want two licenses, albeit one for 99SE and one for 2004. Perhaps 99SE could be used for schematic entry and the creation of footprints, and 2004 by another engineer or designer for PCB design. And, should they become surplus, either license could be sold. But I haven't looked at a recent 2004 license.
Protel might still restrict the transferability of a license used for discount. Or there might be other nasty surprises; it is a bit troubling that the actual policies are not explicitly published. Based on the history, however, I'd be surprised if something truly harmful to users has happened.
2. Is there still a Protel 99SE resale market?
It has never been very active. But there is traffic on the list [EMAIL PROTECTED] I don't personally know of any recent sales, but I'd not necessarily hear about it.
3. If so, what's a used copy of 99SE selling for?
Before the policy changed, the last price I knew of was $3500. Depending on the details of Protel's new policy, the current value might be higher or lower than that.
For example, suppose that the appearance is real, that an upgrade right has been replaced by a discount offer, in which event the new license is independent of the old and both of them are now transferable, or, at least, the older one is. And suppose that the discount is $4000. The older license would have a use value, which could easily be $2000, comparable to Circuit Studio 2004. If we devalue the discount by 25% -- people expect some kind of savings when they buy "used" licenses, though, in the past, used licenses have been quite the same as "new" ones -- that would leave the value of a 99SE license at $4000. In other words, it is possible that the market value of an older license has increased as a result of the change.
I would expect that Altium might refuse to allow a legacy license to be used for discount more than once. In other words, after using it to get a discounted price for 2004, they won't allow the same user to use it again, nor would they allow a purchaser to use it again. This would be reasonable.
There was one writer on protel-users-resale who stated, without explanation, that "It is not legal to sell a license." When challenged, he again did not explain, but effectively claimed that what he had written was based on a recent visit to the U.S. Altium office in San Diego. He did not elaborate at all. So I'd take this as an unconfirmed rumor, single-source, that Altium has changed its policy regarding sellability of licenses.
Altium, I have always said, may change upgrade and discount rights at will. However, I'd suggest that sellability is a different issue from upgrade or discount rights; and Altium may not convert something legal and permitted into something illegal unilaterally and arbitrarily. The older licenses are unconditionally sellable (provided that the seller does not retain copies); the 99SE license, as I recall, requires Altium to approve of transfers, *but* Altium assured many people, myself included, that this was done only to protect users from fraud and other abuses. Not to arbitrarily prohibit sales. So I'd be very surprised if they have actually attempted to do it. Rather, my operating assumption, until I'm able to actually discuss this with Altium reps, is that someone misunderstood something. It's happened before....
The fact is that software which is supposedly not sellable is typically sellable anyway under certain circumstances. For example, I have a printed circuit design business. Suppose I sell the business. The license *may* go with the business. Fat chance succeeding on a copyright violation claim against the buyer of the business if I included the license, explicitly, with the business! An Altium rep assured me that PCAD licenses, supposedly not transferable, nevertheless could be transferred under circumstances like this. I got the same comment from PADS sales.
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