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Legal question about rights of EU residents after Maxon transition

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#1

Hi Maxon!

Here in Europe we enjoy the right to interoperability as directed by the EU Directive 91/250/EEC received for us in Ireland via the S.I. No. 26/1993 and also the very strict GDPR so, because Maxon has removed the option to move from subscription to perpetual license, how do you propose to grant me access to all my work in case I want to move to a different product? By law, you just cannot tell me that all my work is lost because you shall guarantee the interoperability and data portability of the software.

Solution?

1 Like
#2

Hi,

Iā€™m not a lawyer and also not a native English speaker and Iā€™m not a employee of Maxon or Pixologic but for me it looks like that the EU Directive that you mentioned above protects the creator/producer of the SW and not the product which can be produced with a SW (it could be Iā€™m totally wrong)
But never the less a ZBrush perpetual license is still available to buy in the Maxon store if you need one: Perpetual Pricing
BTW: If you already own an ā€˜oldā€™ ZBrush perpetual license this is also still valid.
You have also the possibility to convert your work into a generic format like FBX, OBJ etc. to use it in an other 3D program before you cancel your subscription.
Iā€™m sure if your complain is true that other SW companies who sell only subscriptions of their SW would get in trouble long time before.

But yes, your general point ā€œwhat happens with my work if I cancel my subscriptionā€ should be consider before someone buy or cancel a subscription of a SW.
(BTW: Iā€™m only a hobby user and Iā€™m not a fan of subscriptions)

CU.

#3

Iā€™m afraid you did not read the directive correctly, but it is available in all EU languages so you can switch to yours if itā€™s there. That directive revokes all rights to the software producers in relation to actions made by the licensee "which are necessary to achieve interoperability", in laymanā€™s terms, I can legally hack the software protections in order ā€œto achieve interoperabilityā€. There is plenty of case law in Europe about this.

About converting to a perpetual license now, that doesnā€™t apply to me: I have no intention to move to another product, for now, so Iā€™m happy to keep my current subscription. My question is about the future: imagine that Blender in 5-years-time becomes as good as ZBrush and I want to move to that, I should be offered the option either to convert the ZBrush project into a Blender project or to convert my subscription to a perpetual license locked at the release that will be out at that point in time. Maxon cannot just tell me to export the FBX losing all the non-destructive layers of a ZBrush project, that would be illegal in Europe.

#4

Hi,
I assume you mean this terms:
Whereas the function of a computer program is to communicate and work together with other components of a computer system and with users and, for this purpose, a logical and, where appropriate, physical interconnection and interaction is required to permit all elements of software and hardware to work with other software and hardware and with users in all the ways in which they are intended to function;

Whereas the parts of the program which provide for such interconnection and interaction between elements of software and hardware are generally known as 'interfaces`;

Whereas this functional interconnection and interaction is generally known as 'interoperability`; whereas such interoperability can be defined as the ability to exchange information and mutually to use the information which has been exchanged;

Again, Iā€™m not a lawyer but in my view this would be fulfilled with the ZBrush export function and also with the different GoZ plugins which interoperates with many other 3D programs.
Sure, it would be very nice from Maxon if you could get a perpetual license for free (or at least a high discount) if you cancel your subscription after a period (minimum one yer or so) of paying for it.
Similar if you lease a car and after the leasing end you can buy it for the residual value.
Yeah, this is not 100% comparable because normally you donā€™t get updates on your leased car during the leasing time (if there is no safety doubts to resolve on the car).

CU :wink:

#5

Well, so you are dismissing very quickly 29 years of case law where even Microsoft and Apple had to give up pursuing EU residents for cracking their products. In the end, both Apple and Microsoft embraced Open Source file formats so that they didnā€™t have to fight any longer lost battles in Europe :grinning:

Iā€™m quite sure Maxon legal department knows quite well what Iā€™m referring to, so Iā€™m still waiting for Maxon to answer my question.

Edit: I never implied I want the perpetual for free, but I have the right to pay for it so I donā€™t have to lose years of work for switching to a different product.

#6

Hi,

I dug a little bit deeper and the ā€˜SW interoperabilityā€™ is a very interesting and important field.
Microsoft Expands Document Interoperability:

The Importance of Interoperability in 3D Software Applications:

The Legal Regulation of Interoperability in an Oligopolistic Market:

In general that could means that all existing 3D SW ā€˜mustā€™ use a common open source file format (or interface) therewith all 3D SW can read and write the ā€˜nativeā€™ file format of each other 3D SW.
E.g Blender could read a .ZPR file and ZBrush could read a .blend file and so on and this for all different (old/current/future) 3D SW releases.
This would be really great and I would be more than happy if this would be implemented

You wrote:
Edit: I never implied I want the perpetual for free, but I have the right to pay for it so I donā€™t have to lose years of work for switching to a different product.

Maybe itā€™s my bad English but as I wrote in my first response you can buy the ā€˜currentā€™ perpetual ZBrush license whenever you want.

CU