New licensing system, Behavior if Steinberg Infrastructure is Down?

It’s a fact of life that any company will experience downtime in its serverside infrastructure, or unpredictable things will happen. For example, the issues surrounding the activation of new Cubase 11 licenses due to the e-licensing system. (This probably prompted the change to the new system or accelerated it.)

For the new system (I have read the FAQ), by default we have the “30 days until reactivation” period.

Do we know the behavior of the licensing system if, for example, on this 30th day the Steinberg servers are down due to malfunctioning or maintenance?

With the wrong timing, I could lose time on a project.

I just wanted to know if Steinberg had anything in place for this? i.e. if it’s an issue with Steinberg’s side, shouldn’t the software continue to work?

Also, I realize no guarantees can be made about “doomsday” scenarios, but I hope that in the longterm it’ll be possible to continue using the software even if the licensing system becomes unavailable. I’d be on-board with being stuck with old (1-2 versions behind) deprecated software beyond some timeline, and be able to use them without worrying. It’s just a thought.

EDIT:
Alright, thanks for the reply.

The problem with very long threads is that they are very time-consuming to read. I am sure they touch upon things not directly mentioned in the FAQ. Might I suggest creating an updated FAQ based on those discussions?

Anyway, yes, I am hoping for the best with this system, and openness to tweaking it.

(Also, I kind of wish that there were a way for the OP to make a closing reply before the topic is closed.)

If you are online, the system connects for verification and resets the timer each time you launch the daw. It does not check again during that session. Presumably if you don’t quit the app it will never check.

They will be offering a year-long activation for those who desire that. They are beta-testing the new system, and the entire system is not finalized. Steinberg have also indicated that they are still evaluating how the system will work in scenarios like schools or recording studio and post houses.

There’s not much else that can be said aside from what’s in the faq.

I presume that in the extremely unlikely case that the company should somehow disappear, they would do what’s needed to honor the licensing contract.

This topic has been discussed a lot over the past week, and there are two very long threads wherein every conceivable scenario was discussed. When the same questions started to come up repeatedly the topics were closed, but remain available to read through. You can browse these topics at:

https://forums.steinberg.net/tag/steinberg-licensing

Since this has been so amply discussed, I’ll close this topic.

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