Licensing

You need a licence subscription to use Bridge Deal Manager. The subscription is for the software to be used on a single PC for the period of the licence term. If BDM is started with no active subscription, then you get the opportunity to acquire a 28-day evaluation licence for the device. This allows you to start using the product immediately with unrestricted functionality, and later get a full licence.

Subject to fair usage, a full licence subscription is transferable to a different PC. A mechanism is provided to transfer a subscription to a replacement PC, or even simply to change which PC you wish to use for the application. But you must not abuse this facility to keep switching back and forth between devices. If you want to use the software on multiple devices, you should have a licence subscription for each. You can rescind an old PC’s subscription from the new PC. So you can easily transfer a subscription if the old device is no longer available. You just need the licence code to do this, so you should keep the code secure. The code is not shown on BDM’s licensing management form.

BDM checks with an online licensing server for the device’s subscription status. When correctly licensed, it does not check again for seven days (or until the licence expires). If the licensing server cannot be contacted and the last check was successful, then the application continues to work for a further twenty-one days (or until the licence expires). This means that the device only needs to be connected to the internet to check the subscription status once every twenty-eight days. It also means that if you have not run the application for twenty-eight days, then you will need to connect to the internet to use it.

You can enter a new licence code ahead of time. BDM will continue to use the old subscription until it expires, and the licence period for the new licence only starts when needed.

The licensing system has been designed to make the user’s life as easy as possible, but it also actively checks for abuse. If you attempt to unfairly circumvent the licensing, the providers reserve the right to block your device from using the application, the right to block the device from using the licence, and the right to revoke the licence completely.

Initial Registration Form

When BDM starts it attempts to establish the licence subscription status. If the device has no valid subscription then a Registration form is displayed.

The user can enter a full licence code or acquire an evaluation licence from the online licensing server.

Forcible Rescind Form

When the user enters a licence code into the initial Registration form and all that licence’s subscriptions are in use, then an error message is displayed.

The application then displays the Forcible Rescind form pre-populated with the licence code. The user clicks Get subscriptions to licence and the application retrieves all subscriptions for the code. For single-device licences this will usually be just a single subscription. Each subscription is given a rating representing the server’s estimate of the likelihood that it is one the user should forcibly rescind.

The form has a detailed explanation.

Registration Management Form

The user can click the licence subscription status on the main window’s status bar to show all the unexpired licence subscriptions for the device, and which is the active subscription.

The user can use this form to rescind the device’s subscription, so that it can be transferred to a different device.

The user can also use the form to enter a new licence code ahead of the active subscription’s expiry. The active subscription will continue to be used and the new licence’s term will only start when required.