Current subscription required to download ?

[cupboy 0]

I cannot download anything anymore. Even stuff I already own. It just says Update Subscription Expired Request Renewal Quote. This seems illegal to me since I already bought the products. I don't think it used to work this way.

Edited February 5, 2023 by cupboy

[Patrick PREMARTIN 74]

Hi 

What do you want to download and were ?

[cupboy 0]

RAD Studio, Delphi, C++Builder 10.3.1 ISO

from

https://my.embarcadero.com/#downloadDetail/549

 

What's really dumb is I used to have this but deleted it thinking I could just download it again if I ever needed it again. Bad idea.

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by cupboy

[FPiette 383]

2 hours ago, cupboy said:

RAD Studio, Delphi, C++Builder 10.3.1 ISO

OK. And which version did you buy? Without active update subscription, you can download only what you bought.

[Nigel Thomas 35]

Well that's annoying.. I've just checked my Registered Products Portal, and I can no longer download the last version - Delphi Berlin 10.1 - that my Subscription Updates took me to before I ended my subscription. Like the OP, I maintain that I should be allowed to download the latest version which I had paid for, without having to renew my subscription.

[Nigel Thomas 35]

For the OP - here's a direct link to download the 10.3.1 ISO. Of course it will only be of use to you if you are registered for this version:

 

http://altd.embarcadero.com/download/radstudio/10.3/delphicbuilder10_3_1_194899.iso

[Uwe Raabe 2057]

8 hours ago, Nigel Thomas said:

I've just checked my Registered Products Portal, and I can no longer download the last version - Delphi Berlin 10.1 - that my Subscription Updates took me to before I ended my subscription.

Can you download the previous versions? In that case it may just be a off-by-one error in the web software, which should be reported to Embarcadero.

[Lajos Juhász 293]

There was a change that only with active subscription you can download from Registered Products Portal.

[Uwe Raabe 2057]

Do you have any reference to that?

[Lajos Juhász 293]

https://www.embarcadero.com/update-subscription

 

FAQ part

Can I obtain updates and hotfixes without a subscription?

An active update subscription is the only way to obtain updates and hotfixes.

[Uwe Raabe 2057]

That doesn't say anything about web installers or ISO images of versions you were entitled to while your subscription was still active.

[Lajos Juhász 293]

Delphi 11.2 is an update on version 11. 

[Uwe Raabe 2057]

The download request was for

20 hours ago, cupboy said:

RAD Studio, Delphi, C++Builder 10.3.1 ISO

and it seems to be downloadable before:

20 hours ago, cupboy said:

I used to have this but deleted it thinking I could just download it again if I ever needed it again.

That implies that it should be downloadable even when the subscription expired after the release of that version.

 

Usually the portal would not even list versions you are not entitled to download. That's why I guess it is a software or configuration error. Did anyone contact Embarcadero with this?

[Nigel Thomas 35]

On 2/6/2023 at 11:02 AM, Uwe Raabe said:

Can you download the previous versions? In that case it may just be a off-by-one error in the web software, which should be reported to Embarcadero.

Cannot access any downloads. All show the same message:

 

UPDATE SUBSCRIPTION EXPIRED

REQUEST RENEWAL QUOTE

 

(and yes, it is in ALL CAPS!)

 

I thought I might still be able to download stuff from the old site - https://cc.embarcadero.com/reg/delphi - although it is cripplingly slow. However any download attempt from that site gives:

 

Quote

An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host

An error has occurred while processing the page.

Please try to refresh the page, or return to the home page.

 

[Nigel Thomas 35]

I reached out to Support to indicate I wasn't able to download the Berlin ISO or Web Installer, providing the above information and error messages. I received - in just a few hours - the direct altd.embarcadero.com link to the 10.1 Berlin ISO, which works fine, but there was no mention of "fixing" the Registered Products Portal. I suspect it never will be made functional again for those of us no longer on Update SubScription.

[Fr0sT.Brutal 900]

ISO's are publicly available via http and ftp though the links are not published officially. However the very situation sucks.

[PaulM117 2]

Wish I had seen this thread before wasting hours configuring 11 on my new dev PC only to discover it was 11.0 and I need 11.1.

Delphi 11.0 IDE routinely freezes on F9 compiles on 11.0 and the situation is only a little better on 11.1. Full recompiles are still needed often, but at least I will get an F2084 Internal Error on 11.1 instead of a whole crash. See my thread I made a few months ago.

 

Embarcadero is doing a great job of making 15+ year veteran developers hate them.

 

How unethical and outrageous for them to rescind the link to a product I paid for, not mention anywhere this surreptitious recent practice designed to fatigue and deceive people into purchasing an update subscription, leave a misleading website error page in its place, and require me to waste my time contacting them for the link to "RADStudio_11_1_5_esd_10253.exe"

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by PaulM117

[DelphiUdIT 176]

Leaving aside product-specific bugs for a moment, I'd say that preventing products purchased over time from being readily available for later "download" is a practice that not only Embarcadero but many other software vendors adopt.

In the industrial field several software and SDKs (nothing to do with Embarcadero or Pascal) can be downloaded for a limited period after the purchase (typically 1 or 2 weeks) via a temporary link provided (and increasingly the copy is digitally marked ).
This is to avoid "piracy" and the spread of illegal copies. Naturally, within the period of validity of the guarantee, it is possible to request a new copy by e-mail, specifying the reason. If you carry out software maintenance contracts (updates beyond the warranty limit) you can request updates in the same way (either via the WEB portal or via e-mail).
I would say that this attitude, as unethical as it may seem, is in any case legitimate on the part of the producer (it is my thought).
The downloaded copy should be kept "safely" by the buyer like any other good purchased with its documents.

What I think could instead be a problem is not so much the download of the correct installer of the product, but rather its activation which still has a limited number of actions.

Just to remind you, for example, even Windows can't install an infinite number of copies (at least until you have digitally licensed hardware on board like new laptops).
And if this isn't a problem for those with an active license (Embarcadero always extended the number of activations when I requested it), it is for those who don't have an active license (at least I think ...).

 

Bye

[Uwe Raabe 2057]

4 minutes ago, DelphiUdIT said:

What I think could instead be a problem is not so much the download of the correct installer of the product, but rather its activation which still has a limited number of actions.

Even without an active subscription one can request a bump for the installation counter. It has just to be requested from sales instead of support.

[Angus Robertson 574]

I always download and install from an ISO image, and mostly write that image to a DVD as well for posterity and repeat installs.  Still got a lot of original CDs from Delphi 1 onwards, and the printed manuals.

 

Angus

 

[Brandon Staggs 278]

20 hours ago, PaulM117 said:

How unethical and outrageous for them to rescind the link to a product I paid for

Unethical? Really? Funny how we would never expect such a thing for physical media. Try going back to where you bought a Blu-ray and demand a free replacement because you lost the one you bought a year ago.

 

I figure any time I am buying software, if they offer me a maintenance subscription and I turn it down, I am going to be on my own when the initial support period is up. I have a drive full of software setup packages so I don't have to hope someone else is storing my data for me.

[Joseph MItzen 251]

On 8/18/2023 at 10:26 AM, Brandon Staggs said:

Unethical? Really? Funny how we would never expect such a thing for physical media. Try going back to where you bought a Blu-ray and demand a free replacement because you lost the one you bought a year ago.

That's an inappropriate comparison; digital and physical media are different in every way which matters for this comparison. Digital media doesn't cost money to produce extra copies; digital media doesn't take up warehouse space.

 

Quote

I figure any time I am buying software, if they offer me a maintenance subscription and I turn it down, I am going to be on my own when the initial support period is up. I have a drive full of software setup packages so I don't have to hope someone else is storing my data for me.

How much software do you buy that has a maintenance subscription, or is this just a Delphi ecosystem thing? I've not encountered commercial development software that would refuse to let you re-download software you've already paid for. Why would you put up with that kind of treatment?

You have to maintain a hard drive full of software setup packages; I can take a minimal net install ISO (220MB) and in short order (re)install a full OS and all software required, development and otherwise so long as an Internet connection is available. Heck, if ipxe support is available I don't even need the initial install medium! You might want to reevaluate your software tool chain.

[Joseph MItzen 251]

On 8/18/2023 at 3:22 AM, DelphiUdIT said:

Leaving aside product-specific bugs for a moment, I'd say that preventing products purchased over time from being readily available for later "download" is a practice that not only Embarcadero but many other software vendors adopt.

In the industrial field several software and SDKs (nothing to do with Embarcadero or Pascal) can be downloaded for a limited period after the purchase (typically 1 or 2 weeks) via a temporary link provided (and increasingly the copy is digitally marked ).
This is to avoid "piracy" and the spread of illegal copies. Naturally, within the period of validity of the guarantee, it is possible to request a new copy by e-mail, specifying the reason. If you carry out software maintenance contracts (updates beyond the warranty limit) you can request updates in the same way (either via the WEB portal or via e-mail).
I would say that this attitude, as unethical as it may seem, is in any case legitimate on the part of the producer (it is my thought).
The downloaded copy should be kept "safely" by the buyer like any other good purchased with its documents.

I've not encountered this limited download period with software in recent times.

 

If I buy a game from Steam, I can download it as many times as I want - even the new Baldur's Gate 3, which I hear is over 100GB!

If I buy a game from Epic, I can download it again whenever I want - even if Epic no longer sells the game.

The same applies to games I buy from GOG.

If I buy an e-book from Amazon, I can re-download it whenever I want.

Microsoft makes copies of Visual Studio and related tools available from 2013 onward.

I can download a copy of the latest Windows ISO whenever I want, even from a non-Windows PC.

I can re-download software from JetBrains whenever I want - in fact, they have a tool called Toolbox that handles (re)installation, and you can even download and install all the Jetbrains software you have purchased in one click! They also store your software settings in their cloud with five settings slots so you can even have the desired settings downloaded (say, one slot for PC, one for laptop, etc.). It's the old "like a book" rules too, so there's no installation counter.

 

So I'd say across all different types of software, including development tools, as well as digital media it's not common to not be able to readily re-download something you've already purchased.

[Joseph MItzen 251]

On 8/18/2023 at 3:30 AM, Uwe Raabe said:

Even without an active subscription one can request a bump for the installation counter. It has just to be requested from sales instead of support.

Is it really "just", or are they going to try to talk the caller into upgrading/renewing first? Has anyone ever tried it and reported what their experience was? I would imagine the whole point of routing the call through sales would be to try to treat the call as a sales lead rather than a support request. If not, this change doesn't make sense.

[Uwe Raabe 2057]

I cannot say for myself and it might depend on the people there, but I have heard from a coulple of others that it went smoothless.