Old software Corel help.

[Sophus]

I just read your post and since I also have a full version of Motionstudio 3D I simply tried it. It works fine on Windows 10 for me. Of course, it seems like it wants an online activation after 30 days and cannot connect to the activation servers any longer. But it looks like it works with all features until then. No watermarks.

So, after 30 days you can basically reset your computer or virtual machine and start again. Or maybe some tool like RunAsDate will let the software always start inside the 30 days time window.

[Acorn]

Or maybe some tool like RunAsDate will let the software always start inside the 30 days time window.

Sophus, I appreciate you did not directly tell anyone to use RunAsDate. There are three issues with using RunAsDate to extend a trial period. One, it is not ethical and probably not legal. Two, most program writers can detect such a kernel change and would block the trial immediately. Three, you always have to be sure that the download you get is free of malware.

We tried or built such tools for Y2K testing and found you had so many spawned processes and dependencies that you still had no guarantee that a system would not fall over.
I quickly learned of the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Acorn

[Sophus]

I'm pretty sure it's perfectly legal if the user paid for the full license but the developer no longer offers activations, which I find much more problematic.

Some time ago, music software developer Native Instruments tried this. They said, that they will no longer allow activations of very old software they released 20 years ago. Back then their EULA stated, that they will offer an alternative way to activate the software if this happens. They tried to get around this by sneakily changing the EULA, but you could still read the old one on archive.org. This caused an outrage and they had to backtrack.

I also decompiled software I bought a long time ago and changed it, so it still runs under modern systems, which is completely legal under EU law.

[handrawn]

I also decompiled software I bought a long time ago and changed it, so it still runs under modern systems, which is completely legal under EU law.

I wouldn't bet on that depending on what it says in the EULA; it depends on what you bought: the actual code, or just the right to use it as supplied....

[Acorn]

I'm pretty sure it's perfectly legal if the user paid for the full license but the developer no longer offers activations, which I find much more problematic.
Some time ago, music software developer Native Instruments tried this. They said, that they will no longer allow activations of very old software they released 20 years ago. Back then their EULA stated, that they will offer an alternative way to activate the software if this happens. They tried to get around this by sneakily changing the EULA, but you could still read the old one on archive.org. This caused an outrage and they had to backtrack.
I also decompiled software I bought a long time ago and changed it, so it still runs under modern systems, which is completely legal under EU law.

I think we are hitting the buffers over this.
I am not a lawyer but an engineer and there is a difference between reverse engineering (allowed by EU, US et al) and decompiling and altering.
The latter is probably excluded in most EULAs.
EU Directive 2009/24/EC Article 5 allows reverse engineering but Article 4 assigns the exclusive rights of the author, including the rights to translation, adaptation, arrangement, any other transformation and reproduction of the program. Akin to copyright.

I was more focused on extending a trial period. This is not fair use and probably in breach of the EULA.
A paid-for full licence, where the product can no longer be activated, is different. You probably can decompile and rework but this has to be for your own use otherwise you may have to accept the company could claim copyright infringement and then big money passes onto to lawyers.

Simplest approach is to contact the company and get them to agree the program is 'abandonware' and change its licence to GNU-GPL or similar. Till then it is still copyrighted and worse the program itself has to adhere to its used third parties' licensing conditions.

Acorn

[handrawn]

well put ...