Licensing Policy

Licensing Policy

Version 202610

This Licensing Policy is part of the C Tech Earth Science Software End User License Agreement (the “Agreement”). It delineates the capabilities of each license type, the Registered Device limits, the device replacement allowances and the Offline Periods. Capitalized terms have the meanings given in the Agreement.

C Tech may update this policy.

Every C Tech Account belongs to one person and uses that person’s own email address. Device limits and replacement allowances apply to each person’s account. Accounts are never shared, and a group, team or shared mailbox cannot have an account. The only exception is an Enterprise Service Account, described in Section 6.

1. Capabilities by License Type

Every paid license type lets you work with your own data. The license types differ in what they add.

  • Presentation mode opens EVS Presentations (.evsp files) and lets you view them and change their properties. It needs no license and no C Tech Account, and it does not open your own data or C Tech’s sample data.
  • EVS Demo opens the sample data provided by C Tech. It does not open your own data files. Output created with EVS Demo is identified as EVS Demo output. EVS Demo is for evaluation and learning only.
  • Fixed licenses, dongle-based or online, let you work with your own data and with the sample data.
  • Floating licenses are shared across your Organization. Any member signed in with a C Tech Account can use a free seat from your Organization’s pool, one person per seat at a time. Floating licenses also add the creation of EVS Presentations.
  • University Enterprise Licenses include the same capabilities as Floating licenses, with no limit on the number of users at the licensed campus.
  • Enterprise Licenses add presentation scripting and automation to everything Floating licenses include. Enterprise is the only license type that may be used to perform or offer automated or semi-automated analysis or graphics services, including services for your clients, as described in Section 4.5 of the Agreement.
  • The 3D PDF Converter Add-On includes the 3D PDF Converter for every Authorized User of a paid license type in your Organization. It is not available with EVS Demo or in Presentation mode.
  • C Tech EVS AI Skills is included with Fixed, Floating and Enterprise subscriptions.
  • Premium training at ctech.com is included with Enterprise and University Enterprise Licenses, and Fixed and Floating subscriptions can add it for an additional annual fee. Access is organization-wide, for every member signed in with a C Tech Account in your Organization.

2. Registered Devices

2.1 What a Registered Device Is

A computer becomes a Registered Device when the License Manager registers it to your C Tech Account. Registration creates a key on the computer that never leaves it. Each C Tech Account signed in on a computer has its own registration. A virtual machine is its own Registered Device, and a virtual machine recreated with a new identity is a new Registered Device.

2.2 Device Limits

  • An online Fixed license is assigned to one person. Only that person can use it, signed in with their own C Tech Account. That person can use it on 2 of their own Registered Devices, one at a time. The License Manager and EVS ask before a computer becomes one of the two Registered Devices. A third computer is refused until one of the two is replaced. Another person needs their own license, even on the same computer.
  • Floating licenses have no device limit. Your Organization’s pool has a set number of seats, and each seat lets one person run the Software at a time. EVS and the 3D PDF Converter running on the same computer for the same user share one seat.
  • Enterprise and University Enterprise Licenses have no device limit.
  • EVS Demo has no device limit.
  • A dongle-based Fixed license runs on the computer where its dongle is attached. Virtual machines are not supported with dongles.

2.3 Using a Fixed License on Two Computers

The two Registered Devices let the person assigned the license move between their own computers, for example an office desktop and a laptop. They are not for two people. Moving between the two is free and never counts as a replacement. Close EVS and the 3D PDF Converter on one computer, then start them on the other. The license stays in use on a computer while either one is running there.

An online Fixed license can be in use on only one Registered Device at a time. Starting EVS while the license is in use on your other computer is refused. If EVS on the other computer did not close normally, the license becomes free within about 7 minutes. If EVS is running when your license is found in use on another computer, EVS keeps running for 6 more minutes and then pauses licensed work.

2.4 Virtual Machines

Online Fixed licenses can be used on virtual machines, but C Tech recommends against it. Every virtual machine counts as one of the license’s two Registered Devices, and recreating a virtual machine with a new identity uses a replacement. Pools of virtual desktops that are recreated often can use up a license’s Registered Devices and replacements quickly.

3. Replacing Registered Devices

3.1 How to Replace a Device

Replacing a device retires an old Registered Device so that a new computer can take its place. You replace a device in the License Manager, on the computer that takes its place.

3.2 Free Replacements

A replacement is free when the device being retired has not contacted C Tech for more than 10 days. It is also free when the device being retired is not one of an online Fixed license’s Registered Devices, for example a device used only with Enterprise, University Enterprise, Floating or EVS Demo.

3.3 Counted Replacements

Any other replacement is counted. Each user has 1 counted replacement in any rolling 90-day period. The allowance belongs to the user, not to a device or a product. When no counted replacement is left, the License Manager shows the date the next one becomes available.

3.4 What Never Counts

  • Registering a computer for the first time.
  • Moving between your Registered Devices.
  • Signing in again on a computer that is already registered.
  • Retrying a request that failed.
  • Automatic retirement of an inactive device.

3.5 Reinstalling and Forgetting an Account

Reinstalling Windows or resetting a computer removes its key, so the computer registers again as a new device. Retiring its old registration follows the rules above. Forgetting your account on a computer in the License Manager retires that computer’s registration under the same rules.

3.6 Inactive Devices

A Registered Device that has not contacted C Tech for 30 days is retired automatically, and it no longer counts as one of an online Fixed license’s Registered Devices. Automatic retirement never counts against your allowance.

3.7 Help from C Tech

When you need a replacement beyond your allowance, for example after a hardware failure, contact support@ctech.com. C Tech staff can retire a device without counting it against your allowance. Organization Administrators cannot grant extra replacements.

3.8 Dongles

Lost, stolen and malfunctioning hardware dongles are replaced as described in Section 8.6 of the Agreement.

4. Offline Use and Check-Ins

4.1 Offline Periods

  • Online Fixed licenses can run offline for up to 7 days on each Registered Device.
  • Enterprise and University Enterprise Licenses can run offline for up to 30 days on each Registered Device.
  • EVS Demo can run offline for up to 7 days.
  • Floating licenses have no Offline Period and need a continuous connection to C Tech.
  • Dongle-based Fixed licenses need no connection. The 3D PDF Converter Add-On used with a dongle can run offline for up to 7 days.
  • The 3D PDF Converter otherwise follows the Offline Period of the EVS license it is used with.

An Offline Period never extends past the end of the subscription.

4.2 How Offline Periods Renew

The Offline Period starts again each time the License Manager renews your license on that computer. The License Manager renews licenses automatically while it runs, even when EVS is closed. It renews them about every 3 hours for online Fixed licenses, EVS Demo and the 3D PDF Converter Add-On used with a dongle, and about once a day for Enterprise and University Enterprise Licenses. An Offline Period counts from the last renewal, so a computer can have less than the full period left when it goes offline. Before you travel or work offline, keep the License Manager running and connected for a few hours so a recent renewal has taken place. Turning on Run License Manager on Windows login keeps renewals current. Sleeping or restarting the computer does not reset an Offline Period, and changing the system clock does not extend it.

4.3 Check-Ins While the Software Runs

While EVS or the 3D PDF Converter runs with an online Fixed license or a Floating license, the License Manager checks in about every 2 minutes. A dongle-based Fixed license needs no check-ins. These check-ins keep the license in use on that computer. They do not renew the Offline Period. Enterprise, University Enterprise and EVS Demo use need no check-ins while the Software runs.

4.4 When the Connection Is Lost

  • Fixed, Enterprise, University Enterprise and EVS Demo use continues within the Offline Period.
  • A Floating seat stays valid for about 5 minutes after its first missed check-in. Licensed work then pauses until the connection returns and a seat is free.
  • When licensed work pauses, EVS keeps your work open. You can still edit, save and close. Networks do not run until the license returns, and EVS tells you when you can run them again.
  • If the License Manager closes while EVS runs, EVS keeps working for up to 10 minutes while it restarts the License Manager.

4.5 Signing In

You stay signed in while the License Manager can renew your sign-in. A sign-in lasts at most 90 days, after which the License Manager asks you to sign in again. Signing out removes the stored licenses from that computer, and the Software stops using them at once.

5. Prior EVS Versions

Floating, Enterprise and University Enterprise subscriptions can run prior versions of EVS through the License Manager’s Legacy EVS support, as available and without guarantee. A current subscription is required, and Floating licenses need a connection to C Tech.

Prior versions of EVS with Fixed licensing read only hardware dongles. A dongle may be used only until its subscription date, and only with versions released on or before that date. No version may be used with a dongle whose subscription date has passed. Online Fixed licenses run versions of EVS released from October 2026 on. They do not run earlier versions of EVS.

6. Organization Administration

Organization Administrators manage your Organization at ctech.com. They invite and remove members and assign and reassign online Fixed licenses. For each member they can see when the member’s licensing last checked in with C Tech, whether an online Fixed or Floating license is in use, and recent refusals because no license was available. For Enterprise and University Enterprise Licenses this shows when licenses were last renewed, not each time EVS starts.

When an online Fixed license is reassigned, the previous user’s Registered Devices no longer count for it, and those releases never count against anyone’s device replacement allowance. Reassignments are limited for each product. Every time an online Fixed license is unassigned, including when its member is removed from your Organization, that unassignment uses one of the product’s 3 reassignments for the next 60 days. While all 3 are in use, a freed license cannot be assigned again until the oldest unassignment is 60 days old. A license can still be assigned while the currently assigned licenses plus the unassignments of the last 60 days are fewer than the licenses your Organization holds. Otherwise, while all 3 reassignments are in use, no license can be assigned until the oldest unassignment is 60 days old, even right after a purchase adds licenses. Unassignments made by C Tech support do not count. The Assignments page shows how many reassignments are available and when the next one returns.

Remove members from your Organization when they leave. A removed member loses the right to use your Organization’s licenses at once. A removed member’s computer that is offline can keep running until its Offline Period ends, up to 7 days for Fixed licenses and 30 days for Enterprise and University Enterprise Licenses. The same delay applies when a license is reassigned or a device is retired while that computer is offline.

Enterprise Organizations can create Enterprise Service Accounts for automated processing, under the conditions in Section 4.5 of the Agreement. An Enterprise Service Account follows this policy like any other account and has no device limit.

7. Device Information

To identify and display a Registered Device, the License Manager sends C Tech the computer name, the Windows version and the processor model. It also sends the BIOS serial number and the system UUID when they can be read, and a one-way hash of the primary network address and of the primary disk serial number. The raw network address and disk serial number never leave the computer. This information never decides whether a license is granted. The Privacy Policy describes how C Tech handles it.

8. Contact

Questions about this policy can be sent to C Tech.

Email: support@ctech.com
Phone: (941) 315-5740
Privacy Inquiries: privacy@ctech.com