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[bgolitz]

I just recently purchased a new home that came fully equiped with a theater room, and a fully functional HTPC with JRiver Media Center installed.  I have been using MC for the past three months, importing my own music collection, etc. but just yesterday for the first time, MC stopped playing and asked for my license and receipt numbers.  As the PC was left with MC installed, I don't have the receipt or license numbers, and I don't know the previous owners email or activation number.  What can I do?  I do know I am running version 10.1.173.  Under the help tab, all it says is something like "Registered".  When I just registered to post on this forum, I did receive an activation email, with an activation number.  That wouldn't be the same number, would it?

Thanks for your help.

Brian -

[Alex B]

I just recently purchased a new home that came fully equiped with a theater room, and a fully functional HTPC with JRiver Media Center installed.  I have been using MC for the past three months, importing my own music collection, etc. but just yesterday for the first time, MC stopped playing and asked for my license and receipt numbers.  As the PC was left with MC installed, I don't have the receipt or license numbers, and I don't know the previous owners email or activation number.  What can I do?  I do know I am running version 10.1.173.  Under the help tab, all it says is something like "Registered".  When I just registered to post on this forum, I did receive an activation email, with an activation number.  That wouldn't be the same number, would it?

Thanks for your help.

Brian -

Wow! A home that comes with JRiver Media Center preinstalled. Now that's what I call service. I'd bet JimH (the CEO of JRiver) likes the idea. 

As Gateley said, you need to have a personal license. I guess you don't have one, otherwise you would know what to do.

Media Center 10 is rather old (a couple of years). The current version has a lot of improvements. I would suggest you to download and install the version 11.1. You'll have a 30-day try out period. After that you need to purchase the program if you like to continue using it. It's only $40 - much cheaper than the rest of the home.

Remember to send a reclamation to whoever sold you the house or apartment. You can attach a $40 invoice.

You may want to make a library backup before installing the new version (File > Library > Backup Library). If you use cover art copy also the cover art folder to a safe place. Also, I would recommend uninstalling MC10 completely before installing the new version (use MC's uninstaller).

[bgolitz]

Thanks John -

Is changing the license from the previous owner to myself something I can do, or do I need him to sumit his info to you, and if it is something I can take and do, what info will I need from the previous owner?  

And just so I understand, why is it that I am all of a sudden receiving this message asking for license and receipt #?  And at what frequency do you have to re-input this information?  Does the license expire after a certain number of hours of use?

Alex -

Thaks for the suggestions.  This home is 4 years old and the previous owner had the theater and equipement installed, including the HTPC with MC.  The builder did not install this himself.  This is the reason I am asking as the previous owner purchased a license, left the PC with MC fully registered, and now it appears it has expired after several months of use.

Thanks for your help,

Brian -

[JimH]

I'm sorry, but you'll need to purchase a new license.  The previous owner's license cannot be transferred.

[Alex B]

... And just so I understand, why is it that I am all of a sudden receiving this message asking for license and receipt #?  And at what frequency do you have to re-input this information?  Does the license expire after a certain number of hours of use?

Alex -

Thaks for the suggestions.  This home is 4 years old and the previous owner had the theater and equipement installed, including the HTPC with MC.  The builder did not install this himself.  This is the reason I am asking as the previous owner purchased a license, left the PC with MC fully registered, and now it appears it has expired after several months of use

I was just joking...

MC can become unregistered if the computer's OS level name is changed. That is the most common reason. Another possiblity is a more or less corrupted Windows registry. I suppose there are other possibilities too.

For licensed users JRiver has a restore service here: https://rover.jriver.com/cgi-bin/restore.cgi

More info is available here: http://www.jrmediacenter.com/buy_faq11.html.

[JimH]

I've edited some posts above.  The license being used is not legal.

[bgolitz]

Why is the license I am using not legal?  The previous owner purchased and registered this version of MC, and I purchased the complete PC, licenses and all,  from the previous owner.  So you mean to tell me the copy of XP SP2 is not legal, the copy of TheaterTek is not legal and the copy of nVidia decoders is also not legal?  Those are all licenses I was able to transfer over and are considered legal.

[JimH]

Why is the license I am using not legal? 

Because someone else bought it.  They don't have the right to transfer it to you.

[Alex B]

bgolitz,

Each software vendor can have its own terms. A licensed MC user has made a personal legal agreement with JRiver. If you have not made that agreement I think the legality of your MC copy is then depended on what kind of agreement the original purchaser did. If the license is not transferable then it is not.

If this were a professional tool that has a price tag of thousands of dollars I would like to think that a transferable license would be necessary. However, with this price I don't think there is much to complain. Besides, normally when agreements are altered the dealer can charge a fee to cover office costs (e.g. $30 or so). It would be senseless to have a system for that if the program costs only $40.

In general, JRiver's license terms are nice. For example:

Q: Can I install on more than one PC?
A: During the two-week period after you have purchased or restored, you can use the Install Key you received to activate the program on your other PC’s. You may use the program on your work PC and on your home PC's with a single license.

Edit

I noticed an error in my thinking here:

You may want to make a library backup before installing the new version (File > Library > Backup Library).

If the license is expired you cannot do that, but you can copy the library folder to a safe place. Search for files with the .jmd extension.

[KingSparta]

If the license is not transferable then it is not.

I thought this question came up before not sure what the out come was, or if it is written in the agreement (i have never looked).

there could also be other issues with the users license, like a terminated license or the user is also still using the same license. and in that case bgolitz would be using a illegal copy.

[Alex B]

Well that is NOT exactly true.
At the very least, it is controversial.
Clearly it is good for JRiver to attempt to sell the product again and again.  Even to the same audience.  Nothing wrong with attempting to make money :-)

But U.S. copyright law says that if you own a copy, that you hav the right to use WITHOUTadditional payments.
Also, the First Sale Doctrine says you can sell YOUR copy to someone else.  Or simply give it to somehone else.
Its like a book that someone owns, and gives it to someone else.
Nothing illegal about that.
Now JRiver will say the "license agreement" that flashed on the intial purchasing screen said something to the contrary.
But that kind of "contract" has been ruled time and time again as illegal.

Nice try JRiver, but it is NOT really legal, and more impotantly not fair.  If the original purchaser was also currently using this version 10 product, that would be a different story.  But if the OP bought, or inherited, or was gifted, the computer that was legally running a PURCHASED version 10 copy, how dare you invade his home and destroy or render useless a paid for copy.

Some have gone to jail for invading someone's home and destroying their property.  Did you even ask permission to do this?

copyright 2006 by poster

Dear euler7128,

I think there is a difference between an ownership and a license, but I am not a U.S. copyright lawyer.

In any case, as I already said, a license transfer process would be too expensive when compared with the product price. The original purchaser would need to provide reasonable proof that the license is not used anymore by him/her. JRiver would need to register the new user. Would you like to first provide the needed legal documents and then pay a fair license transfer fee?

JRiver does not make user's MC programs unregistered automatically or intrude the users' PCs. Something must have happened/changed inside the OP's computer. JRiver has no way to automatically know that a copy of MC is "transferred". If a license is revoked for other reasons then it is not anymore valid for restores.

If the original purchaser sold the program with a good intention then he/she should have also changed the contact information, given the registration key & password and explained how they are used. The OP could have just restored the license with a good intention (without knowing that it may not be exactly legal because the license was transferred).

[KingSparta]

The company i work for Changes Ownership for $175, and any yearly renewals (normally $150 or higher).

We do have contracts that are non- transferable also.

(nothing to do with computers or software however)

[Alex B]

J River does NOT intrude the users' computers and check the licenses. I know that. I have firewall software that monitors all traffic.

It is a different thing if a system change made by the user or caused by a program or HW function made the registration expired. That is one of things why JRiver has a free restore system. All licensed users can restore their licenses.

Microsoft has a bit similar system. Recently I made a backup copy of my system drive and after testing the copied OS I made a new backup of the already copied drive. I installed the last backup disk as a new boot drive. XP became unregistered because I did too many HW changes. I used their online system to reactivate it.

I have used MC (& MJ) four years and it has never become expired on my various PCs.

[bob]

Speaking of intrusion and your privacy "rights", there have been a bunch of articles on Microsoft Update. It seems it phones home often to return individually trackable data. This one sums it up pretty well...

http://www.windowssecrets.com/comp/060615/#story1