What happens if FG goes away.

[WESeib]

I have a relatively dumb question, and yes, those exist.
If I purchase the 5e players handbook, monster manual, dungeon masters guide, etc, through Fantasy Grounds,
what happens if Fantasy Grounds closes.

Can I export these as a PDF? In other words, do I own something, outside of the Fantasy Grounds software?

Is the Fantasy Grounds software installed on my computer with the book stored on my local system so that I can use them any time or is the book stored on a server which I have to go and get?

For instance, let's say I subscribed for a month.
Then I purchased the 5e PH.
I then let my subscription lapse.

Can I read the Players Handbook I purchased?

Thank you in advance. I am trying to absorb all of this.
I am an old player who had a free Roll20 account at the behest of one of my players.
I used it once and never again.

This recent fiasco with their overt censorship reminded me to delete me account.
So, now I am looking at alternatives although all of my games occur physically, I am curious how the licensing for the books work.

[ddavison]

First off, welcome to the Fantasy Grounds forums. See my note below:

What happens depends a bit on the license type.

1. Standard license
a. Your players would already all need their own license to connect to you (no changes there)
b. You would get no new updates to the program or DLC (obviously) but they remain on your system
c. Reinstalling to a new system would be a manual process of copying files from your old system and exporting and pasting in a registry branch which holds your license key and username info
d. Players connecting would need to use your External IP address and you would have to disable the alias feature when hosting a game

2. Ultimate license
a. Your license check would no longer be able to do the Internet check for validity and would downgrade to a Standard license
b. Everything else would be like #1

You didn't specifically ask this, but it is somewhat related.
3. What if Fantasy Grounds lost a publishing license with company A
a. Our licenses are written to allow us to maintain copies on our server for use in re-installation for customers who bought content.
b. No content would ever be removed from a buying customer
c. FG would stop selling products from company A, so only existing customers would be able to access and use those products

It's very standard language to have a "destroy all licensed items" clause in contracts. We specifically pushed for changes to that language for each of our publishers -- even the big ones.

[WESeib]

That is very fair and really good for your users!
I appreciate the response, thank you.

[madman]

Not happy with #2. That sucks.

Madman..

[Valyar]

2. Ultimate license
a. Your license check would no longer be able to do the Internet check for validity and would downgrade to a Standard license
b. Everything else would be like #1

Uhm... will there be a fix in the future versions?

[Trenloe]

Uhm... will there be a fix in the future versions?

Fix? This is deliberate functionality - to limit piracy and also to allow cancelled ultimate subscriptions to actually expire when cancelled.

[WESeib]

If FG were to shut down, what system would it connect to verify your license? They are using a license manager. A lot of major companies use that model.

Hell, Kronos, a massive (international) company that, among other things, produces a time keeping / clock system uses that same model. If they ever vanished, none of the servers would be able to authenticate the license key and they would all fail.

Hell, we've seen issues from when our time clock systems are unable to connect to the license manager due to a DNS server going down, where the whole damn thing fails until it can connect. Actually, more accurately, everything is stored locally until it can connect to the license manager again. It will do that for some max amount of time set by them.

I don't think there is a "fix" for it short of leaving the license manager server up. It is designed that way intentionally. In other words, this part isn't much of a surprise and is a standard in the software industry.

[Trenloe]

If FG were to shut down, what system would it connect to verify your license? They must be using a license manager. A lot of major companies use that model.

The only license check is when:
1) An update is ran.
2) A free (unlicensed) client connects to an ultimate license GM.

If everyone has at least a standard license then there is no license check when gaming. With standard or better licenses you can play on a LAN without any Internet connection, or if the FG ultimate license check server is not accessible. Like Doug mentioned above - the Ultimate license essentially becomes a standard license while it is running a game without the connecting free clients having an Internet connection to the FG update/alias/Ultimate license check server.

[Valyar]

Of course it is deliberate functionality, I am far from the idea that somehow the code arranged itself

But I find this not OK as approach for perpetual license owners. If they need to control the subscribers, there are ways to do it without impacting the perpetual licenses. In regards to the piracy... sorry, but I disagree. This limits nothing.

[WESeib]

Trenloe: That was meant as a rhetorical question directed towards the request of a fix in the future.

Of course it is deliberate functionality, I am far from the idea that somehow the code arranged itself

haha, fair enough!