Hi,

Now that everyone has scared you about using the program, it is really more simple than one would think to get the appropriate licenses. I don't think people/users have investigated what they acutally have. I thought that in some cases I might have more than private use licenses for some soundpools so I checked what I have on the Catooh site. It is quite simple; as a registered user/purchaser, all of your licenses for everything that you purchased are there for you to view. You can do the same as I did. I thought that for some soundpools and other things that I purchased that I had paid for what was the only available offering, so maybe I had some pro licenses. Sure enough, I had several that were unlimited use licenses, but most were private use. You should check what you already have. Login to Catooh, go to My account, Media bought, and check the list.

Magix (Catooh) has licenses for almost anything that is provided in Magix programs, images, sound pools, menus, styles (sound and image), clip art, masks, etc. Some are offered only for private use, some for various uses from private to Pro Standard, to Pro Advanced, to Pro Unlimited. Those that are for private use only probably means that they are not good enough for prime time, but fine for private fun.

As to the question that several people have asked as to why you have to pay twice, the great thing is that you don't have to buy the pro licenses to create your work, do testing, playing around,create, etc., only the private license. I have many soundpools and other elements that I will not use, even privately, so I'm glad that I don't have to pay much for getting them and playing with them. If you do produce something that you want to sell or publish to a "large group," then you can check everything that you have used against your licenses and purchase only those that you need. The pro licenses are not really very expensive when you are entering the commercial realm. But for just uploading to YouTube for fun, they could be considered as expensive.

For MMM2013 premium, you can purchase the Pro Unlimited license for 39.99USD. Cheap for peace of mind.

As for respecting the license conditions, my understanding of the finer points, and I'm not a lawyer, is that Magix provides you with tools to create something yourself and it provides you with some artworks to help. You purchased a license for your use, private or professional, of the basic elements/works of art. You cannot distribute, copy, sell or giveaway the program to others, and the same applies to the artworks provided by Magix and others. For these, they expect you to use them to create your own works of art whereby your work is predominant and their work is minor and may even have been modified by you and incorporated into your own work of art. Note that they do not license their songs for professional or commercial use, undoubtedly because these are like any song or CD that you purchase at a store or on the internet - for you only. They do license soundpools for commercial use, but even with a professional license, you have to actually do something artistic with them, combine them in different ways, add your own personal work, etc., and incorporate them into your work of art. For example, you cannot just take one bass line from a soundpool and put it in a slideshow and publish it. Anyone could copy the bass line as is, and Magix sells the base line soundpool, not you. But mixed together with other musical elements as part of your own song, this is what Magix is encouraging you to do.

Given the many questions that keep coming in about licensing, I think that Magix should provide proper explanations of licensing aspects for all uses, without legalese, with concrete examples, how to's, etc., on their site and make the information to everyone, not just registered users. I found it very strange that I had to log in just to view the FAQ's.

Bottom line, use the tools, use the soundpools, create something unique, check/obtain the appropriate licenses for anything that you use that came from Magix and from any others and want to publish, and have fun.

Regards,