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How licenses work
Buy once, activate once, and fly, online or off. Your instruments keep working even if our service is down or you’re in the middle of nowhere. This page explains what happens when you buy an instrument, and exactly what is sent over the internet. We kept it short.
Instrument licenses
An instrument is bought from its publisher's own store, for example Gumroad. The purchase comes with a license key.
Enter that key in Simulation Instruments Studio. The Simulation Instruments license service checks the sale. Then it signs a license file for that one computer.
A premium instrument is licensed for your cockpit: the collection of panels you launch together. Reinstalling on the buyer's own computers is fine. Moving to a new computer? In Studio, right-click the instrument and choose Remove license.... That frees the old computer so the new one can be activated.
Protected .sisx instruments
Paid instruments come as protected .sisx files. A lock icon shows their state.
- Lock closed: the instrument is not licensed on this computer yet.
- Lock open: it's licensed and ready to fly.
Database updates (DRAFT: still being built)
Navigation data follows the FAA cycle. Each cycle ships as a signed, encrypted data file from our download site.
- Choose an annual subscription [PRICE TBD], or a one-time download of a single cycle at about half the annual price [PRICE TBD].
- When a new cycle downloads, Studio asks the license service for that cycle's key. The key is tied to that computer.
- Internet is needed only to unlock a new cycle. It is never needed to fly.
- If the subscription lapses, the last cycle it covered keeps working.
Privacy: what the license check sends
Studio talks to one place: https://simulationinstruments.com/license/v1/. It sends only these things.
| When | What is sent |
|---|---|
| Activating | The license key, the instrument's package ID, and a computer ID. |
| Remove license... | The package ID, the computer ID, and the license ID from the license file. The license key, if one was entered. |
| Weekly check | The package ID, the computer ID, and the license ID. About once a week, when the computer is online. |
The computer ID. Studio builds it on the computer from four things: the operating system type, the computer's name, the user name, and the number of processor cores. It then scrambles them with a one-way hash (SHA-256). Only the scrambled value is sent. The computer name and user name are not sent as plain text. Inside the license file, Studio keeps a second one-way version, not the computer ID itself.
The weekly check. It asks whether the purchase is still valid. If the purchase was refunded, the license is removed. If the service can't be reached, nothing changes, and the instrument keeps working, offline, indefinitely.
The license messages contain nothing else: no flight data, no files, no list of other instruments. The service's web server may log the visitor's IP address, as all web servers do.
For publishers
Want to sell your own instruments? Flying instruments and panels is free for personal use. Creating instruments or new panel layouts for personal use needs a Builder license ($4 a month or $39 a year). Professional use needs a separate professional license; contact us. Packaging, protecting, and selling .sisx packs needs a Publisher license ($29 a month or $199 a year), from the Store. Become a publisher. Questions? Write to publisher_support@simulationinstruments.com.