There's no such thing as a Proud User of of CorelDRAW... until they become a Proud Owner of it.

I urge anyone who knows they have an illegal version to take this fantastic offer and become part of the CorelDRAW Family.

A dark cloud of worry and uncertainty over your head will be lifted - once and for all - when you do the right thing. So do it now. Don't stand outside in the rain any longer. Come inside - Corel and the legal users will welcome you.

Be sure to save your receipt for a potential tax deduction (Check your local laws regarding this).

Thank you! This is an extraordinarily generous offer that I'll be taking advantage of. I learned a valuable (but embarrassing) lesson about cheap software from online auction sites.

Sir,

This is illegal or not if I reserve a FIX SOLUTION that I have to sell it ?

Regards

Dear Sir

I do note with some regret that the questions I raised in your other blog on this subject remain unanswered. The issue over the 'price' of your software is a very interesting one. Here in the EU it is illegal to have 'pricing arrangements' between manufacturers and vendors - so any attempt by Corel to suggest that there cannot be price discounting at substantial levels is simply wrong. This makes it quite impossible for someone like me to identify what is 'legal' when buying online. As it presently stands it seems to me that I am being asked to pay again for what is obviously a failing in the system and Corels ability to control its product. This new 'offer' now takes my purchase into the same pricing band as Adobe Illustrator etc. Not a great deal at all. Lets hope that Corel come up with something better than this - because I for one am determined to not let this go. Regards DG

Yes, Erwin99, what you seem to offer is illegal. And doing it not even in a shady corner of the Internet but right here, one the web forum belonging to the rightful owner of the software in question, is both outrageous and preposterous. Steps will hopefully be taken to end it as soon as possible.

Bye,

Gábor

Mr Gabb, the onus is on you not Corel to ensure you are running legitimate software. Corel know what their reseller pricing is and therefore what discounts can be applied before it becomes obvious that the reseller has pirated copies. This is not subverting EU rules in any way. IF you buy from a reputable seller you will not have a problem as they will refund you in the event of a problem, if you buy from eBay or heavily discounted grey import sites, well, you can expect a problem. If you have bought an illegal copy Corel are under no obligation to bale you out , caveat emptor, however they have very graciously offered very good amnesty pricing for those who have been genuinely scammed. The cost to you for this discount? you will be asked to tell them where you bought it from so they can follow it up.

Okay, it's done... ordered... and I'm legal... quick and easy!

A WORD OF ADVICE: If you want X4 under the amnesty program (and not X5), you'll need to make it clear to the customer service *right away*... BEFORE you provide any payment info.

If you don't let them know you want X4, they'll assume X5 by default.

My CSR handled the problem easily... and was able to correct the initial sale of X5 to me... but it took a few extra minutes.

On a personal note, my CSR was very professional and understanding. Corel has gone above and beyond in how they are responding to something that was (ultimately) my own fault (because of my greed and unwise foolishness).

The smattering of scorn that's being heaped on Corel is undeserved. They could have simply said "too bad" and "tough luck"... but instead they chose to view this as an opportunity to gain new loyal customers (and to reinforce the loyalty of long-time customers who experienced a lapse in good judgment.)

I'm grateful to Corel and to those who decided to handle this situation in the manner they've done.

Hi everyone.

I'm one of the "lucky" guys who managed to be naive enough to buy a CorelDRAW X4 which expired june 1'st.

When I bought it in december, I asked the seller whether it was a legal version, and the answer was "yes - it's genuine, sealed and brand new".

I never thought anyone could fool me to buy pirate software, but "live and learn" as they say. I contacted Corel Support, and a very nice lady directed me what to do to receive the amnesty offer. I hope it will be solved tomorrow.

However - I think we can stop talking about piracy.

After a long life with computers since the 70'es, I have never seen any software pirate coding a date of expiry into any fraudelent software, nor have I ever seen a coversheet and a DVD looking as genuine as the one I bought. Pirates are not in the habit of sealing their cover either.

I have thorughly examined what I bought, and I'm convinced the seller was right - this is a genuine software from Corel Coporation....  - but a trial or evaluation copy which expired June 1'st.  

One question remains - how did the seller get his hands on more than 40 evaluation versions to sell on ebay?

They must be missing somewhere.

Regards,

Buch

Hello all. I to was dupt into thinking I had a legal version of CorelDraw x4 I bought my copy at a tradeshow thinking I got a real deal. I did some research and the pirates  appear to be coming in from China and asia. I got intouch with a REAL Corel dealer and rep and they offered me a nice upgrade to my very legal version to Corel 12.  My advice to anyone listening is never buy any thing you feel suspicious about. If it's to good to be true it probabley is. I am happy to say I will only deal with Corel direct from now on.  Live and learn folks.

@Gérard

I have sent an email to customer service with everything they asked for, including my receipts, screenshots of banking statements, the sellers name on ebay, email address plus the link to the feedback from selling 44 Corel X4 items.

Included are also photos of the product and serial number.

I have recieved confirmation that customer support has recieved it, but a weird thing happened - it's not in my "sent" folder!!??

Would you like the pictures of the software?

Regards,

Buch

Gerard,

A very generous offer, in my opinion.  I'm only aware of one other company that does this (though that certainly doesn't mean there aren't others)... Disney.  As I learned during one of their "backstage" tours, plenty of people show up at their gates with falsified tickets "earned" by watching high-pressure sales pitches for Florida timeshares(and other similar junk), deeply discounted rates, etc..  Disney gets as much info as they can from the ticket holder to track down the seller, but instead of leaving the people high and dry, they provide them with free replacement passes.  Of course they make most of their money via food and merchandise(something Corel is obviously not geared towards), but the important point is they don't wash their hands of the situation.

Kudos to you!

So let's see if I understood correctly:

Coren creates serials that expire on June 1st, and it takes two days to "remmember" that? Did you forget there were serials expiring on that date?

C'mon, are you serious? It looks like a hidden battle agains piracy.

It's a clever idea to wait 48+ hours to let people "feel the need" of corelDraw and then, of course, the solution is based on money :-)

So no technical details, just a way to avoid piracy and sell licenses. Thanks for not showin a "You're a pirate" window when opening corelDraw :-)

egrueda, Corel did not create the expiry date, if they had they would have had a plan in place to deal with the firestorm when it first happened. There is more to this than we will ever know and its good that it happened, just to remind people that software companies can check whether you are legal or not.

Corel did not wait 48hours before responding, just check the dates/times of forum and blog posts .

My conclusion is:  Never buy any software at EBay or any unknown reseller anymore ! The bucks you save are not worth the trouble you might experience.

No, Egrueda, you haven't understood it correctly. The expiring serials were not created by Corel, quite the contrary. They were created by illegal keygen programs and those who wrote those programs were not aware that the generated serials will stop on that day. Nobody was aware of it because this expiration is due to some internal workings of the licensing software that, for obvious reasons, Corel will not discuss publicly.

I own and use in an academic environment an educational copy of CorelDraw x4 that I bought from a major (probably THE major) academic reseller. I paid a significant amount but less than the commercial price and submitted proper verification of my academic status. My own copy of X4 has given me no problems, and I assume it's legitimate. However, I have purchased other (non-Corel) software from the reseller at the following link

[link delete by Gérard]

which points to an offer by them of  'OEM' CorelDraw X4 at a price substantially less than Corel's amnesty offer, but still higher than what I would consider a 'pirate' price. We are told in this blog that Corel does not put OEM software into the retail channel. Although it may be an academic (no pun intended) issue in this case, what is one to make of this reseller's offer? Is it legitimate? Will it expire? Does Corel in fact allow 'OEM' software into the resale channel after all? Is this reseller offering pirated software? If so I will stop buying other titles from them.

I should clarify that the reseller I'm asking about in my previous post is NOT the academic reseller from whom I purchased CorelDraw X4.

Well I'm really pleased Corel have the amnesty option available to those of us who have been deceived.

I'll be contacting Corel with the necessary proof of purchase asap.

Unfortunately the error 24 is shown also for valid X4 licenses from X4 Small Business Edition. This package contains three keys but two of them show error 24. I'm afraid that Corel made a big mistake in his anti piracy action.