Rosetta Stone

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Rosetta Stone Inc. is a US company that develops and sells language learning products.   

Rosetta Stone

Basic information
Founded	1992
Legal Structure	Public
Industry	Language learning software
Also known as	Fairfield Language Technologies
Official website	https://www.rosettastone.com/

Consumer impact summary

Their standalone software solutions have often been sold under perpetual licenses and some of their subscriptions were marketed as "lifetime" or "forever". In spite of that, Rosetta Stone recently remotely bricked its CD based and downloadable products by blocking activation or refusing to provide activation numbers (depending on the version). They've also blocked some of their "lifetime" subscriptions, claiming "lifetime" is the lifetime of the software.

Incidents

This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in, including remotely bricking software with perpetual license and revoking access to lifetime online subscriptions.

Remote bricking of standalone software with perpetual license (2020s)

Main article: Rosetta Stone bricks legacy CD-based and downloadable software

In the 2020s, owners of perpetual licenses to CD and downloadable versions of the software started reporting they we being blocked from accessing it when attempting to activate it on their old computer. Some reported getting an error when attempting to activate the software and some were refused an activation code when calling customer service when calling to request one as instructed (some versions of the software require inputting an activation code). When the users complained about their inability to access the $500 standalone product they already purchased and own a perpetual license to use, Rosetta Stone informed them it was no longer supported and presented a $79 "lifetime" subscription as a solution. This form of bricking is potentially illegal in this case (breach of contract and state consumer laws), since it goes against the EULA and bricks a perpetual license.

Revoking access to "lifetime" online subscriptions (2020s)

In the 2020s, users of Rosetta Stone's legacy "lifetime" subscription products started getting locked out of their accounts. They were no longer able to access the "lifetime" subscription they purchased. Upon complaining to customer service, they were told their "lifetime" access was only for the lifetime of the product.

Products

Individual

• V3 (2007): standalone CD only language learning software (perpetual license).
  • CDs: standalone installable CD based software (perpetual license) that included a 3 month trial to online privileges (subscription) with the option to extend it.
  • Online Access/TOTALe Online: an online only version of the software (subscription based access), where users could access and use the software online. This version was subscription-based.
• V4 TOTALe (2010):
  • CDs : standalone installable CD based software (perpetual license) that included a 3 month trial to online privileges (subscription) with the option to extend it.
  • Online Access/TOTALe Online: an online only version of the software (subscription based access), where users could access and use the software online. This version was subscription-based.
  • Digital Download (2013): a downloadable version of the standalone software (perpetual license) became available in 2013. This version included a 3 month trial to online privileges (subscription).
• V5 (2014): available as standalone installable CD based software (perpetual license), downloadable software (perpetual license) or an as a online subscription (time limited). Lifetime subscriptions were also available.

See also

• Self-destructive design
• Discontinuation bricking
• End-user license agreement
• Microsoft Office 2019 for Mac
• Adobe Creative Suite activation
• Nitro PDF License Deactivating