The motion graphics community continues to feel the tremors caused by Maxon’s acquisition of Left Angle and the subsequent abrupt shutdown of Autograph’s servers. Amid the uncertainty about the software’s future, an individual success story presents another possibility for those who had purchased a license.
An Autograph user contacted Cine Linux to share that they obtained a full refund for their purchase through PayPal, and the path they forged could be a guide for others in the same situation.
The user, who had bought the software just four weeks before the shutdown, was “absolutely furious” with the situation, especially since Maxon did not acknowledge the problem that left numerous professionals with stalled projects. Feeling wronged, he decided to open a dispute on PayPal.
The key to his success, he says, was a careful analysis of Autograph’s End-User License Agreement (EULA). In his email exchange with our team, he highlighted two crucial clauses:
- 30-Day Termination Notice: The agreement stipulated that either party needed to provide 30 days’ notice of contract termination. The user argued that the vague email about a “new chapter” sent by Left Angle did not legally meet this requirement, as the termination was not explicit.
- 12-Month Damage Coverage: The liability clause for damages limited the amount to “no more than the sum of the customer’s fees in the last 12 months.”
The user interpreted this as a right to a refund for anyone who had purchased the software within that period.
Initially, the user involved PayPal, the system he used for the license payment. Then, the payment company even brought in lawyers, indicating the seriousness of the dispute. However, on June 16th, persistence paid off. “They refunded the entire year,” he confirmed in an email.
He believes that customers who used other payment methods, such as Visa and Mastercard, could also succeed in obtaining refunds based on the same arguments.
The user’s victory is not just about the money. He had invested heavily in the Autograph ecosystem and produced around 400 Spanish-language tutorials for the software’s official academy. For him and for our associate production company, which had also migrated an entire professional workflow to Autograph, the feeling of disrespect remains.
Even with the recent publication of a guide by the Left Angle founders for offline use of the software, trust has been broken. As the user puts it, even if they honored the “perpetual license” with 10 years of updates, he would still be angry.
The case serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of reading contracts and fighting for consumer rights. While the solution does not recover lost projects or the broken trust in the stability of software licenses, it offers a tangible recourse for those who invested financially in a tool that disappeared overnight.