[nigelpry]

JFreak, I'm not a programmer (although I've done some programming in the past), that's why I provided the get out clause if it is not practicable to have a single licence.

Whay I can say, with 100% confidence, is that Steinberg HAS NOT released new 'dot' releases for its old software.

My Steinberg dongle (not iLok ... it's eLicenser) shows only a Cubase 7 licence ... a single licence for which I had to surrender my previous Cubase 6 licence.

But all earlier versions of Cubase open using that licence. Those old versions of Cubase do not know about Cubase 7 or its licence.

I guess, in layman's terms, that the licence is simply written in such a way that it is capable of responding to licence info requests from old versions of the software.The licence is doing all the work. It knows which versions of the software it supports and sends the correct answer back to the software when it is asked a question.

So if the software says 'Hey I'm Cubase SX3, is there a Cubase SX3 licence on any of the eLicensers attached to this computer?' ... then the Cubase 7 licence says 'Yes, go ahead and launch, I'm a Cubase SX3 licence'.

So there is no need for a new 'dot release', the issue is dealt with by the licence pretending to be an old licence.

Hey, for all I know, the licence architecture might just mean that what I see as a Cubase 7 licence is actually a bundle of licences providing access to all previous versions. But it only appears to be one licence.

I was just pointing out that some software allows you permanent access to all versions up to the latest version that the licence is published for.