I’ve seen a few messages in the forums regarding the need to be connected to the internet at different points, and I wanted to provide clarification of the sign-in / Internet connection requirements for CorelDRAW going forward.

First, let me make one thing clear from the get-go: You absolutely DO NOT need a membership or subscription to use CorelDRAW Graphics Suite, you can buy it today just as you have been buying it since 1989 (only you will need a more modern computer and operating system). The new Memberships and Subscription options are here to provide additional choices to users and can be summarized as following:

1. Buy the product and do not sign up for any membership: you will not have access to online content nor will you be able to install updates/service packs.
2. Buy the product and sign up for the free Standard Membership: you will have access to standard online content and to updates/service packs that include feature fixes.
3. Buy the product and sign up for a paid Premium Membership: you will have access to standard & premium online content as well as to updates/service packs that include feature fixes. In addition, you will have early access to new features and if you maintain your premium membership active by the time a new major release comes out, you will get that upgrade at no extra cost.
4. Subscribe to the product (this is the "rental" model which includes the premium membership): you will have access to the desktop software plus everything from #3 as long as you have an active subscription and are signed-in.

Corel has always been committed to provide service packs, hot fixes and updates to registered customers, e.g. users who purchased a legal copy of the software and use it within the terms of our End User License Agreement (EULA – http://www.corel.com/eula). For those who purchase a full or upgrade version of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 (box or download) in most countries, this normally means that the perpetual license is for you the user, and you can install that product onto your main computer (usually a desktop computer) as well as a second machine (usually a laptop), at the condition that this is only for your personal usage and that the products are not launched on both machines at the same time. There are geographical differences and the terms of the EULA are actually a lot more detailed, so to add my little “legalese”, it is up to you as the user to make sure you comply with the full terms of the EULA that you are accepting when installing the product, and I am not providing any legal advise regarding the interpretation of the EULA.

One small change with Update 1 for CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 (outside of the introduction of memberships) is that you now need to be signed-in from within CorelDRAW / Corel PHOTO-PAINT with your Corel.com account in order to be able to install the update, but there is not necessarily a need for an Internet connection in order to install the X6.1 update. There are different reasons why we have implemented this, one of the main one being that we want to make sure that our legitimate customers gets access to the benefits of updates and fixes going forward while pirates don’t. Not sure if you like it when people steal what you worked very hard to create, but we sure don’t.  Installing product updates and fixes is one of those benefits, reason why you are asked to confirm to the Update installer somehow that you are a registered customer. Other companies follow different paths (Microsoft has the Genuine Advantage requirement to allow the installation of updates, Adobe has strong product registration & activation requirements for the software and updates installation, …) and we wanted to make the option as smooth as possible for legitimate registered customers.

There are two different scenarios that you might encounter when installing Update 1:

• When you installed CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6, you chose to get your free copy of Corel Website Creator X6. While doing so, you were asked to create or sign-in with your Corel.com account and you did get the download link per email. Installing Update 1 on that computer doesn’t require an internet connection and you will not be asked to sign-in to install the update.
• When you installed CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6, you decided not to get Corel Website Creator X6. While you are able to download Update 1 from Corel.com of from within the product (Help > Updates…), you will be asked to sign-in in order to install the update. You only need the internet connection for a very short amount of time during the sign-in process, and not for the rest of the installation.

In addition, for those who will be purchasing CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 going forward, you will most certainly get a version with X6.1 already included (it is already the case for download versions, and boxes will progressively get the new DVD inside). With future updates (X6.2 and beyond), we will continue to deliver updates and fixes to anyone with a Standard Membership, which is free to any legitimate customer, in order to install updates and fixes. As with the X6.1 update, you will therefore need to be signed-in with your Corel.com account from within CorelDRAW / Corel PHOTO-PAINT in order to be able to install future updates without requiring an Internet connection, or you will be asked to sign-in during the installation of the patch. For those who purchase multi-seat licenses, while we currently do not offer Memberships to deploy across your network, you will still be able to install updates that include feature fixes going forward. Please contact your Corel account representative if you have any question.

Now some more details from within the application. As indicated previously, we’ve designed our Membership Program so that you do not need to have a permanent Internet connection and can still use and benefit from our new choices, especially the early access of new features. You need an Internet connection to search and get the content, but once that content is on your system / in your document, there is no need for an internet connection. Premium Features will also continue to work even if you don't have a permanent Internet connection (except for features that rely on an online server for obvious reasons, such as WhatTheFont that we’ve had for a while). CorelDRAW will want to confirm from time to time that you still have a valid Membership, but as long as you stay signed-in to the applications (even without an Internet connection) all the benefits that do not rely on online access will still work.

And this comes to my next point: We’ve designed the whole solution in a secure way so that there is no need to sign-out every time you exit the application and sign back in when you launch it if you have a Standard or Premium Membership (including if you’re subscribing to CorelDRAW). The workflow was really designed so that you sign-in with your Corel.com account the first time you launch the application on that computer, which will validate your eligibility and membership level, and then forget about it. Future updates will install without having to sign-in, and access to the online content will work (you will need an online connection for that). For those of you concerned about data collection, we continue to follow strictly our Privacy Policy available at http://www.corel.com/privacy and haven’t changed anything compared to previous versions.

Finally, in accordance with the terms of our EULA mentioned earlier, we now allow for transfer of licenses from one computer to another one (this wasn’t possible in the past without calling Customer Service). The steps are quite easy: While you are still signed-in with your Corel.com account in CorelDRAW / Corel PHOTO-PAINT, you go through the uninstall process with an active Internet connection. During that process, we will confirm with our server that you have successfully de-installed the product on that machine so that you can install it on another computer going forward.

Hopefully this clarifies some of the questions I’ve seen in the forums. We are committed to provide our legitimate customer choices to select their optimal CorelDRAW Graphics Suite experience and will continue to take software piracy very serious.

Gérard