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End User License Agreement for Console Server Software

Version date: October 13, 2026

This End User License Agreement (“Agreement”) is a legal agreement between you, individually or on behalf of a business, institution, or other organization (“User” or “you”), and BetterOne (“Licensor” or “we”) concerning installation, activation, access, and use of BetterOne Console Server (“Software”). Chinese edition.

Read this Agreement before installing, activating, or using the Software. Downloading, installing, activating, copying, accessing, or using it indicates that you have read, understood, and agreed to this Agreement. If you disagree, do not install, activate, or continue to use it.

1. Nature of the Software

The Software is a console server / serial console server application providing remote access, serial forwarding, terminals, device management, and related utilities for compatible equipment through serial ports, USB serial devices, networks, and other supported interfaces.

It may run on Microsoft Windows, Linux, Raspberry Pi, and other operating systems or hardware platforms expressly identified as supported. The current version provides a free 2-port license and commercial capacity licenses; it does not provide a separate time-limited trial license.

2. Licensed use

The Software is licensed for use under this Agreement; ownership of the Software is not transferred.

Except for rights expressly granted here, intellectual property in the Software and its programs, designs, documentation, trademarks, interfaces, algorithms, and licensing system belongs to the Licensor or relevant owners. Permitted installation, execution, and necessary backups need no separate written authorization. Rights not granted, including source-code use, modification, and redistribution, remain reserved to the relevant owners.

Purchasing a license does not convey ownership of source code, copyright, trademarks, or other intellectual property.

3. Free edition

Subject to this Agreement, the Licensor grants a nonexclusive right to install and run the free edition on equipment you are authorized to manage, without a separately signed agreement.

The free license allows logical consoles 1–2. Configuration for consoles 3–48 may be saved, but these consoles cannot establish serial forwarding sessions or start their independent protocol listeners. Capacity counts logical serial ports, not TCP listening ports or concurrent clients.

The free license excludes separately charged services. Changes to the free scope in future versions must be stated clearly and do not retroactively change acquired free-use rights for this version.

4. Commercial licenses

With a valid commercial license issued by the Licensor, you may use the Software within this Agreement and the license scope without a separately signed agreement for standard use.

A license includes its ID, licensed device count, logical serial capacity, hashed device identity, maintenance coverage date, and signature information. Each license file binds to one host identity. Attached serial devices do not count as separately licensed hosts, and the license is not restricted to a particular operating system platform.

Do not use the same license across different device identities or bypass capacity restrictions. Special licenses and services are governed by expressly agreed orders or written contracts.

5. Perpetual licenses and updates

If you purchase a perpetual license, you may permanently use versions covered by that license, subject to this Agreement. Perpetual use does not automatically include perpetual access to new versions, feature upgrades, maintenance, support, cloud services, or third-party services. Updates, upgrades, and maintenance may have separate service periods.

maintenance_until is the maintenance coverage end date, not a runtime expiry. The Software compares its build date with the date in the current signed license, not the installation date or the user's current clock. Renewal issues a new license file; there is no separate maintenance token. Versions built on or before the coverage date remain usable when other license checks pass. Maintenance expiry alone does not stop a covered version.

If you install and start a version built after the coverage date, the commercial license does not cover that version. It runs as the free 2-port edition, allowing only consoles 1–2. Earlier covered versions remain usable at their full licensed capacity. Consoles numbered 3 and above in the former commercial range cannot establish forwarding sessions or start their independent listeners; their configuration is retained. Renewing and importing a license covering the new version restores availability immediately. This applies to all commercial capacities, including the directly sold 8P, 16P, and 48P tiers, and may interrupt existing serial operations.

Before updating, check maintenance coverage and back up the application, database, configuration, and license. Renew if you need a version outside the coverage period, then use “Check renewal” or manually import the latest signed license. Before reverting to an earlier version, verify data compatibility and restore the earlier backup if needed.

Users choosing to keep an old version after maintenance ends bear the risks of its defects, security vulnerabilities, and compatibility issues, including resulting data loss or interruption. To the extent allowed by applicable law, the Licensor is not responsible for losses caused by that choice; liabilities that cannot lawfully be excluded and separately agreed maintenance or support obligations remain unaffected. Assess these risks and maintain backups, protections, or maintenance renewal as needed.

The specific license scope is determined by the order, license file, activation certificate, or purchase page.

6. Logical serial capacity

Commercial tiers sold directly are 8P, 16P, and 48P, allowing consoles 1–8, 1–16, and 1–48 respectively. Other tiers are not sold directly; actual capacity follows the issued license.

Capacity is the total maximum, not an added allowance, and does not allow choosing arbitrary consoles from all 48 numbers. An 8P license allows consoles 1–8, not eight additional consoles beyond the free edition. Upgrading to 16P changes the total range to 1–16.

One logical console can use TCP, Telnet, SSH, WebSocket, and other configured protocols without consuming extra capacity. Each console's client connection limit is configured separately.

A capacity upgrade does not automatically extend maintenance unless the order expressly includes renewal. Issued license capacity and coverage dates govern.

7. Activation and device binding

Commercial licenses bind to a device identity derived from a motherboard identifier (SMBIOS UUID on Windows, DMI UUID on Linux with CPU serial fallback where available, and CPU serial on Raspberry Pi), operating system installation ID, and UUID generated at first installation. At least a hardware identifier or installation ID is required for activation.

Normalized identifiers are hashed using SHA-256 and the product salt; license files and activation requests contain hashes. If the license includes a hardware identifier, only it is matched. Otherwise both installation ID and generated UUID must be present and match.

A changed motherboard or cloning a system to another board may invalidate the match. Reinstalling the operating system or changing disks or memory normally preserves hardware identity. Devices without hardware identity, such as some virtual machines or containers, may need reactivation after reinstalling or losing the generated UUID. Rebuilding or cloning virtual machines can affect identity.

For migration or reissue, provide the order and original license and contact the Licensor about procedure and fees. An incorrect activation may be revoked by the buyer on the licensing website within 72 hours, subject to limits; other transfers require the seller to release the old device's seat. A released device's existing file remains usable, but it cannot obtain renewed license files and retains only its existing coverage. The Software has no built-in release or unbind function.

Transfer conditions must be agreed at purchase; later policies cannot retroactively alter agreed rights.

8. Online activation and renewal

The Software supports activation codes, checking renewal, and redeeming renewal codes. Renewal obtains a new signed license bound to this device. Network requests occur only when an administrator initiates these operations, using the configured license_server. An empty setting disables licensing-server requests. There is no periodic background online license validation; an activated device continues operating offline. Data transmitted and its uses are described in the Privacy Policy.

Maintenance is calculated independently for each device, starting from its first activation; renewal extends only that device's coverage. Dates are taken from its signed license. Activation binds the device and sends hashed identity, hostname, platform, and version to identify it and enforce device limits. The order and license determine seat count; new devices cannot activate once seats are full.

9. Offline activation and local installation

An offline device can generate a request file for upload to the licensing website from a connected computer, or the Licensor may deliver a complete signed license. An administrator imports the original file through POST /api/system/license/import-file; the legacy PUT /api/system/license envelope endpoint remains compatible. Alternatively, stop the service and place the file at the configured path. Activation and renewal use the same license file.

Local verification checks signature, device binding, capacity, and maintenance coverage before saving. API installation applies immediately without restarting the service.

Back up license and configuration files. Losing a file does not automatically extinguish purchased usage rights. Contact the listed email address to verify purchase records for reissue or migration.

10. Permitted use

Within a valid license, you may install and run the Software; manage owned or lawfully authorized devices; use it for internal production, development, testing, maintenance, operations, and device management; and use the licensed port or device counts.

Organizations may authorize employees, contractors, or other personnel to use it for organizational business, and must ensure their compliance with this Agreement.

11. Prohibited conduct

Except where applicable law expressly permits conduct that cannot be excluded by contract, you must not:

Crack or bypass activation, license verification, capacity or device restrictions, or other protections.
Forge, alter, or unlawfully generate licenses, activation certificates, license files, or licensing-server responses.
Use a license on more devices than permitted.
Sell, rent, resell, share, or unlawfully distribute licenses.
Perform unauthorized decompilation, disassembly, reverse engineering, or source extraction.
Remove or alter copyright, trademark, or rights notices.
Access other parties' computers, networks, serial devices, or systems without authorization.
Use the Software in violation of applicable laws or regulations.
Deliberately damage, disrupt, or attack computers, networks, equipment, or services.

12. Third-party components

The Software may use open-source or other third-party components subject to their own licenses. Their terms apply to those components within their scope and take precedence for those components. This Agreement does not restrict rights lawfully granted by applicable open-source licenses. See Third-party components and licenses.

13. Software updates

The Licensor may release bug fixes, security updates, feature updates, new versions, and compatibility updates. Unless required by law, an order, or a separate service agreement, no specific update or permanent maintenance of an old version is guaranteed. Assess suitability and test before production deployment.

14. Support

Unless expressly included in a purchased product or service, a software license does not automatically include onsite support, integration, custom development, third-party equipment debugging, network design, emergency response, recovery, or specialist consulting. These services may carry separate charges.

15. User responsibilities

Users must confirm suitability, test before production use, correctly configure serial and network settings, permissions and equipment, back up important data, control high-risk operations, prevent unauthorized access, and comply with laws applicable to users and equipment locations.

The Software does not replace security management, backups, disaster recovery, or equipment protection.

16. High-risk environments

Unless separately agreed in writing, the Software is not specifically designed for safety-critical systems whose failure could directly cause death, injury, or major environmental harm, including life support, nuclear safety controls, critical aircraft controls, weapons controls, or comparable systems.

Users deploying it in such environments assume the relevant risks and must establish independent protection and redundancy.

17. Compatibility

The many combinations of computers, controllers, serial chipsets, drivers, operating systems, virtualization, firmware, and hardware prevent a guarantee of universal compatibility. Test using the free edition before purchase or deployment.

18. As-is provision

To the maximum extent allowed by applicable law, the Software is provided “as is” and “as available.” Except where law requires or the Licensor expressly agrees in writing, no express or implied guarantee is made of error-free or uninterrupted operation, fitness for every special purpose, universal compatibility, freedom from data loss or communication interruptions, or absence of vulnerabilities.

19. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent allowed by law, the Licensor is not liable for indirect, incidental, special, punitive, or consequential losses from installation, configuration, use, or inability to use the Software, including lost profits or revenue, business interruption, production stoppage, lost data or device configuration, third-party claims, network interruption, inaccessible equipment, abnormal serial communication, or other indirect commercial losses.

Where liability cannot be wholly excluded, cumulative liability is in principle limited, to the extent allowed by law, to the amount actually paid for the software license giving rise to it. This does not exclude or limit liability that applicable law prohibits excluding or limiting.

20. Intellectual property

Rights in source code, binaries, interfaces, documentation, graphics, logos, trademarks, websites, and licensing systems belong to the Licensor or relevant owners. Necessary copies for permitted installation, execution, and backups are allowed; copying, modification, distribution, or other uses outside this scope require separate authorization.

21. Termination

For serious violations, including cracking, unlawful sharing, forged licenses, use beyond scope, or unauthorized distribution, the Licensor may terminate the relevant license to the extent allowed by law.

After termination, stop using the affected commercial license. This is a contractual obligation; it does not imply the current Software can remotely disable or revoke a license online.

22. Changes to this Agreement

We may amend this Agreement as the product, licensing, law, or business changes. Material changes will be announced through the Software, official website, or other reasonable channels.

Updates do not in principle retroactively remove core rights lawfully acquired under perpetual licenses, except where law requires or the User seriously violates license conditions.

23. Applicable law and disputes

First seek resolution through the contact email below. This general Agreement does not designate a country, jurisdiction, court, or arbitral institution.

For commercial sales, the Licensor should specify applicable law and dispute resolution in the order or sales contract before purchase and provide a retainable copy. Undelivered pages or later unilateral announcements do not supplement those agreements.

Absent another valid agreement, applicable legal rules determine the law and competent dispute resolution body. Nonwaivable user rights remain unaffected. A separate written contract governs matters expressly covered by it.

24. Contact

Developer: BetterOne

Official website: https://github.com/better-one-top/serial-console-server

Email: betterone-top@hotmail.com