Articulate Localization – A Licensing Trap?

Our Situation

During the previous billing term, we purchased Articulate Localization credits and used them to translate several courses. However, while our subscription was still active, the licensing terms were fundamentally changed.

When our current billing term began, we decided not to purchase additional Localization credits because of these new conditions. At that point, we discovered that the translated courses we had already paid for could no longer be used as expected.

 
What We Find Problematic

We paid for the translation of our courses. Nevertheless, without an active Localization license, we can no longer use the translated content in the way we originally anticipated. Most importantly, it is no longer possible to save projects to individual languages or export a translated courses in a single lanuage as SCORM packages.

 

From our perspective, this raises several concerns:

1. Changes to the Licensing Terms
   The licensing terms were changed during our contract period. As a result, we now have no real options for working with translations that we already paid for than we had at the time of purchase.

 

2. Previously Paid Translations Are Effectively Locked
   The translation service was delivered and paid for. However, the translated content can no longer be freely exported and used. From our perspective, it feels as though we are being required to pay again just to access and use content that we already own.
   
   Furthermore, the full translation cost is incurred again for every change after the current billing term - even if only a few words need to be updated or a single-language course simply needs to be re-exported.

 

3. Lack of Transparency Before Purchase
   Our official Articulate reseller did not inform us that projects created using the Localization feature would become significantly restricted once Localization credits were no longer available.
   Had we known this in advance, we would most likely not have purchased the Localization feature.

 

4. No Opportunity to Adjust Our Subscription
   We made several attempts to change our existing billing term to an annual subscription. Unfortunately, this option was not made available to us. As a result, we were placed under significant time pressure and were unable to properly assess the impact of the licensing changes before making renewal decisions.

 

Our Conclusion

We paid not only for the translation of our courses but also with the expectation that the translated content would remain available for long-term use. 

Discovering that courses that had already been translated could not even be exported as single-language courses once the localization license had expired was neither transparent nor foreseeable.

Clear and transparent information about these restrictions would have significantly influenced our purchasing decision and could have prevented a great deal of frustration