Editing EAGLE (program) (section)

==Controversies==
In spring 1991 the dongle protection scheme of EAGLE 2.0 had been [[software cracking|cracked]] causing a decline of 30% in sales, while sales for a reduced demo version with a printed manual saw a significant increase.<ref name="Spiegel_1992"/> As a consequence in 1992 CadSoft sent thousands of floppy disks containing a new demo of EAGLE 2.6 to potential users, in particular those who had ordered the former demo but had not subsequently bought the full product.<ref name="Spiegel_1992"/> The new demo, however, also contained spy code scanning the user's hard disk for illegal copies of EAGLE.<ref name="Spiegel_1992"/> If the program found traces of such, it would show a message indicating that the user was entitled to order a free printed manual using the displayed special order code, which, however, was actually a number encoding the evidence found on the user's machine.<ref name="Spiegel_1992"/> Users sending in the filled out form would receive a reply from CadSoft's attorneys.<ref name="Spiegel_1992"/><ref name="Möcke_1992"/> The act of spying, however, was illegal as well by German law.<ref name="Spiegel_1992"/><ref name="Möcke_1992"/>

In 2014, EAGLE 7.0.0 introduced a new [[Flexera]] [[FLEXlm]]-based licensing model, which wasn't well received by the user community, so that CadSoft returned to the former model of independent perpetual licenses with EAGLE 7.1.0.

Despite announcements to the contrary in 2016, Autodesk switched to a subscription-only licensing model with EAGLE 8.0.0 in January 2017.<ref name="Evenchick_2017"/><ref name="Grannemann_2017"/> Without an online connection to a licensing server to verify the licensing status every two weeks (four weeks since version 9.0.0), the software would fall back to the functionality of the freeware version.<ref name="Evenchick_2017"/><ref name="Grannemann_2017"/> This caused an uproar in the user community, in particular among those who work in secure or remote environments without direct Internet access and users for whom it is mandatory to be able to gain full access to their designs even after extended periods of time (several years up to decades) without depending on third-parties such as Autodesk to allow reactivation (who may no longer be around or support the product by then). Many users have indicated they would refuse to upgrade under a subscription model and rather migrate to other electronic design applications such as [[KiCad]].<ref name="Evenchick_2017"/><ref name="Grannemann_2017"/>