Ownership and Entitlements

A receipt is not the whole access model

Orders and their items record the sale context. Entitlements connect the customer to a product and its current access policy. A free claim, manual grant, or approved external fulfillment can establish access through a path other than an ordinary paid checkout.

A serial can be a claim/activation mechanism, but ownership proof is still required by the configured flow. A serial assigned to a known owner must not transfer access to whoever types it first.

Check the entitlement at the point of use

Activation checks product ownership and device policy. Validation refreshes whether that access remains allowed. Downloads check eligible product access rather than merely accepting an order number or public file URL.

Recurring access can change with subscription state. Refund and revocation effects must target the affected purchase/product rather than unrelated products in the customer library.

Separate presentation from rights

Hiding an order in a portal is not necessarily entitlement removal. Removing a marketing contact is not license deactivation. Use the supported access action and review its effects before modifying customer records.

Permanent gifts and paid subscription ownership

A timed manual keep-products grant gives the customer permanent ownership of the products included when the developer makes that grant, without a payment. That original product snapshot remains owned after subscription cancellation, expiry or incomplete billing setup. Explicit developer access removal can revoke the grant. New products added later are not retroactively included.

A lifetime manual grant instead provides complimentary ongoing subscription access; it is not the timed-grant ownership model or evidence of a paid invoice. Ordinary access-only grants and unpaid checkout trials also do not create paid ownership.

Paid keep-products invoices establish their own product snapshots. Refunding or reversing a paid purchase affects that purchase, not an independent manual ownership grant. Future paid subscription benefits still require the separate billing setup, preview and customer confirmation; a gift is not permission to charge a card.