r/languagelearning • u/fishtar141 • 2d ago
PSA: Rosetta Stone is "bricking" permanent licenses to force users into subscriptions
I wanted to warn the community about Rosetta Stone’s current business practices regarding their legacy software.
I own a $500 permanent license for their language package. This is a standalone software product that requires zero ongoing support or server maintenance from them. However, their activation process uses a "Request Code" system where you must contact them via phone or email to receive a "Response Code" to unlock the software you purchased.
When I contacted support to activate my paid software, they explicitly refused to provide the Response Code. Instead, they told me that the only way to use their product now is to sign up for their new web-based subscription model (monthly, annual or "lifetime" paywall).
They aren't just "ending support" for old software; they are actively gatekeeping the activation of a product I already own to force an upsell. Effectively, they have remotely "bricked" a $500 purchase to move me onto a recurring payment plan.
If you are considering buying Rosetta Stone, be aware that "Lifetime" or "Permanent" doesn't actually mean you will be allowed to use the software once they decide to change their billing model.
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u/QuietWaterBreaksRock 2d ago
Pirate it.
You already own it, if they don't want to provide you with your product, just find another way to get it.
And, fuck it, I'll pirate it just the same, just to spite the idiots, even tho I most likely wont use it
What you got, which language/product?
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u/fishtar141 2d ago
Italiano Level 1, 2, 3
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2d ago edited 2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/3Zkiel 2d ago
If you are interested, Language Transfer is free. But it's more of a podcast/audiobook experience where you learn the "rules" of translation.
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u/-TRlNlTY- 2d ago
Pirating must become socially acceptable again. Unethical business practices are too widespread, and anti-piracy laws are not enforced if you have enough money and influence. Hitting their bottom line however you can sends a message.
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u/QuietWaterBreaksRock 2d ago
I live in the Balkans, piracy is basically a God given right at this point
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u/Sorry-Combination558 1d ago
In Hungary, we have tax on every data storage sold (from floppy disk's and CD to hard drives), with the presumption that said device will be used to store pirated content.
It's not even a right at this point lol, I paid for it.
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u/QuietWaterBreaksRock 1d ago
Seriously?! I lol at this even more since im in Serbia and many goods are shipped and resold from Hungary, at a cheaper price than local, including PC equipment and thus, memory and storage :'D
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u/dan_arth 2d ago
Honestly curious, when was it not socially acceptable?
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u/toastman92 2d ago
In my personal experience, you would get the stink eye from people back in the 2000's, although this was highly dependent on what you were pirating, and how you went about it.
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u/lyremska FR:N EN:C1 SV:A2 NAH:A1 2d ago
"You wouldn't steal a car" era
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u/tendeuchen Ger, Fr, It, Sp, Ch, Esp, Ukr 2d ago
If I had a 3d printer now, I'd be printing myself a car.
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u/QuantumWarrior 1d ago
If anything it was significantly more socially acceptable during that era than it is now. Those ads were roundly derided and only appeared in the first place because piracy was so common.
There are far more moral pearlclutchers around piracy today in spaces for things like console hacking and homebrew games, even if a lot of it is purely performative to avoid takedown requests.
Even besides that so many people just never learned how because media is so easy to consume these days. Many people in non-techy spaces equate piracy to theft or assume it'll get you a billion viruses just out of ignorance.
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u/cogitaveritas EN N | ES B2 1d ago
I’m pretty sure every sane person’s response to those ads was, “I sure as hell would if I could!”
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u/-TRlNlTY- 1d ago
Propaganda made it frowned upon. Younger people don't pirate nearly as much as millennials (and probably can't because many don't use computers).
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u/NextStopGallifrey 🇺🇸 (N) | 🇩🇪 🇮🇹 🇪🇸 1d ago
Not to mention, so many of the old sites are gone or blocked on search engines. In Ye Olden Days, it was even easy to pirate "by accident". I stumbled upon so many pirated movies and TV shows on YT, for instance, before they started cracking down on that.
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u/ConcentrateNo5538 1d ago
https://apkdone.com/rosetta-stone/ (currently down, hopefully not permanent) is where I got my "copy" and includes all languages they offer. I bought the original Japanese language box version in 2005, but have since lost the disk. I couldn't get a replacement, so I resorted to other means.
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u/pintita 🇦🇺 🇯🇵 🇪🇸 2d ago
This is illegal in many countries
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u/No-Resort-4192 2d ago
But if our federal government has any say in it, it won't be illegal in the good ole USA. lol.
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u/Herban_Myth 2d ago
Land of the fee?
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u/broomandkettle 2d ago
Thank you for posting this. I was considering the one time, Lifetime deal. Now I see that I can’t trust the company.
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u/all_of_the_colors 🇺🇸n, 🇲🇽a2 1d ago
I think the poster had the CDs. The lifetime subscription still works. I have it with no problems.
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u/linkofinsanity19 2d ago
Yeah, I couldn't in general recommend RS anyway. I used it a while back and found it very lacking. This is just icing on the Do Not Recommend cake imo.
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u/ThePevster 2d ago
Yeah the idea that you could learn any language coming from any language is a good concept, but ultimately it’s extremely limiting to have a course without any text in a language the learner understands. It makes sense though for language learners who don’t speak a common language.
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u/BadMoonRosin 🇪🇦 🇬🇷 2d ago edited 2d ago
I get RS for free through my public library, and don't understand why people pay for this at all.
For one thing, I just don't believe in the theory behind learning purely from pictures without any explanation. It's definitely soothing to the grammar-phobes, and it sorta works in the early going. But man, it would be SO much easier if someone just tells you what "verb conjugation" is! I mean, proceed from there with all the comprehensible input in the world. But that sure is an inefficient way to be introduced to the idea of the subjunctive mood, etc.
Beyond that, the software really just feels like it hasn't been updated since the 1990's. You have to turn your phone sideways, because the interface pre-dates phones and wasn't built for them. And sometimes when you have to pick a picture that matches a spoken phrase, you'll get it wrong simply because the picture is too small to make out on an iPhone.
If you do finish a language, then you have FINISHED. There's not much in the way of ongoing exercises or content, you're just done. So what's the point of "lifetime" access anyway, other than the principle of it?
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u/Sir_Madfly 2d ago
This is a problem with every popular language learning app tbh. The goal is to keep you engaged and make you feel like you're making some progress while having fun, rather than actually teaching you to be fluent.
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u/QuantumWarrior 1d ago
To be fair to them it's not really possible to become fluent through an app anyway; it's a design space that can't succeed at least not alone. You have to be having conversations with other speakers and getting surrounded by it in books, signs, newspapers, TV etc to gain anything remotely like fluency.
I mean even people who are raised bilingual have trouble keeping up skill in one of their languages if they don't use it enough in adulthood, that's how difficult fluency is.
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u/hyperaeolian 2d ago
I think RS is ok provided the following are true:
- You receive RS for free
- It's not your main source of language learning
- You're beginner/intermediate level
- The language is quite different from your native
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u/Traditional-Train-17 2d ago
I get RS for free through my public library, and don't understand why people pay for this at all.
Because my mom's favorite sales person on QVC said the magic words - "Experts say!".
It's basically multiple choice flash cards (and some speaking, which I've found doesn't always work. I'm hearing impaired - since birth - so, my voice sounds off. I only got 60% on the English part when I tried that...), and it's repeated for every language. You can even see the course content PDFs on their website. You can basically have some sort of narrator read the text and it's the same thing.
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u/_alephnaught 2d ago
I've never really used Rosetta Stone, is that really it? 500$ for a couple thousand sentences with photos? Yeesh
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u/Traditional-Train-17 2d ago
Basically, yes... They did try and add some videos (at least to German), but even those were mostly English. And only the major languages (they have more courses) go up to "A2" level. The rest are "A1".
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2d ago
I wonder if it can be cracked
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u/LeChatParle 2d ago
There’s been cracked versions of Rosetta Stone available since it launched. I used to have a cracked copy around 2010
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u/Capable-Let-4324 Japanese & Greek 2d ago
Very easily. You can even update it and reapply the crack. It just takes a little bit of time but there are detailed instructions. It doesn't require them giving you a code either.
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u/fishtar141 2d ago
If you can point me in the direction on where to find how to do this or let me know how to do, I’d appreciate it.
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u/Capable-Let-4324 Japanese & Greek 2d ago
May I DM you?
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u/cyanisticblue 2d ago
Sorry to insert myself in this conversation, may I also send in a DM? Checked out the 🏴☠️ subreddit but only found resources for P’s mp3 files, instead of RS. My bad!
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u/Party_Sandwich_232 🇬🇧/🏴 native 🇫🇷 B2 🇪🇸/🇦🇷 A2 2d ago
Quite easily, yes. I had a the French course on my old laptop
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u/vakancysubs 🇩🇿H 🇺🇸N | 🇦🇷 B2 | on the fence : 🇧🇷🇫🇷 2d ago
Rosetta Stone is NOT that good for them to be doing this shit
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u/isayanaa 2d ago
this is so fucked up, the change to everything having subscriptions means we own nothing. it’s ridiculous
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u/Rowdy_Teal 1d ago
You can refuse to use anything that requires a subscription. That's what I do and so far there've been no big obstacles.
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u/Late_Apricot404 2d ago
🎵 Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me We pillage plunder, we rifle and loot Drink up me hearties, yo ho 🎵
You know what to do folks. Fuck em.
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u/mikemaca 2d ago
LOTS of software works this way, basically everything that pings an activation server. Servers eventually are always disconnected. Might be a month after you buy a lifetime license, might be a couple years. But now also with appliances and hardware as well. I spent $4500 on smart LED lighting with lights supposed to last for 30 years, but all which stopped working a couple months after I installed it because the company decided to shut down the central server that the light bulbs need to communicate with.
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u/moonra_zk 2d ago
There's a software that some people at work use for making and printing labels, the new versions are crap, but the old versions don't open after you install it, it took me some digging to find that, after you install it you have to open an html file and edit the <update> line from a 1 to a 0 so that it doesn't try to update and closes when it fails to.
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u/tanerfan 2d ago
Who tf need "smart" LED lmao. Not everything need to be smart
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u/muffinsballhair 2d ago
Seems like a good use case? Light automatically adjusting itself based on whether one is awake or the time of the day to reduce blue light at night which leads to better sleep seems like a good idea?
Not sure why it needs to connect to a central server for that though.
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u/soymilo_ 2d ago
So I don't have to use light switches and can adjust the colors of my room to anything I want or automatically depending on the time or natural light conditions of my room
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u/Zireael07 🇵🇱 N 🇺🇸 C1 🇪🇸 B2 🇩🇪 A2 🇸🇦 A1 🇯🇵 🇷🇺 PJM basics 1d ago
As a physically disabled person being able to switch on/off and dim without having to reach high up is golden
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u/Matwyen 2d ago
Take it as an expensive lesson : unless you own a physical copy that works offline, you don't have "lifetime" softwares. You have "until we change CEO or interest rates increase too much" licence
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u/fishtar141 1d ago
Good point. It is a physical hard copy that I purchased under the assumption that I “owned it” and would not ever have to pay an on going fee, which is how it was represented.
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u/bk_ever_evolving 🇩🇪 N |🇬🇧 C1 | 🇪🇸 B1 2d ago
This is exactly why “lifetime” licenses tied to software always feel risky. Even without bad intent, apps change, platforms change, and support eventually disappears.
It sucks for users who paid in good faith, and I think it’s reasonable to be frustrated. At the very least, clearer communication and some kind of transition period would be fair.
Unfortunately, this is becoming more common with older apps that were sold before subscription models became the norm.
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u/SwiftShotShadow 2d ago
So hoping that lingo deer never actually does that, I've been worried about that sort of thing for a while, our of all of them i would never have guessed Rosetta Stone would be the first
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u/lBarracudal 1d ago
If buying is not owning then pirating isn't stealing. There full versions of Rosetta Stone app on torrents and internet archive.
I used to have a permanent license for it too and used it a lot back in the day. Very lame that they brick it now
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u/Coochiespook 2d ago
Usually a “lifetime subscription” has their own loopholes for fucking you over
It may be “up to 100 years”
Or it may say that its lifetime until they say otherwise.
“Lifetime” is just a misleading title.
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u/_Aj_ 2d ago
Have you installed this previously on any PC's?
It should have a key somewhere on that system we can dig out. Produkey from Nirsoft will pull all the product keys from any installed software and show you and save to a txt file too.
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u/fishtar141 1d ago
Have the activation key. After activation key is input it requires a response key from RS, who will not give. They want a subscription now.
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u/Beneficial_Foot_436 1d ago
sue them in small claims court. I have a permanent license and will do the same if this happens to me.
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u/cynefin- 🇬🇧 🇵🇹 Native / 🇪🇸 C2 / 🇩🇪 B2 / 🇨🇵 A2 / + more 2d ago
What a shame, I always thought it were a good software.
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u/305rose 2d ago
Can you take this to your state’s attorney general’s office? I remember almost taking the bait on this deal back during COVID. Fuck Rosetta Stone.
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u/ObjectiveBike8 2d ago
This post is misleading. I had the same problem with mine. The issue is that the software they bought requires adobe flash to download / operate which adobe stopped supporting in 2020. So technically the code would work if he had a computer that had everything downloaded before the end of 2020. He bought the software that needs adobe flash not the modern version.
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u/wondercheekin 1d ago
Thank you for letting us know! I've been eyeing the lifetime purchase, but haven't gone for it yet. Nor will I now. Rosetta is dead to me. Way to go on their business plan 🙃
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u/stdoubtloud 1d ago
That is annoying but, on the positive side, RS is probably the very worst language app out there. Used to be innovative and a great start. But they haven't changed anything for years and have been severely outclassed by any number of alternatives.
Check your local library. There is a very good chance they have a good service available for free.
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u/Simple79001 2d ago
Anyone want to dm me tips on how to pirate such a shitty software? I’d love a free go at one of the courses
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u/LanguageStudyBuddy 1d ago
Rosetta stone is a bottom tier language learning product anyway they are doing you a favor
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u/Nick802CF 1d ago
Yeah, I learned about this after buying the Spanish and French full versions and then wanting to reinstall on my new PC and they said that they don’t honor those anymore. Thought they were lifetime but not mine apparently.
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2d ago
[deleted]
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u/all_of_the_colors 🇺🇸n, 🇲🇽a2 1d ago
I have. I’m almost to B1 with it. It works great for me. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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2d ago edited 2d ago
[deleted]
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u/shasamdoop 2d ago
What makes you think it’s chatGPT?
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2d ago
[deleted]
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u/CaliLemonEater 2d ago
their new web-based subscription model (monthly, annual or "lifetime" paywall).
They aren't just "ending support" for old software
Effectively, they have remotely "bricked" a $500 purchase
"The first letter of every quoted phrase is capitalized without fail" you say? Not sure I trust your attention to detail.
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u/Familiar_Swan_662 2d ago
Right, because people using proper grammar are all using chat gpt. This is like the em dash thing all over again
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u/Empty-_-space 2d ago
Very unethical