For patterns purchased at PatternCloud.com, there are three different types of copyright protection: Any, Machine or User
For patterns purchased at PatternCloud.com, there are different levels of copyright protections a designer may choose to attach to a pattern they offer. The copyright protection for each pattern that is for sale is listed with the price when viewing the pattern description. The encryption types are Any, Machine and User. You may narrow your PatternCloudstore search by the type of copyright protection.
Stitchout Any: Patterns set to stitchout any can be stitched on any Statler, Statler Ascend, or Elevate by Gammill. These are still sold only for your personal use and are, by license, not allowed to be shared with othe rs. However, there is no technical prevention built into the patterns themselves. Patterns with no encryption are likely to be more expensive as there is less protection for the designer to prevent illegal sharing. These are the same as unencrypted patterns in previous versions of CreativeStudio.
Stitchout Machines: Patterns set to stitchout machines can only be stitched on a Statler, Statler Ascend, or Elevate registered to the User at the time of purchase. The store will not let you add these patterns to your cart unless your machine is registered to your PatternCloud account. This encryption is basically the same as encrypted patterns worked in previous versions of CreativeStudio.
Stitchout User: Patterns set to Stitchout User can be stitched on any Statler, Statler Ascend or Elevate while that user is logged into their PatternCloud account. This is a new form of encryption that allows protection for the designer while offering more flexibility for the user. For example, if you buy a second stitcher, or need to replace a red key, or upgrade to a newer one, you will not have to contact the designer and have all your encrypted patterns redone with the new red key number. Or if you are visiting a friend you can log in to your account on her machine and stitch out your patterns, but when you log out your patterns are no longer on her machine. Thus you are able to stitch encrypted patterns that you own on other stitchers but do not risk violating copyright by accidentally sharing unencrypted patterns with your friend.
For encrypted patterns purchased anywhere other than PatternCloud.com, CS7 works much the same way as CS6. You enter the red key/controller number when you import the patterns. You can then use the patterns in SAM mode but you will not be able to stitch them on any machine but the one they are encrypted to.
VIDEO | Designer Encrypted Patterns