No, I'm not missing the point. I have, under my control, perpetual hard license files for 2019. The company has already confirmed that we can continue using these licenses, on one machine per license, until the end of time or Autodesk's demise. The license files are picked up and transferred manually to the new machine. You don't "restore from a backup" because that's not how it works.

Personally, I don't think they had the licenses that Rossman and the company think they had. I suspect they were some sort of grandfathered upgrade license that indeed, did expire because it technically didn't cover 2019 as an install, 2019 was just the end result of upgrading that license.

So, I went and sat down with my IT director today over lunch and we discussed this very thing.

If you have a perpetual license, it stays perpetual. Autodesk will not supporrt you in any way. Period. This has been confirmed by myself, and pretty much every other person in the company that may have to deal with this issue. We own the license to this software, per the contract we signed when we purchased it it is irrevocable. This, of course, does not cover being unable to run the software on modern equipment, which will happen someday.

If, however, you do not pay attention, Autodesk will convert you to a subscription license. This expires, as they do not support 2019. I suspect, that at some point, your storyteller accidentally or unknowingly converted their license, or they simply did not have the license they said they did. Autodesk will do everything in their power to convert your licenses because money.

That's all there is to it. Someone doesn't have the whole story here, and it's Rossman.