Licenses

Every C21 Streaming host carries a license file keyed to its MAC address. The file declares which products and features the host is allowed to run. This page is the canonical reference for which licenses exist, what each one unlocks, where it is enforced, and what an operator sees when one is missing.

System Administrators upload the license file through the license form that surfaces automatically when an instance carries no valid license — for example, on first boot or after expiration. Once a license is valid and an operator is signed in, there is no in-session UI panel to inspect or replace the license; replacement requires invalidating the instance (or restarting the service after expiration) and uploading a new file through the login flow. Operators have no license-administration surface — they may still see the user-facing effects (a hidden tab, a rejected channel type) but cannot change what is licensed.

What licenses are

A license has a name (the product or feature it grants), an expiration, an optional quantity (used by licenses that meter a resource, such as the number of channels an encoder may run) and a signed key. Licenses are bound to the host's MAC address; a license file from one host will not validate on another.

A single license file usually carries several licenses — one for the C21 Live Control product, one for the C21 Live Editor, one for the C21 Live Deploy add-on, and so on. The Control and the Encoder are licensed separately even when they run on the same machine: the Encoder enforces its own license set (encoder channels, multi publishing points, UDP recovery) and the Control enforces its own (Control / Editor / Deploy).

Where licenses live

Licenses are installed as a single file on the host. The upload form is the license screen that surfaces automatically when the LMS detects no valid license (user.validLicense === false); at any other time there is no UI panel to touch the file. The two real paths to replace the file are: (a) wait for the LMS to report an invalid license (expiration or a restart with no license) so the form surfaces; or (b) use the installLicense API endpoint described below. The file-system location is an implementation detail not exposed in the product.

C21 Live Control licenses

The C21 Live Control process (LMS) checks these licenses on startup and again periodically while it runs.

What happens when a Control license is missing

• C21LiveControl missing. The Live Control process refuses to start; the management UI is unreachable. If the license expires while the process is running, the periodic recheck (which runs on the main loop) trips and the process exits.
• C21LiveEditor missing on a Live Control install. The Live Control still starts. The Editor tab is hidden from Recordings (verified in RecordingsBase.vue — the tab is only added when hasEditorLicense is true) and the integrations that depend on it (notably MediaCopilot) cannot be invoked from the UI.
• C21LiveDeploy missing. The Live Control still starts. The C21 Live Cloud integration page is reachable, but the cloud Channel and Destination variants are not selectable in the editors. See C21 Live Cloud for the integration page.

C21 Live Encoder licenses

The C21 Live Encoder process checks these licenses on startup. The encoder will not run without a valid C21LiveEncoder license; the other licenses are opt-in features.

What happens when an Encoder license is missing

• C21LiveEncoder missing. The encoder process refuses to start and logs "Incorrect License". The Control side cannot dispatch broadcasts to that encoder.
• Multi Publishing Points missing. The encoder runs but caps every channel to a single Destination. The cap surfaces as Device.licensed.publishing_points = 1 on the Device detail.
• UDP Recovery missing. The encoder runs but rejects UDP-R contribution Channels at start time.

Per-feature license gates

Beyond the product-level licenses above, two features are gated at the application layer:

Per-device quantities exposed through the API

The Quantity fields of the encoder-side licenses surface on the Control through Device.licensed:

For the full Device contract see Devices.

License file format

The license file is an INI file. Each license is one [Product] section whose name matches the canonical license name (for example [C21LiveControl], [C21LiveEncoder], [Multi Publishing Points]). Each section carries exactly three fields:

The same file format is uploaded through the license form (the screen that surfaces automatically when the instance has no valid license) and through the API endpoint described below.

Administering licenses

How the API exposes it

getSystemLicenses returns each installed license with its product name, expiration (rendered as Unlimited when the underlying value is 31-12-3000) and quantity. The Key is stored on disk and is not returned by the API.

From the API

• installLicense accepts a multipart/form-data body whose file part is the INI license file. The handler reads each [Product] section and persists Expiration, Quantity and Key. When the file contains zero valid product sections, the response is SYSF008.
• GET /c21apiv2/crud/license returns { valid: true | false } based on whether C21LiveControl is present and active. The UI uses this probe to render the "This section is not available without a product license." banner on On Air and similar gated pages. Mutating verbs (POST / PUT / DELETE) on this path are explicitly blocked with Method not allowed.

For per-device license readouts (legacy multiplexer) see POST /c21apiv2/system/command with action: "getLicenses" and action: "uploadLicense" documented under API → System commands.

Expiration handling

• C21 Live Control. The process re-checks C21LiveControl (or C21LiveEditor on a standalone Editor install) on its main loop. When the license file is no longer valid, the process logs "License is not valid or has expired" and exits. The UI becomes unreachable shortly after.
• C21 Live Encoder. The encoder reads its license on startup. A mid-run expiration of the encoder license is not re-evaluated until the next restart, but the host's other licenses (Multi Publishing Points, UDP Recovery) are read on the same path so they take effect on the next encoder restart.
• License rendering. Expiration: 31-12-3000 is rendered as Unlimited in the License tab and in the getSystemLicenses response. The product does not render expiration colour bands or graded warnings — the License tab shows the date and the Unlimited sentinel, and the runtime check is binary (valid / not valid).

FAQ