Registration and licensing

The Video CutterV2 is licensed software. This page explains what registration does, how to do it, and what happens when something goes wrong with the licence.

What happens if you do not register

An unregistered CutterV2 starts, discovers servers, opens files and lets you configure everything — but it will not cut. Pressing Start cutting produces:

You have an UNREGISTERED version, please register!

and nothing else happens. The window title also ends with - UNREGISTERED, and a red REGISTER button is visible in the top right corner.

The restriction exists so the software can be installed, configured and tested end to end before a licence is bought, without allowing it to be used for a real event.

Warning

Discover this the day before, not five minutes before the first fight. Registration needs an internet connection, and a venue's internet is exactly the thing that is not working when you are in a hurry. Registering is the first item on the first-run checklist for that reason.

How to register

Click the REGISTER button in the top right corner of the main window. It is only visible while the CutterV2 is unregistered.
Paste your licence key into the field.
Click Register.

On success you see "Registration complete. Thank you for playing fair!", the REGISTER button disappears and - UNREGISTERED is removed from the title bar. You can start cutting immediately — no restart is needed.

The Visit FairReplay Cloud button in the same dialog opens https://backend.fairreplay.com, where licences and activations are managed.

Note

Registration needs a working internet connection — the key is validated against the licensing server. If the server cannot be reached you get "Unable to reach the licensing server. Please verify your internet connection!".

Machine keys and activations

When the CutterV2 registers, it ties the licence to that specific PC using a machine key built from the hardware — Windows' own machine identifier, the motherboard serial number and the processor identifier. This is what stops one licence key being used on an unlimited number of machines.

The machine key and the licence token are stored in a file called jwt.json in the installation folder, C:\FairReplay\CutterV2.

Each time the CutterV2 starts it quietly checks in with the licensing server. If the licence token is in the second half of its life, a fresh one is issued and stored automatically. You will never notice this happening — which is the point — but it does mean a machine that is offline for months may need registering again. See License token expired.

"Your machine key has changed"

If the hardware identity of the PC changes — a replaced motherboard, a restored disk image, sometimes a major Windows upgrade — the machine key no longer matches the one recorded at registration, and the CutterV2 shows:

Your Machine Key has changed! Please re-register VideoCutter by following these steps:
Visit https://backend.fairreplay.com and click "My Activations".
Find the Video Cutter activation for the Machine key … and revoke it.
Re-register VideoCutter.

After you close that message, a second one asks "Would you like to copy the machine key to the clipboard?". Answer Yes and the key is put on the clipboard, ready to paste into the activations page — much easier than copying a long key off the screen by hand.

Note

The key you are given is the old one — the key recorded in the licence token at registration time, which is the key named in the message above. That is deliberate: step 2 asks you to find and revoke the activation made under the old key, so the old key is what you need. It is not the PC's current, changed machine key.

This offer appears only as part of this message. There is no button elsewhere in the CutterV2 for copying the machine key on demand.

Revoking the old activation frees the seat so the same licence key can be used again on the rebuilt machine.

You may also see a milder version of this in the Activity Log at startup:

Your machine key has changed.

That line means the hardware identity changed but the licence still validated. Nothing is broken; it is recorded so that a later licensing problem can be traced back to it.

License token expired

The licence token is short-lived and is refreshed whenever the CutterV2 contacts the licensing server. If the PC has been offline for a long time, the token can expire even though the licence itself is perfectly valid.

The fix is simply to click REGISTER and register again with the same licence key — no new key is needed.

"Your License has expired!"

The licence itself has run out, rather than the token. Contact the Control Room team or renew it in FairReplay Cloud.

Message	Meaning
`Could not check a valid JWT!`	The stored licence token could not be read or verified. Register again.
`License key error - invalid product code!`	The key is valid but belongs to a different product — an Ingester or Recorder key, not a Cutter key. Ask for the right one.
`JWT public key decoding problem.`	The licence token is corrupt. Register again; if it persists, contact support.
`Other internal server error.`	The licensing server returned something unexpected. Try again, then contact support.
Registration fails with "already registered"	The licence is already activated on another machine. Revoke that activation in My Activations first.
Registration fails with "revoked" or "invalid"	The key is no longer usable. The CutterV2 clears it locally so you do not keep retrying a dead key. Ask for a new one.

Each program needs its own licence

The FairReplay tools are licensed separately. A key issued for the Video Ingester will not register the CutterV2, and vice versa — you get "License key error - invalid product code!".

If a PC runs both the CutterV2 and the Ingester, both must be registered, each with its own key.

What to have ready when contacting support

The version from the title bar, for example 2026.06.30.115-f09df41.
The machine key, if you are asked for it. It is the machineId value in C:\FairReplay\CutterV2\jwt.json, which you can open with Notepad.
The exact error message.
The log files from C:\FairReplay\CutterV2\logs — see Log files.