What does "moving away from perpetual licenses" mean?

I recently participated in an AUGI discussion thread (Autodesk Plans to Go Subscription-Only Over Next One to Two Years) regarding our announcement we made at an Investor Day. Since then I attended an internal Autodesk OnAir presentation where VP of Industry Strategy & Marketing, Andrew Anagnost, provided additional information. Here it is in question/answer form

1. Q: What does "moving away from perpetual licenses" mean?
   A: We will stop offering customers the option to purchase NEW perpetual licenses of Autodesk software. Customers will continue to have several other purchase options, including Desktop Subscription.

2. Q: Why are we making this change?
   A: We are ahead of most of our competition in harnessing cloud and mobile to give customers superior user experiences and to provide more potential customers access to our products through lower prices for many of our products and term payments.

3. Q: What will be the impact on existing customers?
   A: Customers who are on Autodesk Subscription will not be impacted by this change. Customers not on Autodesk Subscription will need to purchase Desktop Subscription to access the latest Autodesk software releases.

4. Q: What does this mean for customers on Maintenance Subscription?
   A: Existing subscribers will continue to have the option to renew their Maintenance Subscription contracts and receive access to the latest Autodesk software releases and other Subscriber benefits. Any new software received as part of a maintenance contract will have perpetual license rights.

5. Q: What are we taking away?
   A: The ability to buy NEW perpetual licenses.

6. Q: Does this mean customers will lose their perpetual rights?
   A: No, if the customer previously bought a perpetual license in the past, that license doesn't go away.

7. Q:When will we stop offering perpetual licenses?
   A: We anticipate it will be sometime in the next 12 to 24 months. Details will be shared as decisions are finalized.

You may have seen some of this information start to trickle into the Autodesk forums.

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Here it is in other words that I received from our PR team:

"We are aware of multiple conversations regarding Autodesk’s ongoing business model transformation and move to Subscription. In an effort to provide clarification, we would like to provide some specifics about changes in the sale of perpetual licenses."

• "Over the next 12-24 months, Autodesk is planning to gradually discontinue sales of NEW perpetual licenses, and will make NEW seats of our software available through Desktop and Cloud Subscription only."
• "Existing customers with perpetual seats will be able to continue using those products per the terms of those licenses. Customers with perpetual licenses that are current with Autodesk Subscription will continue to benefit from product updates and other benefits of Autodesk Subscription."

"We recognize that these changes will impact our customers and that you will have many questions. We plan to provide additional details about our plans as the information becomes available and will provide sufficient advance notice so you can plan for these changes."

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Clarification is alive in the lab.