Technet Plus changed and Reduced number of Keys to 5

I think the best way to eliminate any wrongdoing is to reduce/eliminate the need for it. You don't reduce piracy by raising prices and tightening DRM. You reduce piracy by lowering prices and reducing DRM. While there are some people out there who will always do the wrong thing, there are also a lot of people who will do the right thing if they don't have to suffer for it. Increased DRM causes increased piracy (case and point in Spore), because you're making life harder for people. You ask for $50 for a game, and then reward those that pay for it by making them jump through hoops, while the pirates get a free ride. You're providing a disincentive for people to do the right thing.

And I agree with 24c, Microsoft handled it this way so that there would not be a run on unclaimed keys. But still, I think someone needs to go class action on this. It would have been a lot better if they had grandfathered in all their current subscribers, giving them the number of keys/activations they were originally promised, and only applied the new terms to new subscribers. As it stands now, I charge Microsoft with taking payment and then failing/refusing to deliver the promised service.

WindowsStar said:

Ans #1 - I agree if you are a home user, however I am a corp user and sometimes we are testing in many different agencies, buildings and around the world. So being restricted to 5 has already changed our R&D model.

I understand this as a corporate user as well. At my place, we use MSDN subscriptions...but all of the employees who use and need the software all have their own subscriptions. So, it's x # of keys per x number of employees that we have.

WindowsStar said:

Ans #2 - Imaging and then using on different hardware prompts the newly imaged machine to re-activate (Windows 7 and Office 2010). It is smart and knows.

yes, I only meant imaging to the same machine. I was really commenting on the home users...which I think is the norm for the people on this forum that carry Technet. So, rather than load Server 2008R2 and then activate it and then later format and install Windows 7 and activate it and then later format and put Server 2008R2 back on and activate again...if you image that image right after activation then you don't have to worry about running out of activations.

24c said:

Does anyone have a written statement, either in an email, snail mail, or any other form stating we get the 10 key-10 activations per key?

It was me asking this before. I don't know if I have ever seen it written down. It seems that this question of how many and how much you always get with regards to Technet is asked....so I don't think it's clearly stated anywhere.

24c said:

pparks1 said:

It was me asking this before. I don't know if I have ever seen it written down. It seems that this question of how many and how much you always get with regards to Technet is asked....so I don't think it's clearly stated anywhere.

SO, in keeping with Sgt. Joe Friday's insistence of "just the facts", maybe nobody got depeived of anything here.

Just saying........

It's a real gray area and I am sure that Microsoft consulted their legal department before they did this, so I suppose all we can do is suck it up and get on with life.

kodi said:

It's a real gray area and I am sure that Microsoft consulted their legal department before they did this, so I suppose all we can do is suck it up and get on with life.

I don't think it's a grey area. Legally I'm sure they can do what they did. They have tons of lawyers and spend tons of times on the legal-ese in the contracts. However, what makes people mad is that they changed the deal during the contract period of time without any notice to the people. Most companies would have allowed the contract to expire and then made people renew under the new terms.

The last few posts seem to be correct, I have not seen any MS site or email, letter, etc, that states you will get x-keys for y-OS/App.

The site does say TechNet allows you to test some/most of MS software, as long as you follow the rules.
What is included and how many keys are evidently left up to MS to decide, which would give them the right to change it.

Changing the number of keys allowed in the 'middle of the night' is understandably upsetting to those of us that have a sub but, MS seems to be willing to refund the sub if requested.
This is, at least, showing some consideration for the TechNet members even though, apparently the legality of the number of keys may be in their favor.

So it seems that MS is going to leave it up to the individual to decide if they want to get a refund or accept the bad news.

This is still a good deal, just not as good as it was.

pparks1 said:

I don't think it's a grey area. Legally I'm sure they can do what they did. They have tons of lawyers and spend tons of times on the legal-ese in the contracts. However, what makes people mad is that they changed the deal during the contract period of time without any notice to the people. Most companies would have allowed the contract to expire and then made people renew under the new terms.

If your technet subscription agreement specified the number of licenses, and Microsoft changed it, you have legal recourse for material contract breach, and could get out (and likely get a refund) legally. However, if it was never specified what your sub gave you (as in not specified as part of your contract for the subscription), then you'll have to rely on whether or not Microsoft would refund you if requested. From what I understand, they are doing this, so at least that's going for you if you really do feel wronged by the change. I am with some of the other posters here, however - it might stink, but it's likely very legal. If you're doing heavy-duty testing, MSDN is probably a better license deal in the long run anyway, honestly. It's always been a far broader and more flexible subscription, but I suppose that goes with the 10x price increase for it as well.