I don't know why it's so hard to understand this. The keys don't expire, even if you don't re subscribe, they state themselves there's no software or feature time limits. The regular Technet Plus subscription is for your own personal use, you're not supposed to split it with a bunch of other people, and it's not for building a company.
Not for use in Staging or Production environments.
Though somewhat reiterating what's been covered:
* The subscription is for *one* person. That means you're not supposed to "share" it. Though you might technically have multiple people using things periodically under one roof somewhere while you test stuff, it does not mean you get to split the cost among 10 friends and everybody gets something and goes their own way.
And for what it's worth, MS periodically does stuff like $99 Technet deals for students. That would be the far wiser way for individual students to go.
* It's not for use in a live production / staging environment. That means this is not some "great deal" for small businesses or home offices. You might use it to figure out what software you want to use for your particular setup, but once you're live and functional and no longer "evaluating," you're supposed to properly license the real deal. And if you're actually making money somehow off of using things, it shouldn't be that hard to justify the expense and come up with the correct funds.
Anyway, just hope the thing doesn't get abused. It can be a great way for IT people to mess around with things even at home, etc., get more used to MS products, experiment with different setups and how things can work, and so on. And it'd be a shame if MS someday just throws up their hands and turns everything into time-limited trials and/or jacks the price, etc....
The keys not expiring is not the hard part to understand, this has always been the case. The keys do not expire (though the bility to activate them 20 yeas from now if MS goes under may be) but it would be entirely possible for the license to say that if your subscription expires you are not allowed to use them any more.
So the real Q is: After your subscription expires, are you licensed to use the software or keys any more?
After looking at the actual license:
TechNet Plus Subscriptions License Terms
There does not appear to be any timeout periods on the licensed USE of anything you download while you are a member. It looks to me like if you let your membership lapse, you will merely lose your ability to download any more content or generate any more numbers. But the liscence you agreed to when you do sign up and DL software is apparenly good forever for whatever you download as long as you adhere to the terms of the license.
wow you guys make a big deal out of nothing. Anyway the answer is simple...Do as you please as long as you don't let microsoft know. Its that simple. MS don't need to know what you do.
