Microsoft slashes product key allowances for TechNet subscribers
Summary: For the second time in two years, Microsoft has significantly cut the benefits it offers to TechNet subscribers. Will the newly reduced allotments of Windows and Office product keys really reduce piracy or just annoy Microsoft's customers?
Microsoft’s TechNet program is one of the best bargains in personal computing. For an annual subscription price of $349, TechNet Professional subscribers get access to nearly every release of every operating system (desktop and server) and Office suite.
The licenses are valid for evaluation purposes only, but the downloadable products and product keys are typically Retail products, indistinguishable from shrink-wrapped products.
Two years ago, a TechNet Professional subscription entitled you to 10 product keys for every version of Windows and every version of Office. In September 2010, citing concerns over piracy, Microsoft cut those allotments to five keys.
Now, according to an announcement at the TechNet Subscriptions home page (link available only to signed-in TechNet subscribers), the number of product keys has just been slashed again:
Beginning in mid-March 2012, subscribers to TechNet Subscriptions (excluding TechNet Standard which are entitled to 2 keys per product) may access a maximum allocation of three (3) product keys for Microsoft Office and Windows Client products in connection with their subscription. The allotted keys may only be used for software evaluation purposes. Once the maximum keys have been activated, no more keys will be made available. Additional product keys may be acquired through the purchase of an additional subscription.
In addition to that restriction, Microsoft has also imposed restrictions on the number of keys that can be claimed on any given day. As another support page notes, a TechNet Professional (Retail) subscriber can claim 44 keys in a 24-hour period.
Reaching your limit means that you have claimed the maximum number of keys allowed for your program benefit level within a 24 hour period. Every 24 hours you may claim another set of keys, up to your program levels maximum.
The same document includes an explanation of sorts for the sudden spate of changes:
Why has Microsoft limited my access to product keys?
We are acting to protect the value of your subscription. If we did not act to prevent abuse of subscriptions we would eventually have to either limit the products available in a subscription or raise the price of your subscription. We believe that this is the best compromise to continue to deliver the highest value to you while limiting abuse at the same time.
Over the past few years, I have encountered countless examples of unauthorized resellers hawking Windows and Office product keys on legit-looking websites. It was a lucrative business for scammers, whose $349 got them 10 licenses for Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate. It was practically a license to print money, as long as their customers activated the resold product keys before Microsoft cut them off.
Even at five keys per product, the economics made it worth trying.
The question now is whether the newly reduced allotment of product keys will actually reduce piracy or simply annoy TechNet subscribers.
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Talkback
Annoyed
Poor poor fanboys
No...
Pirates ruin it only until piracy is encouraged
Microsoft openly admits in that article how they want piracy. When it suits them.
:(
The relevant paragraphs of that article (and ignore the great stuff in that article that hypes up Vista :) ):
<i>By 2001, Microsoft executives were coming to the conclusion that China's weak IP-enforcement laws meant its usual pricing strategies were doomed to fail. Gates argued at the time that while it was terrible that people in China pirated so much software, if they were going to pirate anybody's software he'd certainly prefer it be Microsoft's.
Today Gates openly concedes that tolerating piracy turned out to be Microsoft's best long-term strategy. That's why Windows is used on an estimated 90% of China's 120 million PCs. "It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not," Gates says. "Are you kidding? You can get the real thing, and you get the same price." Indeed, in China's back alleys, Linux often costs more than Windows because it requires more disks. And Microsoft's own prices have dropped so low it now sells a $3 package of Windows and Office to students.</i>
Probably going back to the Action Pack
I'm probably going to switch back to the action pack, you still get 10 licenses with it and the hoops aren't all that difficult to get through.
Errr....
Extremely annoyed!
Why?
Well, one might have to reformat the computer(s)
Still, why have "innocent until proven guilty" - we're all crooks. That's the gist of it...
The Future
2016. Five Evaluation product keys. Allows 180 day use
2018. One Evaluation product key. 180 days
2020. 90 day evaluation product key.
Quite possibly
And given upgrade licenses aren't possible anymore, people will be paying through the teeth... except in countries where Microsoft encourages piracy (as with drug dealers, get them hooked for cheap and then ramp up the cost...)
And that's not empty smoke, Microsoft is on record promoting piracy (when it suits them):
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/07/23/100134488/
You can understand
I don't see why people are making such a huge fuss about it though, you can get a 180 day trial of practically any server and normally 30-60 day of any office.
Since nobody else is citing sources to back up their claims,
So be sure to learn from the 180 days and never forget what's learned, because you won't be able to renew or get a refresher... (go ahead and vote this down, only those who do show they aren't in the industry or have to change jobs or skills only to have to re-learn them later on, which is one of the points for having licenses that go beyond 180 days...)
Number of Installations Per License.
Are the product keys still good for 10 installations each or did they limit those as well? If I can install Windows/Office... 10 times for each product key, I'm fine with it. That adds up to 30 Windows/Office... installations. I only have 6 computers at home that I can use on a test network, so I would never reach the limit per key.
Agreed...
As for a comment made by another commenter, I don't see it being businesses abusing this. I'm sure it's home users who have been gaming the system to license their home systems and for all their family and friends.
Suck it up, fanboys
Remember a couple of years back the broo-haw-haw over beta testers heavily involved in beta testing Windows 7 and not getting a free license key for their efforts?
Well this is along the same lines. The same mentality.
They finally relented after all the negative press they got but hey, cheap is as cheap was. Right? :p
:D
@ScorpioBlack
Microsoft doesn't earn its profits by being ethical in return to those who spend time and money testing their stuff. (e.g. people buying their own hardware on their own dime, or having the hardware that they bought at some point...)
These are retail keys
How many keys do you need to run evaluation software anyway?
Retail Keys.
Update: No, I did not dream it. I read it on Paul Thurrot's website. Here is the link.
http://www.winsupersite.com/article/faqtip/save-even-more-money-with-a-technet-standard-subscription