License changes Feedback (10 to 2 servers)

[Screech]

Edit by mod

I talked to Sales and got this statement and the permission to write this.

NPL issued before Jun 2014
All NPL's with 10 virtual server and 512 slots will be renewed automatically with the same condition.

But you will loose this condition for following reasons:
1. Abuse of that license (selling, hosting for others etc.)
2. Your license did not renew, because the server was inactive

NPL issued after Jun 2014 / Or you want to request a NPL
Your license will be renewed with 2 virtual server and 512 slots.

There is no way to get a NPL with 10 virtual server.
Please do not create tickets for this. This condition is only for the old license type.

This was an official feedback, since there are no news about the situation.

Really, that news ticker in the client should have been used for both of these news headlines. NPL update should have been pushed to everyone, yet this is the first I've heard about it, a week later, was it even announced in forum? I'm not happy about the 2 V-server change at all though. Currently have PlanetSide Outfit, RR7 racers, family server, Ingress server and a test server... If I want to keep the test server I now can only have 1 public server. I really like separate servers for different groups of people I associate with, permissions merging these servers into a single v-server so that a group from one have no influence on another would be a nightmare. Maybe I'll revert the less used servers to TeamSpeak 2 where I still have a 1024 slot license.

You want a way to crack down on piracy? Use the news ticker to get users to police the servers they are renting/using and report them themselves. Most people don't know how to know if the server they are using is pirated. Have a link in the news ticker to a page about "How to Determine if Your Server is Legal". Cover checking slot count / license type, if "No license" and more than 32 slots, illegal. If NPL and more than 512, illegal. If NPL and they are paying or asked to pay anything, illegal. If their server appears to be illegal instruct them on how to report the server address to you for review. Some users on those server will realize the server they are using is illegal and they didn't even know it. Stop blacklist evasion by editing data on client systems, have TS3 client review the address it gets for the blacklist server and if it looks really wrong (you would know) have the client reject connecting to any server.

[numma_cway]

Really, that news ticker in the client should have been used for both of these news headlines. NPL update should have been pushed to everyone, yet this is the first I've heard about it, a week later, was it even announced in forum? I'm not happy about the 2 V-server change at all though. Currently have PlanetSide Outfit, RR7 racers, family server, Ingress server and a test server... If I want to keep the test server I now can only have 1 public server. I really like separate servers for different groups of people I associate with, permissions merging these servers into a single v-server so that a group from one have no influence on another would be a nightmare.

I agree with you entirely. I especially cannot endorse the downgrading of existing licenses. If you look at TS2, they simply stopped giving away NPLs (I know that TS2 and TS3 NPL terms are not comparable).

For me, YaTQA has always been my “Thank you” for the existence of the NPL and its generous limits. Since the announcement, I no longer consider the NPL limits (and downgrading the licenses of long-time users) worth another three-year/thousand-hour thank you. So that's basically it for the development on the free version of YaTQA. That’s not a hasty reaction from my side, I’ve made this decision years ago, now I'm just being consistent.
Additionally, I will stop my technical support activity on this forum.

You want a way to crack down on piracy? Use the news ticker to get users to police the servers they are renting/using and report them themselves. Most people don't know how to know if the server they are using is pirated. Have a link in the news ticker to a page about "How to Determine if Your Server is Legal". Cover checking slot count / license type, if "No license" and more than 32 slots, illegal. If NPL and more than 512, illegal. If NPL and they are paying or asked to pay anything, illegal. If their server appears to be illegal instruct them on how to report the server address to you for review. Some users on those server will realize the server they are using is illegal and they didn't even know it.

This is a good idea, but as far as I get that announcement, they do not want to deal with piracy anymore. That's obviously the reason why piracy inquiries take months to be processed. However, I expect that instead of abusing the NPL, people will start using hacked servers/licenses instead. I find this “don't want to deal with piracy” attitude and motivation for the change not really satisfying, neither for ATHPs nor for long-time honest users of the NPL.

[Screech]

Also, since this post was moved from where it was and the post by the user with the link to the news headline removed I guess. Here is a link to the news about the NPL and AAL changes since it still does not have its own post from TeamSpeak team in the announcements area: http://www.teamspeak.com/?page=newsa...ident=20140604

[hunterpl]

Hello !

I have 1024 slots AAL and i looked into price list again. Where is information about discount for regular payment clients ? now i don't see this information, so teamspeak change word and now, no one will get 20% off for AAL ?? Please replay ASAP.

Best Regards
Mateusz Gladosz

[Screech]

From pricing page:

Annual Activation Licenses require annual renewal at the prices shown above.

I would think they are doing away with 20% off. Hoping this discount is also grandfathered, like 5 or 10 v-server AALs, though I don't see where that was clarified.

Note that existing AAL licensees who obtained their license prior to this policy change will be grandfathered into the old license structure and may continue to renew as they have before.

Hoping that "old license structure" part also refers to pricing.

[Ahmed]

2 vServers ?? .. thats not how you fight piracy ..

make it domain and/or IP bound make a report system with client side vitrification or w/e ..
you're taking UBISOFT (uplay and always online) route by making more restrictions which will only effect the legit users ...

pirates will always find a way to keep servers up and abuse the system legit users are the only losers here ...
is it hard for a pirate to emulate your accounting/license system and just crack the whole system?

what should we do with our 5 vServers now ? which gets 0 profit since its all friendly gaming clans and family servers ?

[Goof FR]

Hi

I've just seen this thread and the news.

First of all. Did they sold many 32 slots and 1 virtual server for $30 .... as no licence is also 32 slots and 1 virtual server ?

Then, for NPL licence. Getting only two V-serv for 512 slots is not enough.
512 slots is too much slots and 2 V-serv is not enough.
It would have been more clever to get 5-4 V-Serv and 320-256 slots for NPL.

I know that some people doesn't respect the rules but this would be too drastic for many "fair" people.

If you want them to switch to an other voice server, you couldn't have dreamt of a better idea.

I'm strongly attached to TeamSpeak, I don't want to switch to an other voice server.
Please, be fair

[Tomas]

I am sure this idea of those people would bring it's fruits.
Definetly!!

Soon, if you will be unlucky and order a VPS from some provider, to find out next hour, that on that random IP assigned to you someone run abusive teamspeak server(for a monthly subscription) there and therefore it is blacklisted, you can't get NPL for it, and.... it boils back to you going to support asking them to remove it from the blacklist.

I can see even now, that this will make ammount of requests for blacklisting and un-blacklisting much smaller.

Why don't you do it in a way that users who have same license for quite few(>=4?) years will have the limits that were back there in the days before you started messing up with additional restrictions. Sure, lets leave it for new licenses that will be, 2Vservers 512slots. However for those who don't abuse and can manage to keep their same license without being blacklisted/revoked etc, would have their long standing effort rewarded for playing fair.

BTW: since you are gathering those mail addresses of everyone who registered didn't you found out at some point that giving us an mail announcement of any sort would be freaking appropriate?! (I am not requesting mail monthly or anything. But licensing server IP change, or THIS would be useful!!)
Or are you ashamed of yourself in front of your ATHP's? I might be wrong, but I have a feeling that they are doing some pressure which is cause of all this.

Tell me now, since when you have to check facebook page or a site of your favorite linux distribution if you are subscribed to announcements?

And yes I am aware that you can make during update of an license someone teamspeak3 server to shutdown, very unpleasant experience, but, you could use it for your advantage here. Servers with not many(<2?) people on, few days before expiration, shut them down, if someone cares, he will turn it on, ok then renew it. If he doesn't too bad ;-)
Or since your SW call's home(license server), and I am pretty sure it might reports some stats, you can get an avg of users per day as well ;-)

You think I am wrong? Well you are not giving us ANY information. Ohh, except my reputation lightsaber ;-)

Ohh, and one last thing: I am one of those who still have what we call license v1, before any IP,domain,mail restrictions were applied. I am sure there are more of us. Why are we being put in same bag as others?

[eckart]

Prognosis... one year later we have to pay for the NPL ... (put in a smilie which doesn't exist in this system)

EDIT:

... And our plans are to come back next year with more exciting news and features. ...

[ElongEG]

just go to all pay its done anyway the pirates have already won . the losers here are us. they have cracked the accounting server
and key its over anyway do what you wish with team speak. x out the good guys for a donation button on a web page what a waste of Resources anyway you need to go after the real deal not the small fry he has to pay for his website as long as he dont ask for payment to use the free ts server let him go. unless of course you want more of this going on max virtualservers: 65535 max slots : 16776960 and i saw that work by the way:.......

[numma_cway]

Prognosis... one year later we have to pay for the NPL ...

I'd actually pay a one-time fee of 5 or 10 euros for a 10-server NPL (drop the static IP and active website requirement instead for those who have) whereas people with no way of paying the fee can still get the current NPL with 2 servers. But given the fact that the 300-dollar license got downgraded as well...

[ScP]

I can understand why the folks at TeamSpeak felt the need to change the NPL and AAL policy. Even when I was working for TeamSpeak until the end of 2007, almost 80% of all incoming support inquiries were about non-profit licenses and related piracy issues. Basically, every 2nd owner of a NPL (or NPO license as it was called back then) was violating the legal agreement and many so-called "free hosters" demanded their "customers" to make monthly donations or click banner ads to generate money... allowing them to grow bigger and bigger. TeamSpeak ended up having more people getting payed to deal with piracy issues than developers...

This - and only this - is the reason why TeamSpeak 3 introduced a technical slot count limitation and central accounting infrastructure. Even then, the TeamSpeak staff insisted on the existence of a non-profit license to support small clans, social networks and communities... and in my personal opinion, 512 slots (no matter how many virtual servers) are more than enough for everyone that has no commercial interest.

In addition, TeamSpeak has always been very generous by giving out special licenses to several people and their non-commercial projects and even hosted countless large servers for clans and guilds. I'm more than sure that they would gladly help out people like numma_cway for creating YaTQA or Screech for his continuous support and ongoing contributions... if they would just ask.

Anyway... while I fully understand why TeamSpeak is taking additional steps to fight piracy, I also think that changing existing licenses is a very bad idea. Having to change a working setup and infrastrucure will surely cause frustration and will only affect legal NPL users. People who want to pirate TeamSpeak will always find a way to do so... sad but true. I seriously hope that the sales team will reconsider this decision as this is not the right way.



I'm fully OK with a 2 server and 512 slot limit for future NPLs tho. I'd even be fine with a single server...

[FVH-Bubka3]

I also think that changing existing licenses is a very bad idea.

I agree. I had my NPL issued to me on 8/7/10. Yes, 4 years ago. I still have that very email. For all these years, I have followed the rules, and haven't submitted one ticket to support for NPL issues. I should not be punished because others choose to violate the terms. I've followed them for 4 years, why would I suddenly become a pirate now?

[hbrui]

Same goes for me, pls do not change existing licenses.

I also have one of those non IP-bound V.1 NPL licences and have followed the rules all the time to not endanger my license. I have not contacted support once, dealt with all things though this forum and even tried to help others with my certainly limited knowedge here. Why should all the long standing license holders now be punished? Do you really think, they will all go pirate over night?

Changes for future issued licences are fine, but why change existing licenses, which have been loyal to TS in the past (otherwise their licenses would already be blocked for piracy by now). When you introduced new requirements for NPL, V.1 licenses were not affected; this worked fine in the past, why not this time, too?

I`m pretty sure pirates will sadly always find a way to bypass any restrictions...

[Hayaku]

May I ask why TeamSpeak servers with no license can't be capped at 64 rather than 32? I couldn't find the answer and I think that it would greatly decrease number of NPL's needed. Nowadays TeamSpeak is used by way more people and it's quite easy to gather more than 32 people at one server.

As for me, reducing maximum number of virtual servers is fine but it may really be too much for some people. 5 would probably be perfect.