I already have a Steinberg key, but VSL's stance on lost and broken eLicenser keys is news to me. I've read a few threads about it on this forum, and while I know the opinion of a newbie probably won't carry much weight here, I have serious reservations, particularly in regards to the 50% fee to replace lost licenses. I find it hard to believe that in this day and age, VSL users can't remotely deactivate their own licenses. I understand VSL's argument that there are legal issues with them remotely deactivating licenses, but that's not the same thing as the user remotely deactivating licenses. I do it all the time with other vendors' software whenever I need to use it on a different computer. As insanely great as Vienna Instruments and Vienna Ensemble appear to be, I'm surprised VSL hasn't come up with a more elegant solution to this problem. I will have to think about the license situation before making any VSL purchases (and perhaps consult with my insurer).

In any case, please consider this thread closed. Thanks again for all the great feedback.

@Symfoniq said:

please consider this thread closed

OK, but one last thought [:)]: I believe undue weight has been placed in this forum on the lost licenses question. First of all, people don't usually lose their keys. Secondly, VSL are a reasonable, intelligent company, and if someone lost their licenses through no fault of their own, I'm sure they would take the circumstances into account and do their best to help. if the company's stated policy suggests otherwise, it's probably because they need some protection in place against people fraudulently trying to obtain licenses - 99.9% of users are honest, but there's an awful lot of sample piracy out there. Having watched VSL operate since the early days, I don't believe they regard license replacement as a sneaky way to generate extra income.