There has been a bit of a buzz about this on another forum as well, and it is good that customers are made aware of this policy.
If your dongle breaks and is not under warranty, you pay 20€ per license to have them restored. If you own all VSL libraries and software, that would amount to 960€, just to have the licenses recovered. The Terms of Licence simply reads: 'shall be replaced in return for a handling fee'. Surely it looks like a handling fee of 960€ exceeds the cost induced to VSL by that process? And certainly the vague term 'a handling fee' doesn't make customers aware of to what it actually can amount. If the fee is that high it should be explicitly stated in the Terms of Licence in my opinion.
If your dongle gets stolen or lost you have to pay 50% of the libraries price to restore the licence. Michael Hula wrote on this forum: 'So, if a key get's lost, everybody who finds this key has unrestricted acces to the licenses. Free replacement licenses would harm our company, we simply can't afford such a solution.'
The Terms of Licence reads: ' Vienna Symphonic Library GmbH reserves the right to block its Licenses saved on the lost ViennaKey or on any other lost USB eLicenser'. Huh? Can VSL block the licenses or not?
And again, the passus 'Lost or stolen Licenses cannot be replaced free of charge by Vienna Symphonic Library' is vague and doesn't make the customer aware of the actual expenses. Again, the height of the fee (=50% of the price of the library) should be explicitly stated in the Terms of Licence in my opinion.
Finally, Eastwest apparently does replace lost or stolen licenses free of charge. And so does Steinberg, which uses the same dongle as VSL. If your dongle is stolen or lost, Steinberg replaces your Cubase license free of charge.
I hope VSL is working towards more customer friendly solutions in this regard. Having to buy an extra insurance policy if you want to invest into VSL libraries is not customer friendly solution in my opinion, and it lacks behind the customer support of other companies in these special cases.
In all other respects VSL customer support has always been top notch for me. Fast, helpful, and friendly. Kudos to the support team and the whole company for their great work. In this particular case however I wish VSL can adapt and improve their policy.