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TeamViewer updated the EULA over the weekend and has given users 15 days to object to it and continue under the old EULA’s provisions. This thing is massive, typically dense legalese (including a few fun German words sprinkled around for good measure-- Mitwirkungsobliegenheit, anyone?) though not as bad as some, and there is no indication of what has changed from the previous version.

I’ll be working through it today as I am a perpetual license holder for version 12. One thing I noticed (may or may not be new) is that they declare that perpetual licensees can be obligated to upgrade to the latest version. “In the event that TeamViewer elects to provide a Major Release Version of the Software, TeamViewer may require the Customers of Perpetual licenses to pay an additional fee for use of such new Major Release Version.” So far they haven’t offered upgrades to perpetual licenses since they switched to a subscription model or I would have upgraded. This sounds rather ominous, however, since it seems they could be obligating me to upgrade to a future version that they release for perpetual users without regard to whether the cost is reasonable or not.

I would tag a TeamViewer green guy/gal, but there are several and I don’t know who, if any, is currently active.

As I am just starting to work through this thing, I may be assuming the worst and this will be clarified, but I haven’t liked a lot of their business practices in the past, so I am wary.

Have any of you other TV users had a chance to go through this? Or do you know of a place that highlights the differences?

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TV’s forced upgrade tactics have been evolving over time, as have their price increases. I’ve chosen not to do business with them on that basis - I kicked TV out of our HVAC Controls group at least five years ago. Splashtop has been a great replacement for us.

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I think they are trying to reverse their “perpetual” licensing as it could prove to be a loss to them and also very hard for them to sell their business as “perpetual” licensing is actually a liability rather than an asset for larger companies.

For example, if you are a Corporate or Enterprise MS user, there had been SA for Windows OS for a long time so that people can buy like 5000 copies of Windows 2000 Professional with SA and use the SA to upgrade to Windows 10 Professional (but have to maintain that annual SA). Then MS announce that Win10 is last version of MS Windows …then who will still buy SA ?? Who will still buy OEM (if they have a choice of getting Retail or Select or MSVL) etc ? Branded PC & lappy are approx $100 cheaper if you get with RHEL or Ubuntu then install the Win10 Pro from obsolete machines (if you have Retail or Select or MSVL).

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I was going to dig through it but if you plan on reporting back I’ll save myself the grief!

I plan on having all of my users off of it by my next renewal date anyway.

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We may be in the same boat as we are on perpetual with version 12 as well. We’ve ignored their regular emails about upgrade discounts as we don’t want to move to a subscription model. I’ll be curious to see what you find as it may force our hand towards something else. We’ve been happy enough with it so far, but our biggest concerns will be cost and performance.

Not looking forward to the prospect of having to find something else, but there are far more options now than when we initially switched to TV.

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@computerdave ​ and @da-schmoo , sounds as if we are in the same situation. The email from them does say that we have the right to reject their changes and continue on with the old EULA. Given how taxing it is to read this, I may just do that and call it good and begin looking for alternatives. I will give it a shot first but I don’t know whether I have the energy/will power/interest in reading all the way through. I, too, am tired of the constant pushing to move to subscription. Great for the vendor, not necessarily for the customer.

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I’m already on the subscription model. I have a customer that uses it and always upgrades to the latest version prompting me to upgrade in order to support them. Subscription model was cheaper in my case.

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The endless upgrade nonsense with zero benefit to the core product function and zero compatibility across versions made me crazy a long time ago.

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I re-read this and I think it just means that if you are on an older major release and want to use the features of the new major release they can charge you to do that. That’s pretty much how it’s been for a long time as far as I know: if you bought version 10, you can’t user version 11 or later without paying for that newer version. With the move to subscriptions it means that you now have to enter into an ongoing payment plan for a particular version. One of the main reasons we haven’t upgraded is that we paid one time and don’t want to start paying periodically. Moving to an OpEx cost would be a decision NOT made lightly.

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It’s a shame their business practices are so horrible and dishonest. Technically I’ve yet to find anything that performs as good but am learning to make do with the alternatives.

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Rereading this after your comments leads me to think you have the correct interpretation.

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I only say that because we’ve had a handful of clients click the upgrade button and then we can’t connect and support them because we don’t have a license that allows us to use that version. I’m constantly getting emails prompting us to upgrade our license and move to the subscription model, but we’re kind of in the “we’ll move when we have to move” mindset. IT doesn’t use it as we have other tools internally for remote support of staff, but our support team uses it to support our customers. If/when we’re forced to make a decision we’ll either finally upgrade and move to a subscription or find something else; the performance may be the deciding factor and we’ll just accept the OpEx cost.

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I’m reading your comments here on that subject and I’m going to throw my 2 cents…

We have a corporate TV 10 perpetual license and we resisted the push towards subscription model all that time (many times a year, from different countries)… we were about to switch to subscription (For Teamviewer Pilot app) when they sent an email before christmas saying they were deprecating TV 8-9-10 and that you wouldn’t be able to connect anymore on those clients outside of your network. After a bit of turmoil in the TV community, they backtracked a bit and the perpetual license users have been offered a “free” upgrade of their license to the latest version (15) on Jan 19th 2021. They were forced because of the EULA.

They now want to change the EULA so they will be in time able to force people to pay, even if they stay on the perpetual licensing model so they will never have to hand out free upgrades anymore… I think you found something that changed, because they would never have done this if they weren’t forced…

I just wrote to the support stating that I do not agree to the EULA’s new terms, as per this provision in EULA:

10.1.Changes to the EULA
TeamViewer shall be entitled to amend this EULA upon no less than 
four (4) weeks prior notice to Customer. Unless Customer notifies 
TeamViewer in writing of its objection to such amendment within fifteen 
(15) days of its receipt of notice of such amendment from TeamViewer 
then the amendment shall be deemed accepted by Customer. If, on the 
other hand, Customer notifies TeamViewer in writing of its objection to 
such amendment within fifteen (15) days of its receipt of notice of such
 amendment from TeamViewer then the Contract shall be continued under 
the existing terms without giving effect to such amendment.

I’m waiting on an answer… thanks OP!!

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Let us know when you hear back from them! I am leaning toward just doing the same thing. I have no intention of changing to a subscription model, nor would I accept being forced to pay anything additional to continue to use a license that is already paid in full. Fortunately for us, if they tried the same thing with 12 that they did to you with 10, it wouldn’t affect us as all systems which I support are inside our firewalls and connected via VPN. It wouldn’t surprise me, though, to hear at some point that they will end its functionality altogether. I have become rather jaded toward that company even though their product has been stellar in meeting our needs.

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I like Teamviewer. I strongly dislike subscriptions. I negotiated a very good deal on our subscription price.

Regarding the EULA, I have doubts as to whether some lawyers could correctly interpret that.

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Sometimes companies forget that they’re not actually allowed to make up their own laws.

You can’t retoractively change the terms of a contract just because you no longer want it.

It sounds like they were going to just disregard their obligations, hoping nobody would realize they had violated the terms of the contract, but then realized they were going to get kicked in the crotch, so decided to go with a stealthy renegotiation.

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“I just wrote to the support stating that I do not agree…”

I did not see anywhere in their email to write to them, other than just replying to the email. What do they mean by “in writing”? Does email count as “in writing”?

Gregg

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Looks like I’ll be heading to Splashtop soon

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Mitwirkungsobliegenheit = obligation to cooperate (with whatever they decide).

“In the event that TeamViewer elects to provide a Major Release Version of the Software, TeamViewer may require the Customers of Perpetual licenses to pay an additional fee for use of such new Major Release Version.” This has already been the “de facto” case for years - they’re just formalizing it to cover their a’s. I broke with Teamviewer in 2015 - we had just paid full price for 3 perp. TV10 licenses, used for support and team meetings. 3 months later, TV11 was launched and they refused to offer even the slightest discount to upgrade. I thought that was pretty f’d up. Continued on 10 for a while, then switched to GoTo Meeting.

In all fairness, however, their EULA is not that different from that of other tech providers. “You hereby either agree 100% to our terms or don’t use our software…” Fair enough! There are plenty of alternatives :slight_smile:

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I’ve completely given up on it as an over-priced, invasive piece of crap.

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