Please I'm having issues with vbulletin and they threaten to suspend my license (i purchased owned license copy in 2008). Does that mean my forum will no longer work after the suspension? Will they shut down the forum?
Hello, I think it would be better if you could give us more info about what happened, and maybe show us what exactly they told you in their mail. As far as I know an owned license can never expire, the only thing that happens is that you no longer get support and patch releases after 1 year, unless you pay for an extension which is around $40/year if I'm not mistaken.
I own the license however it is not branding-free copy. I will like to remove the 'powered by vbulletin' copyright notice from the footer to keep hackers off. digitalpoint, warriorforum, catholic forum, etc, all have removed that copyright notice. They sent me an email yesterday that if I remove the vbulletin copyright notice, they will suspend my license and take necessary actions against me. Because I don't want trouble, I logged into the members area to upgrade my copy to the branding-free copy but there is no where to do that. the only choices there are 'upgrade to version 4.0' and 'branding free copy of version 4.0' which i can't afford. All i need is the branding free copy of the version 3 I'm using. I can't afford to upgrade to version 4 before I can use the branding free copy. I've sent several emails to them but they don't reply so i will go ahead and remove that copyright notice to keep hackers off my forum.
If that is what you want to do then you need to purchase the unbranded version like the aforementioned places have done. That's likely why you are getting the suspension notice. I assume you are removing that verbiage?
Removing the brand to keep hackers away? That's really not a good enough motive, all you need to do is keep your vbulletin software updated and hackers won't be able to exploit it and hack it, since vbulletin coders team patch up the exploits pretty fast and release patches to fix those exploits. Also I think everyone would agree that if you wish to remove the branding you have to pay for it, else you'll break the vbulletin terms of service which gives them the full right to suspend your license, and make your forum unusable.
Yes, that is correct. After your vBulletin license has been suspended your whole forum will be suspended as well.
switch to ipb. the vbulletin have caused me so much hell i don't even want to think about it. sure, vbulletins better software. or at least it was until v4, but their piratereports make it 100x worse. I've had a legit license for years, doesnt stop them from getting my site suspended every month. also if they suspend the license, it doesnt mean the site doesnt work. Just means they're sending piratereports to DMCA your host, which in turn will suspend your hosting.