Be aware of number of activations/ expiration of EAs you get in the market place
You have not grasped well the whole notion of activations.
When a product has 10 activations for example you can install and use it in as many trading accounts and MT4/5 terminals you like, in 10 different PCs or VPSs.
You don't need an extra activation each time you use or install your purchase on the same computer or VPS.
Please read the Market rules and you will learn a lot about activations: https://www.mql5.com/en/market/rules
After you activated a product, it's bound to your current environment (OS and hardware). If you change something (HDD for example), or install major OS update, it will be detected as a new environment and require new activation. Usually MQ adds 1 activation for free for every major update of Windows.
When all activations are used, you need to buy the license again.
This mechanism allows you to use the product on as many accounts/brokers as you want, all from the single PC.
Without this mechanism anyone could share acquired products with other users.
I agree on the rights protection of developers, the EA should not be duplicated beyond the person who bought it...however, this restriction on activations as it currently is is detrimental on the side of the buyers:
... lets consider this example, which is my current situation, in which I got an EA that works well under two completely different configurations, the ea uses the balance of the account. So if I want to run this ea under these two configurations, they need to be deployed under two different VPS, even if they are both mine from MQL5 plataform... will this count as two activations? If this is the case, activations should be counted at the level of the user not the level of uses.
I agree on the rights protection of developers, the EA should not be duplicated beyond the person who bought it...however, this restriction on activations as it currently is is detrimental on the side of the buyers:
... lets consider this example, which is my current situation, in which I got an EA that works well under two completely different configurations, the ea uses the balance of the account. So if I want to run this ea under these two configurations, they need to be deployed under two different VPS, even if they are both mine from MQL5 plataform... will this count as two activations? If this is the case, activations should be counted at the level of the user not the level of uses.
It's unclear whether your configurations work under different accounts or in the same one. You can run 2 (or more) instances of EA with different settings on one account. Moreover you can have many instances of MT5 for different accounts and run multiple copies of EA in parallel just in terms of the single activation, as long as all this is running on the same PC. Here is the question why you need 2 VPS. MQ's VPS does not use activations.
Currently activations are counted per device, not per use as you said. If they would be counted per user, you'll need to buy every product for every account you have.
I agree on the rights protection of developers, the EA should not be duplicated beyond the person who bought it...however, this restriction on activations as it currently is is detrimental on the side of the buyers:
... lets consider this example, which is my current situation, in which I got an EA that works well under two completely different configurations, the ea uses the balance of the account. So if I want to run this ea under these two configurations, they need to be deployed under two different VPS, even if they are both mine from MQL5 plataform... will this count as two activations? If this is the case, activations should be counted at the level of the user not the level of uses.
i think that would depend on if each ea configuration was setup on 2 different computers before being migrated to the vps or vpses. correct? @Eleni Anna Branou
The two configurations of the same EA need to be run on different VPS/ broker accounts because the EA makes calculations of the volume based on the account balance. So having the two EAs in a single vps/account will mess up the EAs calculations.
The two vps are under my same MQL5 account, and are loaded from my same computer. In this case, it seems unfair to loose an activation... because the EA is used by same user, same computer, but have to be run on two different VPS accounts.
The two configurations of the same EA need to be run on different VPS/ broker accounts because the EA makes calculations of the volume based on the account balance. So having the two EAs in a single vps/account will mess up the EAs calculations.
The two vps are under my same MQL5 account, and are loaded from my same computer. In this case, it seems unfair to loose an activation... because the EA is used by same user, same computer, but have to be run on two different VPS accounts.
I think you are missing the entire point of activations.
The primary purpose of having more than one activation is to allow the user to upgrade/change their computer multiple times without the need to purchase the product again, so you can see that five activations would last you many years. But, this also allows the user to install the product on multiple computers at the same time, but they may then run out of activations when they upgrade/change their computers.
The analagy you should be consider is: You buy a single user microsft word licence, you can only use it on one machine at a time, not many, but you can unistall it and move it to another machine. Products from the market place are tied to the computer to stop piracy, the downside is, if the computer is upgraded it no longer works and you have to reinstall, and so you get multiple activations to allow that to happen.
If you choose to install the product on multiple computers at the same time then you are using up activations that are intended to cover the upgrade path of your computer and so that is your choice.
If the products were not tied to your computer then I think it is fair to assume you would have only one activation and would only be able to use it on one computer at a time.
The two configurations of the same EA need to be run on different VPS/ broker accounts because the EA makes calculations of the volume based on the account balance. So having the two EAs in a single vps/account will mess up the EAs calculations.
The two vps are under my same MQL5 account, and are loaded from my same computer. In this case, it seems unfair to loose an activation... because the EA is used by same user, same computer, but have to be run on two different VPS accounts.
sounds like you need to make a suggestion to the author to make a change to the ea so that it can use 2X magic numbers; so that you can do that -- and run 2nd instance of the ea on 2nd group of charts with the 2nd magic number AND then you would not lose an activation.
The two configurations of the same EA need to be run on different VPS/ broker accounts because the EA makes calculations of the volume based on the account balance. So having the two EAs in a single vps/account will mess up the EAs calculations.
The two vps are under my same MQL5 account, and are loaded from my same computer. In this case, it seems unfair to loose an activation... because the EA is used by same user, same computer, but have to be run on two different VPS accounts.
If your wording "vps are under my same MQL5 account" means that you're talking about MQ's VPS, then it does not eat activations. Otherwise...
Why can't you use 2 MT5 instances with different brokers' accounts (and independent balances) on the same single external (full-featured) VPS? That would cost you 1 activation (in addition to 1 for your PC).
If you have 2 accounts on 2 brokers only because you need to divide the money to portions available to 2 EAs, than it could be better (and less overheads) to adjust this EA(s) to trade on a predefined limited part of balance. Than they can run on the same account without problems and calculate volumes properly.
The two vps are under my same MQL5 account, and are loaded from my same computer. In this case, it seems unfair to loose an activation... because the EA is used by same user, same computer, but have to be run on two different VPS accounts.
A MQL account is not good protection for products, because you can share your credentials with a group of traders and all of them could use many copies of the product.
VPS is not an account, but a virtual server, that is another device. It's not the same as your local computer, obviously.
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I order my first EA from the Market place and just learned about this condition on the number of activations.
I have some questions about this:
1) every time we install an EA, say I want to change the configuration, or update a change made by the owner, will that count as an activation?
2) once all activations are used will the EA expire?
I am surprised this is not more broadly discussed and disclosed, as one perhaps should be much more carefull on the use and deployment of an EA bought from the market place. I also think this expiration is non-sense...this is like me buying a tool at the store and told I can only use it 5 times before it expires. As far as it is used in the same account/user the deployment of the EA should be ilimited, no?