Update: Six Apart clarified the license terms and changed them slightly. Here's my take on that, for those of you who are coming in via links or trackbacks and don't see my full weblog. :)

[EDIT] Ok, I was probably a bit too vehement in the below rant / outburst. My point still stands, though.
To sum it up - following the pricing guide on the MT website, my current MT installation would cost me $100 to upgrade (I'm not counting the discount, as by when I get the money to pay for MT, it'll likely be gone). If I go ahead with my plans for this summer, and move a lone weblog I still have on Blogger to MT like I've been planning to do, and move a site to MT to make it easier to update and create the couple extra weblogs I've been considering, MT would cost me $150. That's way too much for a smallish personal site like this is. It doesn't get that many visitors, and I'm not making any money from this. It's a hobby for me.
I'm not opposed to paying for MT - hell, I was planning to donate when I got a job and started earning money (as well as registering a bunch of software I use and love, such as Opera, paying for a few webcomics, etc) - it's the fact that the prices are so high that is making me angry. $20 or even $50 I could justify paying... when it starts getting in the neighborhood of $100-150, though, it's way too expensive.
At the same time, I'd feel bad using the free version (whether I stay with 2.6 or upgrade to 3.0, which, I'm told, doesn't have limits hardcoded in, so it's a honor system how many blogs / authors you actually have) for, well, free, without the ability to give anything back to the company (since the cheapest license is $100, which is too much).
Bottom line? I'd love to give Six Apart money for MT, as I was planning to. It's a great tool. But they're making it quite impossible for me to do so. [/EDIT]

MovableType 3.0 released, with new licensing structures in place. And well... what the hell? No really, what the hell?

I have four blogs on this installation of Movable Type, was planning on adding at least two more this summer when I had some time (migrating one that's still on blogger, as well as adding a new one, possibly more). So I'm supposed to hand over $70 (if not more... the pricing structures are very unclear) if I want to have at least my five blogs? (That's also the "introductory price" - the basic personal license is $100 not discounted.) What if I want to have a group blog with a bunch of friends? - oh look, the price goes up even more. Sure, there's a free version, but limited to one author and three blogs, which is simply not enough for me.

I'm a student right now and always broke, and even after I graduate, I'll have more pressing things to spend my money on - like saving up for a house and a car of my own, for instance. Yes, of course that's my choice - spending money on real life stuff rather than on a web application - and I understand they're a company, not a charity association, and they have to make money - but this is most definitely the wrongest possible way to introduce a non-free version (and rhetoric about "committment to a free version" and suchlike doesn't help at all). Adding more features that are only for pay users would've even made me consider buying the version with more features - hell, back when I was with Blogger and they had Blogger Pro, I was considering getting it just because of the extra features it would've given me. But stunting the free version rather than adding extra features to the non-free version? And making the non-free version absurdly expensive for basic features such as increasing the number of allowed blogs and authors? I'm not seeing myself upgrading anytime soon.

I'm staying with MT - 2.6, that is - for now, because I'm used to the program. :P But I'll definitely be on the lookout for a new good, free platform that will not stunt the amount of blogs or authors I can have, and that will not give me something and then go "oopsie, you know the thing we gave you for free? you'll have to pay for it from now on" later. Seriously tempted to just go back to Blogger, their latest upgrade looks good...

I feel guilty about recommending MT to so many people. :|

I followed you from the 3.0 trackback link, but had to say, sorry for offtopic, but you have a pretty blog. I really like that image.

I too feel guilty about recommending MT to people, I feel like 6A have totally shafted their most loyal fan base with this move ...

6A makes a great product. That said, they're really not all that bright, are they? I can understand wanting to be compensated for the effort put into MT, but to have a pricing structure as complicated as that WITH AN UPPER BOUND placed on amount of authors/weblogs.. that's just ridiculous.

Oh, and did anyone read the fine print where it states that Free versions won't get updates (let alone major ones), and the licensing scheme is FOR SINGLE CPUs?!?!?! I just doubled the price of my installation as my machine *happens* to have 2 CPUs. I don't even *know* what my host has in the way of hardware. Back in the day, quite a few webservers were Sun E420s. These are 4 CPU machines.... woops!

Asshats!

I'm pretty miffed about this move as well. All we heard in the build-up to version 3 was that they were committed to keeping a free version, and that the "pro" version would have extra features. Now we find out that the new version really doesn't have all that many new features, and the free version is limited to one author and three blogs. Oh, and you have to sign up for Typepad to download it. I'd been under the impression during development of 3.0, that the free version would just never be as feature-rich as the pay version. I'm not opposed to paying for software I use and love (I did donate to MT on several occasions), but this is totally out of the blue and really a poor pricing structure. Had the feature-rich "pro" version had things I needed or wanted, I would have paid for it. But there really aren't any new features, and when they do a major upgrade to it, how much more are they going to want to charge for it? I don't consider more blogs and users to be "features". I'd liken it to a graphics program selling you a license based on how many files you edit in a day.

They have pissed off a bunch of bloggers ... and not just little folks like me either.

I'd already been seriously considering moving to another CMS, but I haven't had the time to read manuals and decide which one. I guess I better find the time while I continue using the version I have installed.

I had thought about moving over to Movable Type, but after this, and the update with Blogger, there's absolutely no way that will ever happen.

...upgrade to 3.0, which, I'm told, doesn't have limits hardcoded in, so it's a honor system how many blogs / authors you actually have...

As it turns out, the Movable Type News feed gets pulled into MT3. I am sure this sends data back to Six Apart (URL for sure, as a referral and who knows what else).

And I agree with Shelley. Your site is beautiful, although the dragon blowing fire breaks the flow a bit for me.

Jonathan: fixed :) I really should implement editable comments, as per the instructions on Scriptygoddess.

And thank you (and Shelley) for the compliments.

As for the dragon blowing fire, hehe. It's my one concession to "cute". Still pondering whether to keep it or not, but for now I like it.

This must be the most popular blog entry I've ever written, I swear. My referrer logs are going nuts.

I should post about stuff that gets the blogosphere in an uproar more often, I guess ;)

I completely agree that Six Apart has put its users in a very difficult position insofar as where to go from here, especially for people who don't have the cash for licensing. Even the big guys like Mark Pilgrim and Jason Kottke are turning away.

You might be interested in an entry I posted to my blog on this topic:
http://fiveaside.org/2004/05/they-say-meek-shall-inherit.html