Hello,

We're getting in touch because we're about to announce our new pricing 
and licensing structure for Movable Type and, since you've provided 
valuable feedback in the past, we wanted to give you a heads-up about 
the changes that will be announced soon.

Over the past couple weeks, we've read and listened to user feedback 
and have carefully considered the criticisms and suggestions that were 
made. While we realized fairly quickly that adjustments needed to be 
made to our licensing, we decided to take our time to fully understand 
the problems, think about the options and analyze possible solutions. I 
hope at the end of this mail you'll agree that the time was well spent.

We feel that what we've come up with is great for both Six Apart and 
our customers. We were able to create pricing that enables us to invest 
more in the development of Movable Type while also removing the 
limitations that many users felt were too restrictive. And, ultimately 
the new licensing is simpler to understand and more flexible in how you 
can use the tool.


Our goals in modifying our licenses are to:

* Create more flexibility for everyone, with options such as site 
licenses, and unlimited users and weblogs.

* Make our licensing easier to understand.

We made these revisions based on what people have told us they wanted 
to see:

* There are now no limits on the number of weblogs you can create with 
a paid license of Movable Type. The free license remains limited.

* All paid options include support directly from us, through our online 
ticket system.

* Our licenses are perpetual, meaning there are no annual subscription 
fees. Larger commercial licenses require a 20% maintenance fee after 
the first year if continued support is desired.

* Paid licenses will include free updates and bug fixes. For example: 
3.x release are free to any 3.x licensee. Paid licenses are also 
eligible for discounts on major upgrades to the software, so 3.x paid 
licensees will receive a discount on 4.x versions of Movable Type.

* All of the pricing mentioned below is the standard price, so the 
numbers published on our site are no longer introductory pricing.

* In the next couple of months we are planning a general release of 
Movable Type 3.x with compelling new features, which will be a free 
update for Developer Edition users.

Later tonight we'll be updating the site with the new pricing and 
licensing options.  Here's a summary of the changes that will be made 
to the core pricing/licensing:

Movable Type Personal Edition Pricing:

Limited Free Edition (no cost)
  - Limited to 1 author and 3 weblogs for personal use
  - There is no customer support for our free product
    This offer is unchanged.

As mentioned before, paid licenses include unlimited help ticket 
support.

Personal Edition ($69.95):
- Up to 5 authors and an unlimited number of weblogs for personal use.
   This license has been improved allowing the creation of unlimited 
weblogs

Unlimited Personal Edition ($99.95):
  - Allows for an unlimited number of authors and weblogs for personal 
use
    This license is new, allowing unlimited authors and weblogs for 
personal use. All current paid 3.0 licenses have been upgraded to this 
license at no charge.


Movable Type Commercial Edition Pricing:

We've removed the weblog limitations for all commercial licenses and 
now price the licenses solely based on number of users. We will now 
offer easy to purchase licenses for 5, 10, 20, 35 and 50 seats with 
prices starting at $199.99 for a one server license.


Movable Type Education Pricing:

Education pricing will be based on a site license. As with all paid 
licenses, education licenses include help ticket support.

We've formalized the discounts and will be publishing pricing for the 
most common licenses for both K-12 and higher education on the site.

These licenses can be bought for sites as small as a classroom ($39.95 
for unlimited authors and weblogs within one classroom or for the 
classes of one teacher or professor) or as large as a complete school 
system or university.

All licenses are significantly discounted to reflect our desire to see 
Movable Type thrive in the educational space.  One more example; a 
school of 300 can use Movable Type within the school with no limitation 
as to authors, weblogs or servers as long as the use is for educational 
or school purposes, this license is only $299 ($1 per student and 
prices per student go down from there for larger schools).


Not-For-Profit Pricing:

Not-for-profit pricing will be based on the number of full time paid 
employees or equivalent working for the organization.  We believe this 
is the fairest way to set pricing for unlimited use by an organization 
that takes in account their level of funding.  Organizations with one 
or fewer paid full time employees or equivalent are permitted unlimited 
use of our free, unsupported license or can pay $39.95 to get the same 
use in a supported license. Groups with more than one paid full time 
employee or equivalent will also be eligible for very significant 
discounts.

Finally, we've tweaked the legalese of our licenses to be more 
consistent with our intention and have updated the site with better 
presented product information.

All in all we hope you agree that these changes are an improvement.  We 
care deeply about our community and want our pricing to be fair to as 
many people as possible while allowing us to continue to increase our 
investment in Movable Type so we can continue to meet our customers 
expanding needs and contribute as much to the future of weblogs as we 
have to the past.

Please check out movabletype.org and see all the changes we've made 
when the new site goes up later tonight.

I want to personally thank you for your feedback in the past and hope 
you will continue to share with us your thoughts, praise and 
criticisms. Without your help we could have never have gotten to where 
we are today.


Thanks,
Mena Trott