I agree with you that if its stated then it should be limited, especially if there is a program like the VSIP that allows you to extend it by paying a fee. The stuff I read didn’t seem so explicit about it.

I guess the real question to me, just an observer of all of this, is why does it work? It’s not ‘disabled’ or it wouldn’t work, right? Shouldn’t the API (or ability to use plugins) only be available to VSIPs if this is the way they want it to work? In a case like this, as I said in the post, MS almost certainly has all of the rights and there are probably a hundred details I don’t know about.

the firm I work for has been part of the VSIP last year which is a program to create extension for visual studio. We also had a look at the EULA of express at that time and there can just be no doubt about it, specially when you start to look at the express version and see that extensions were disabled by MS. If a piece of software has its features disabled and the EULA state you can’t enable them its not rocket science to know who’s in breach here and why would MS let it be when firms like us are paying high bucks to be in the VSIP program.