Is the Paid ‘VS Code’ Version a Scam? Uncovering Licensing Tricks
A viral screenshot reveals a paid version of Microsoft’s free VS Code editor that uses deceptive pricing, a fake Google link, and questionable licensing, prompting an analysis of whether repackaging the official executable violates the MIT license and copyright.
Recently a viral image shows a version of Microsoft’s free code editor VS Code being packaged and sold as a paid product.
The installer advertises an original price of 298 yuan, then highlights a limited‑time price of 69.7 yuan, and even offers a 20‑yuan coupon for the “official” version.
One of the most striking tricks is that the “official license” link under the product description points to Google’s homepage.
Although VS Code is open‑source under the MIT License on GitHub, the executable distributed by Microsoft is released under a separate license that allows free use but is not open‑source.
According to the MIT terms, selling compiled copies of the source code is permitted, but repackaging Microsoft’s proprietary executable and selling it as a commercial product infringes the license and the VS Code logo copyright.
The company behind this “Vscode” sale also offers other software such as Visual Studio and Windows activation tools, and its marketing clearly targets beginners learning programming.
Relevant links: https://qnw.shaid.top/vscode/index.html and the official VS Code issue discussion at https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/163798.
Signed-in readers can open the original source through BestHub's protected redirect.
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Programmer DD
A tinkering programmer and author of "Spring Cloud Microservices in Action"
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