After reading the hard copy vs the PDF (which I buy and glance at but don't usually read) what are the prices for skill soft subscriptions as mentioned on page 194? I have a few cybered character type players who'd love a subscription to activesofts... but I can't find a price.

I didn't see any prices, either near that section or in the back of the book. However as a at the table ruling. I would probably go with the MSP chart on pg 201. Depending on your games you may want to adjust prices, but it gives a model to work with. With something like KITT being basic, Renraku/Horizon being advanced, and Spinard being premium. Then charge going rate for the software they buy, with no availability check. Then to go along with the fluff text. Offer deals like, "Buy 3 programs in a month and get your next at 15% off." or "Get a free linguasoft with every veteran activesoft purchase." with the fine print giving you a rating 1 linguasoft in something like swahili for buying a rating 4 activesoft.

Another bit of control to add to it, would be to require a fake SIN either at the rating (for lingua/know) or rating +1 (actives). Also could bump those by 1 point to rating +1, and rating +2. There is also very likely a shadow service, but the stuff costs more. You want a subscription with no SIN, and you need softs now? We are your place, only 1,000 a month. Then charge them 1.5 normal costs for the softs. All sorts of things you can do.

Ah I was hoping for something like Skillflix...

Pay ¥5,000 per month and you can have 4 skills at any one time. When you return a skill, we let you select from a menu of available skills for your use.

I dont see the Skill Service Providers as a subscription service, as it is described. They are simple an online store to buy and download various types of Skillsofts. Much like Battlecorps is an online store to buy and download game material.

Luxe is described like that, but the other three offer ongoing services. WorkShop mentions an annual membership fee for "frequent-user discounts, package deals, and other promotions." KITT offers "high rating skills on demand for contracted periods of time." Lifeline has its own program option that requires a subscription. None of these things have prices (except Lifeline, but you're only paying for the program option; the subscription is paid for in handwavium).

In that reguard I would handle it as being handled as just another part of your Lifestyle. Looking at the skills that are available through said services. (Knowsofts, Linguasofts, mundane career Activesofts). Seems like all 'noncombat' sorta stuff to me.

One thing that we have done in our game is making "Combat" activesofts either Restricted or Forbidden availability, depending on the skill involved.

Sounds like it was left out intentionally so the GM would have to work it out. Because to be honest it seems flexible enough that the price would vary vastly depending on the game you're running in and the company you're buying from etc

Having the service priced per the MSP provider packages, then charging a rental fee for each might work. The trouble is then you'd get one player renting a whole bunch of Skillsofts while his hacker friend copied them all to chips for later....

That is a slippery slope the hacker is getting themselves into. Given the Piracy rules from Unwired and Software Degradation, that hacker will be spending alot of time patching up all that pirated code.

Not really, because their friend is getting all the latest versions under the subscription plan. Which they can fund by selling off the hacked copies. Or if nothing else the rest of the team can chip in towards the skillsoft subscription plan in exchange for tons of top of the line skills.

If you break the copy protection, you lose the registration. The next time the software checks for updates, it fails a critical CRC check and you get a message from Evo telling you that your license is invalidated.

Or, you could somehow let the hacker copy the copy protected program, then break the protection on his copy. That way the original buyer would still get his patches. But, you don't just go out and download patches in 2070 like you do nowadays. The program suite just has an updater that applies the necessary changes automatically. If updates were packaged neatly into little files you could collect, they'd be practically free among hackers for exactly the reasons you put forth.

It boils down to verisimilitude. The world doesn't work like that, because if nobody's paying for it, then the corps aren't selling it.

Well if it's Skillflix/Netskills... When you return the skill from your commlink... update it then.. Seeing as Skillflix isn't expecting you to keep the same skills checked out all the time...

doesn't work. when you crack the copy protection on a piece of software, you can't just put it back. which means that the next time the skillsoft is supposed to update, they're going to realise it's cracked and close that account. if you return an activesoft cracked, they're going to close your account.

if you're going to break the copy protection on 'rented' activesofts then you're going to have to accept that sooner or later, the account is going to be burned, and it probably isn't going to be long before that happens.

That's why you don't crack the skills... Seriously... if I can pay say 12-15K per month to have 3 rating 5 skills available via download (say I can only make a request for each of my 3 slots once per day (so I keep the skill for 24 hours after I request it before returning it), and if cracking said skill means I lose access to this service and will likely have to go through a lengthy process to get access to it again... I might actually consider NOT cracking my skills in order to keep access to the service.

given the context of your statement, it looked like you were saying you were going to download the skill from the company, crack the skillsoft, distribute it to your team, and then return the skill to the service, and later on simply download updated versions and repeat as needed.

if you just meant using it the way it is actually intended (ie download, use skill, return software in it's original, uncracked state) then yes, such a service would be awesome.

though incidentally, you can't have rating 5 activesofts... they cap out at 4. you can have knowsofts and linguasofts at 5, however.

Yah I noticed that... but having access to even 3 linguasofts at a time can be very very very helpful to a face type of character.

I can see degradation being the protection method. If you treat them like BTLs it makes sense that you get a copy and an access code that enables the "chip" for a certain amount of time after activation or for a set number of uses. So if you download "pilot groundvehicle 4" you either get 10 uses or 1 month from registration (first usage). After that number of uses the chip stops working until you give it another access code. AS this technology is the SAME that BTL chips use I have to assume that there are rules someplace about removing BTL protection, so it already works in both the fluff and mechanics.

Timers can be set for either time or usage and they due suffer from degradation so you can't just hold on to them forever. You want to crack it and there are rules for that too.
From Unwired pg 151:
Cracking the Timer: The self-erasing features of the Timer
option can by bypassed by a Software + Logic (10, 1 hour)
Extended Test (using Hardware instead of Software in the case of
programs run from a chip, like some skillsofts).