If you have an owned the license, you're free to use the software. If you don't renew your license for updates, doesn't mean that you forfeit your owned license, you just don't get the updates (or can request mods here).

Leased licenses must be renewed yearly; owned licenses when the admin wants to keep his forum updated.

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Mods are tied in with updates and getting support. So if a leased license expires, any mods or support stops.

You're better off in the long-run to get an owned license, since you can still operate vBulletin. Won't get updates or support without the yearly $30 fee, but you can still be free to use vBulletin and mod for it (just not here without the $30/year fee). It's a great option for developers (and folks who are busy with school/work), who may not be into running a forum itself, as much as to mod for it as a customer requests (where they can update their license when a request comes in).

Nobody ever said different. If you have an expired owned license, you still have a valid license.

New customers don't know what valid would mean. Need to be explicit with the two paths: leased and owned. As leased the license will expire after a year and will need to be renewed; that's not the case with an owned license. You did not differentiate, especially to potentially new customers.

If you want to start getting picky, owned licences do not expire at all, they are still valid licences.

They will always show as valid here.

This is the place to ask those picky questions, because no one wants to buy something that doesn't agree with their terms.