No VPP. Gifted app licenses instead. Now what to do?

Question

Hi there,
We have  a fleet of almost a thousand iOS devices. We're in a country where  VPP is not available. As suggested by others, to get the legal side sorted, we have purchased the licenses by gifting the app. For example, for 800 devices that will use GoodReader, we gifted GoodReader 800 times and we harvested the code from the email and put it in a spreadsheet.
We cannot sync paid app thru Apple Configurator because it requires VPP spreadsheet. Our MDM also requires VPP spreadsheet. Redemption used to work with manually uploaded gift codes on a .txt file but iOS 7.1.1 broke this feature. Now we are stuck.
Question:
Now that we have gifted the exact number of licenses and we are using the Institutional Deployment model, are we breaking any terms and conditions if we just backup and restore a golden master copy (prepared iPad with all app settings configure) to say a 100 iPads per year level?
By restoring it to 100 devices are we in violation of the 10-device association mentioned in the Terms and Condition?
thanks,
Marlon

Answer 1

Thanks Joey... I did what you've suggested and here is the official reply from our local Apple Systems Engineer, hope this helps to those in similar situation as us:
For your questions:
1. All schools working without VPP are using iTunes for restore/syncing to all their iPads. The operation is fine as long as you have bought adequate licenses for the apps. It is still a recommended workflow with the absence of VPP.
2. You have mentioned about a 10-device limit….. I think you are referring to this section in the terms and conditions:
AUTOMATIC DELIVERY AND DOWNLOADING PREVIOUS PURCHASES
When you first acquire App Store Products (excluding products acquired from the Mac App Store) or iBooks Store Products through the App and Book Stores (collectively, “Eligible Content”), you may elect to automatically receive (“auto-download”) copies of such Eligible Content on additional compatible iOS Devices and iTunes-authorized computers with compatible software by associating such compatible iOS Devices and computers subject to the association rules below (each, an “Associated Device”). For each Associated Device, you may specify which type of Eligible Content, if any, may be auto-downloaded to it. On an Associated Device that is capable of receiving push notifications (“Push-Enabled”), including iOS Devices, the content will auto-download to that Associated Device when it has an Internet connection; on an Associated Device that is not Push-Enabled, including those running on the Windows operating system, Eligible Content will automatically appear in the download queue and you may manually initiate the download within iTunes.
As an accommodation to you, subsequent to acquiring Eligible Content, you may download certain of such previously-purchased Eligible Content onto any Associated Device. Some Eligible Content that you have previously purchased may not be available for subsequent download at any given time, and Apple shall have no liability to you in such event. As you may not be able to subsequently download certain previously-purchased Eligible Content, once you download an item of Eligible Content, it is your responsibility not to lose, destroy, or damage it, and you may want to back it up.
Association of Associated Devices is subject to the following terms:
( i) You may auto-download Eligible Content or download previously-purchased Eligible Content from an Account on up to 10 Associated Devices, provided no more than 5 are iTunes-authorized computers.
(ii) An Associated Device can be associated with only one Account at any given time.
(iii) You may switch an Associated Device to a different Account only once every 90 days.
(iv) You may download previously-purchased free content onto an unlimited number of devices while it is free on the App and Book Stores, but on no more than 5 iTunes-authorized computers.
The above terms ( i) to (iv) do not apply to App Store Products.
This section is mainly about “Automatic delivery and downloading”, and those “Associated Devices” are those that are tied to this automatic mechanism. Syncing from iTunes is not an association.
Frankly the terms i) to iv) are not simply legal term, but are actual technical restrictions (you can try setting up automatic download on the iPads which you cannot make it work on the 11th iPad) There is no restriction for iTunes syncing to many iPads. The key point is still on whether you have fulfil the legal requirement, which is to buy adequate number of licenses.
Regards,
XXXX